BBC Travel Show – Electric Dreams
Coming up on this week’s travel show I’m flying high as I test out the planes of the future we go behind the scenes to take a look into the life of two Globe trotting travel vloggers and Ava gets stuck into a First Nations feast in Canada they’re like the perfect combination of
Fluffy and crispy [Applause] Thank you Sweden is famed for its stunning nature and the people’s love of the outdoors it’s so peaceful up here and lots of Pines so very Swedish connection with the environment has inspired the country to become one of the greenest in the world down there is the city of Celestia a
Pioneer in Green Technology and this small City in Northern Sweden is helping transform the way we travel Degrees So that right there is an electrically powered airplane and this is the green Flight Academy one of the world’s most sustainable flight schools you want a hand well they obviously don’t trust me with such high end gear it’s fine now someone who is trusted with this costly Tech is the school’s head of
Training Johan hello hi welcome to Green fight Academy oh thank you nice to meet you so these are the planes yeah here they are they were a lot smaller than I thought they were going to be tiny how did you get involved in this project with my background Innovation
Industry and then I’m a bachelor in electrical and computer engineering so I’m all about technology and electronics then it was sort of a once in a lifetime thing for me and a lot of people thought I was completely crazy trying to set up a brand new flight school and doing it
With new things new gadgets that no one’s tried before and here we are and we’re up and running and it’s it’s working what’s the kind of ultimate aim what are you trying to achieve here well we’re just trying to change the flight training scene so I mean we love
Traveling I love traveling and we need to be able to connect people and and we shouldn’t stop Flying we should find more but we need to do it in sustainable way so we take care of the planet as well what is the difference between learning to fly in an electric plane
Versus a conventional plane well essentially there is no difference because the flight controls work the same the instruments are the same it’s just the handling of the engine it’s a little bit different so at the end of the day you’re going to be a first officer and have the same like
Commercial pilot license anyway and what kind of students come here they come from they come from all over the place we have students mainly from Europe but then we have a student from Australia and Canadian as well so an assortable I have one thing in common is that they
They’re in their 20s they grew up in a sort of society changing to being sustainable one of the students enticed by the school’s green credentials is Alan he’s busy sharpening his coordination skills hi how’s it going working hard I see absolutely always enough watching from
The sidelines time to get stuck in so I recognize the accent nothing tells me around here no on my head definitely not Swedish what brings you here I was a plumber before the started training to be a pilot he’s a plumber yes and I love that from plumber to Pilot exactly
But even like the construction industry is changing you know we’re no longer fitting as much fossil fuels as we used to yeah and it’s an aviation to see him so seeing that this school had electric planes and they were had tags to moving forward in that way and as I say I think
The aviation industry will change drastically in the next 10 years tell me about your training what’s your training like um the theory side is quite intense okay and how long is it before you get to touch any a simulator or an actual plane it’s quite quick yeah no as soon as you
Arrive so you think you could teach me how to fly on the simulator I don’t know if I’d be any good let’s use your throttle so what we’ll do is we’ll put our feet in the brakes put the throw all the way forward once the instruments are all set we’ll start to roll
Um simple right easy as that easy rotate there we go that’s right place did you say that was a smooth takeoff yeah I’ve done blocks I can tell you that later nice but after a decent start things quickly go downhill try and get in a position to land okay
It sounds like a very terrifying beat okay so the woman that’s telling us we’re quite High Not a noise you want to hear when you’re coming into land foreign okay I’m gonna call it that wasn’t a great landing was it was it not the best it was it was intense but really fun it was super realistic oh my heart’s still going [Laughter] the academy runs out of celestio airport
Complete with its very own scandi Chic wooden control tower Well I’ve never been in a control tower before so that was pretty impressive but when I think about you know the Forefront of green Aviation I think New York Tokyo Singapore not necessarily a small airport in a small City in the North of Sweden It may be small but this airport is a trailblazer for travel Annalee vixton is one of the architects of this master plan the ultimate aim of the Ellis program is to invite the world to come and test their technology in this field get things up in there see
How it actually works in reality where you can test the whole value chain of the electric Aviation yeah from the ground infrastructure to the regulations in the air okay so with that big picture time how close would you say we are to you know clean flying Sweden has a goal
Of having the transport sector fossil free in 2030. that doesn’t mean that all planes will be electric but there will be hybrids for the shorter flights and on the longer flights this sustainable Aviation fuels will be important like biofuels electric fuels and hydrogen so you’re clearly doing some incredible
