Covid-19: BBC Travel’s coverage during coronavirus

While travelling is on hold, we will continue to inform and inspire readers

While travelling is on hold due to the coronavirus outbreak, BBC Travel will continue to inform and inspire our readers who want to learn about the world as much as they want to travel there, offering stories that celebrate the people, places and cultures that make this world so wonderfully diverse and amazing.

For travel information and stories specifically related to coronavirus, please read the latest updates and explainers from our colleagues at BBC News.

What travellers need to know

The coronavirus comes amid mass cancellation of flights and businesses as new cases are being diagnosed around the world every day. Here’s what the outbreak means for your travel plans and what you need to do to stay safe and healthy.

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We will have summer tourist season, promises EU

A gradual lifting of borders has been proposed by the EU's executive in an attempt to kick-start a tourist industry hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

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What global travel may look like ahead of a vaccine

Sun loungers separated by plexiglass. Blood tests and sanitiser spray-downs before flights. These might sound extreme, but they are real measures some in the travel industry are looking at to keep holidaymakers feeling safe and comfortable in a post-lockdown world.

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Can I get a holiday refund and what are my travel rights?

The Foreign Office has advised against non-essential travel and several countries have, in effect, shut their borders. So what does this mean for holidays booked before the crisis?

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How can we be sustainable travellers post-Covid-19?

With a ban on non-essential travel and some countries in complete lockdown, we’re able to witness what happens to the Earth when we’re largely absent for the first time.

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Your questions answered: How covid-19 has affected travel

What are your rights if you’ve had trips cancelled? How do you cope if you’re stuck in a country in lockdown? And just what does the future hold for all our travels? Here are some answers from The Travel Show’s Simon Calder.

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Coronavirus: How to protect your mental health

Coronavirus has plunged the world into uncertainty and the constant news about the pandemic can feel relentless. All of this is taking its toll on people's mental health, particularly those already living with conditions like anxiety and OCD. So how can we protect our mental health?

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How long does the Coronavirus last on surfaces?

We can pick up the Covid-19 by touching surfaces contaminated with the new coronavirus, but it is only just becoming clear how long the virus can survive outside the human body.

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Voices of inspiration from around the world

As people the world over are practicing social distancing and isolation amid the coronavirus crisis, many are bonding together, displaying inspirational acts of solidarity, connection and generosity that are resonating profoundly around the globe.

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Free holidays on offer for healthcare workers

Hotels and holiday lets are offering free stays to healthcare workers when travel restrictions ease for a well-earned rest and to encourage tourism once again.

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Four countries with a tradition of kindness

Acts of kindness have come to define the coronavirus pandemic, but in some nations, traditions of generosity and helping one another go back centuries.

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Couples meeting at closed borders during coronavirus

As countries restrict travel to help slow the spread of coronavirus, some separated couples are meeting each other at their nations’ closed borders.

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Turkey’s unique hand-sanitising method

For hundreds of years, this Ottoman-era cologne has been synonymous with Turkish hospitality. Now, it’s being used to fight coronavirus.

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Five countries with the most resilient economies

Experts have already begun assessing how a recovery might look once the Covid-19 virus is contained, and which countries stand to bounce back best.

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The law of generosity combatting coronavirus in Pakistan

As Pakistan imposes greater social distancing measures to combat coronavirus, a Muslim law of generosity is helping to save those out of work.

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What coronavirus reveals about the worlds culture

As the world bunkers in, the unique cultural ways that countries are coping with the coronavirus pandemic is revealing a lot about about each nation's distinct character.

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Italy’s inspiring response to the coronavirus

As Italy becomes the global epicentre for the coronavirus pandemic, the nation’s beautiful, shared showcase of Italian culture is nothing short of remarkable.

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How Britain’s ‘plague village’ is coming together

More than 350 years ago, the Derbyshire village of Eyam quarantined itself during the plague. Now it’s using those lessons about humanity to face coronavirus. The BBC’s Fergal Keane went to visit a community that remains hopeful in the face of troubling times ahead.

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Italians sing from their windows to boost morale

A countrywide lockdown due to coronavirus has not stopped Italians from bursting into morale-boosting song in a nationwide flashmob event.

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Kind Canadians start ‘caremongering’ trend

The word “caremongering” did not exist on the morning of Friday 13 March. Yet just three days later what started as a way to help vulnerable people in Toronto has turned into a movement spreading fast across Canada.

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Coronavirus kindness: The people offering help as the virus spreads

Stories of people emptying supermarket shelves or arguing over packets of pasta can paint a bleak picture of the coronavirus outbreak. But there are also acts of kindness that have inspired thousands of others.

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Vietnam's handwashing song goes global

Authorities around the world are trying to hammer home the message that we have to wash our hands to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus. In Vietnam, they've produced a music video along with a dance challenge – the tune has taken the country by storm and has since gone global.

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We will continue to update this page as new, relevant information is available.

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