Work here and but where else in the world is you know doing great work in this space the US are doing a lot to introduce biofuels and soft sustainable Aviation the UK is also doing a lot in this area that’s good to know Before leaving there was one more important thing I needed to do so this is a pretty exciting moment as I’m about to hit the skies it’s definitely fully charged for sure yeah yeah 100 you hope so oh reassuring words there yo hat all right should we get in let’s do it
Oh it’s cozy I can’t believe we’re about to go up in the air it doesn’t I’ve never been in US playing this small before so this is it’s freaking me out a little bit what’s up okay ready ready To get over it I’d love to give it a go as long as you uh you should trust me this has been quite flight soon this is the real thing it’s so sensitive it could be a game over this has to be without a result oh yeah Amazing we made it back and my adrenaline is running really high good job you good job So we’re 125 miles south of the Arctic Circle here and not only is this area home to Europe’s first electric flight school but there are a number of ways in which sustainability is combined with innovation our culture house and wood hotel which just happens to be one of the largest
Structures in the world but entirely out of wood this is such an incredible beautiful building thank you so much I’m not to take credit because I didn’t build it but I’m very proud to have it in my city anyways yeah so what’s the idea behind this building to essentially you know
Draw people into yes uh it’s essentially about the goal on growing for the city to be bigger but it’s also not just like environmental sustainability it’s really about social sustainability because this house is open for everyone this is a place where you just happen to experience culture now talk to me about
This installation over here when I first came in and saw it I thought I was going mad but it is definitely moving it is moving you’re seeing correctly yes this is an AI installation when it’s moving like vibrantly it’s actually like using a lot of energy
Maybe because we we’re having a lot of visitors coming in and then when it’s quite slow like this it’s during energy depending on how vibrant the movements are the more is going on really the energy systems I was not expecting you to tell me that much about that that’s
Really impressive it’s like very impressive yeah and it’s also very nicely placed in like this heart of the house you know it’s a heart in the heart of the house love it Foreign The life of a travel vlogger can seem idyllic I mean who wouldn’t want to travel the world experience amazing destinations and rack up a load of likes online in the process but behind the scenes a lot of hard work goes into making that content meet Liv and the one behind the camera there’s
Lou and on social media we are known as live and look thank you and we’re dropping in on their South American Adventure we’ve been together now for five years in our relationship pretty early on we both decided that we had love for travel and that we wanted
To go and see more of the world We want to see if the travel content creator lifestyle is as glamorous as it might look and is it something any of us could pack in the nine to five four and give a go now the question that we get asked all of the time is how do we afford to live
The lifestyle that we are living there’s a few different ways we’re looking at savings and stuff but the primary answer to that is through content Creation With both hotels and Brands and what that means is essentially we will create content that we either share on our social media or we create it
Specifically to send to a brand for them to use for their own marketing or a bit of both and in return we will either get paid or we will stay in a hotel for free or do an Excursion or a barrier for an activity whilst you’re on the road for free
We’ve had some hotels kind of come back and say oh we didn’t take photos of this you didn’t take photos of that and it’s like well you never mentioned that and that wasn’t in the contract we did everything that you asked and what we thought was best
Um so that is something we have to sometimes deal with from the DMS to those initial conversations always contract because we’ve got to protect ourselves that we will be paid yeah we never work with brands on a free basis just receiving a gift like it’s a lot of work that we do so
It’s always got to be paid it’s a job yeah all right shoot list here process for us actually doing a shoot would be first and foremost we will sit down and we will make a shoot list together sat outside from afar yeah I’ll shop the place
We’ll write down a script and then when we come to shooting it we usually try and do it in one sitting to get it all done in one go the key thing to remember about this whole video right is we are traveling we made it this isn’t
Our setting up like a life where we’re earning loads of money we’re saving for a house like our primary objective is to travel so when we’re agreeing to a hotel deal if it’s three nights we don’t want to spend three whole days just shooting and
Not enjoying the area for what it is our third stop was Sao Paulo yesterday was such a big day so today we’re doing a bit of work we recommend staying here for two for two later we’ve got massage and spa session so stay tuned for that hello mate
Without speaking no with more and more content creators entering the market and competition hotting up burnout is real this whole game is driven by algorithms and many bloggers eventually tired of feeding the social media Beast that keeps them on the road so can you ever take the time to really enjoy yourself
And forget racking up the likes and shares but if you have a skill that can pay the bill and no other means of traveling live and Lou think this could be your perfect option to see the world just look after yourself out there and remember it may look like fun but
There’s a lot of work involved too it can work for loads of people right yeah if you’ve got a skill that you think is useful for a hotel or a brand restaurant Cafe there’s so many different options if you have a skill that you can offer them and trade for something that will
Benefit you whilst traveling on the road then why not go and do it Thank you well we’re off to Canada now and the west coast city of Vancouver which often comes high on the list for great views a laid-back lifestyle and amazing food Vancouver is frequently named as one of the best food destinations in the world and last year alone Michelin descended
On the city handing out eight of its prestigious stars to restaurants in the city you might have heard about poutine it’s kind of does unofficial national dish kind of like what pierogies are to Poland or the burgers to the United States this comforting salty dish is made up of
Chips cheese curds and gravy But this is not a piece about poutine in fact it can be quite hard to find authentic poutine out here on the West Coast it comes from Quebec in the east here in Vancouver there is another dish that you should know about Hello hi my name is Paul natural Mr Bannock or Mr Bannock is a member of the Squamish Nation he lives on one of the three First Nation territories here in Vancouver City he owns the only indigenous food truck in Vancouver and his specialty Bannock a staple in First Nation Cuisine oh
Awesome that’s a Mr Bannock apron isn’t it yes ma’am wonderful let me put this on vanak is pretty simple it’s sugar flour baking powder salt and water not too dissimilar from an English scone the word Bannock itself is Scottish so there’s always a huge debate if Bannock is indigenous every community in every
Nation has a type of flat bread and as stuff evolves an indigenous food evolve we have baking powder salt sugar and now we have these huge fluffy mannics for me it’s it’s a huge to be able to have my kids watch and learn what I do just because our
Food culture has been missing for so long you know through all the the trauma that we have and Poe’s love of Education goes beyond his family he works for the indigenous culinary of associated Nations or ican a group of chefs who use food to connect young people to their heritage In the late 19th century European settlers established the Indian Act devastating the human rights of over 200 distinct first nations in the country and forcing cultural assimilation as well as projects like Paul’s storytelling has become a huge way of keeping indigenous culture alive less is a knowledge keeper for the sleigh watt tribe
It was only in the last 30 years that this park in Northern Vancouver was returned to the people after the discovery of food scraps showed just how long ago a community lived here I grew up knowing it as Kate’s Park and it was um it was discovered that um
That it was our land and that we use it as a summer Village back over there where it’s a little bit more flatter and more grass that’s where we would Harvest our salmon we’d hang our meat our meat our elk from the trees our deer from the trees we’d pick berries there’s always
Berries here in the summertime so we’d spend a lot of our summers gathered here the sleighway tooth population is growing once dropping to under 20 today the nation has over 600 people strong so right now I’m going to take you to um one of our protected areas it’s known as
Um xiaomin one of our areas where we place our food scraps what I mean by our food scraps is like our salmon bones our crab shells our clam shells why do you think it’s important that Travelers do engage with indigenous culture I think it’s a real eye-opener and I
Share the knowledge the history the songs I think they leave with a lot more respect for the land and for the indigenous people and that’s a really beautiful gift to share with someone awesome yeah yeah I feel that when I share my songs that that’s our medicine
That drum is the medicine for our people and there’s a lot of power to it and when people hear the drum that’s the same feelings that I get So with an understand I’m Keen to sample Paul’s modern take well these just look so delicious golden fluffy should I should I do it um so delicious they’re fluffy they’re like the perfect combination of fluffy and crispy nice hopefully soon there will be more places to try indigenous food in Vancouver but
For now Bannock doesn’t seem like a bad place to start sadly that’s all we’ve got time for this week coming up next week rajans off to Belgium where an upcoming change in the rules for Bruges popular tourist canal boat could spell the end of an era for a long-standing family business
I don’t know any people who would invest call it a million euros and not being sure that you’ll be able to still do the job so make sure you join him for that but in the meantime don’t forget to delve into the huge amount of travel
Content from the BBC by checking out the tag so you can see right here on your screen and for me Lucy Hedges and the rest of the travel show team here in Sweden it’s goodbye Thank you
This week Lucy Hedges is at one of the world’s most sustainable flight schools in Sweden. Travel vloggers Liv and Lew give behind-the-scenes access to their globe-trotting lifestyle; and Eva Zu Beck is in Canada getting stuck into a First Nation’s feast.