travel writing introduction

What You Should Know About Travel Writing

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Travel writing is a form of creative nonfiction in which the narrator's encounters with foreign places serve as the dominant subject. Also called  travel literature .

"All travel writing—because it is writing—is made in the sense of being constructed, says Peter Hulme, "but travel writing cannot be made up without losing its designation" (quoted by Tim Youngs in  The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing , 2013).

Notable contemporary travel writers in English include Paul Theroux, Susan Orlean, Bill Bryson , Pico Iyer, Rory MacLean, Mary Morris, Dennison Berwick, Jan Morris, Tony Horwitz, Jeffrey Tayler, and Tom Miller, among countless others.

Examples of Travel Writing

• "By the Railway Side" by Alice Meynell
• Lists and Anaphora in Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There"
• Lists in William Least Heat-Moon's Place Description
• "London From a Distance" by Ford Madox Ford
• "Niagara Falls" by Rupert Brooke
• "Nights in London" by Thomas Burke
• "Of Trave," by Francis Bacon
• "Of Travel" by Owen Felltham
• "Rochester" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Observations About Travel Writing

Authors, journalists, and others have attempted to describe travel writing, which is more difficult to do than you might think. However, these excerpts explain that travel writing—at a minimum—requires a sense of curiosity, awareness, and fun.

Thomas Swick

• "The best writers in the field [of travel writing] bring to it an indefatigable curiosity, a fierce intelligence that enables them to interpret, and a generous heart that allows them to connect. Without resorting to invention , they make ample use of their imaginations. . . . "The travel book itself has a similar grab bag quality. It incorporates the characters and plot line of a novel, the descriptive power of poetry, the substance of a history lesson, the discursiveness of an essay , and the—often inadvertent—self-revelation of a memoir . It revels in the particular while occasionally illuminating the universal. It colors and shapes and fills in gaps. Because it results from displacement, it is frequently funny. It takes readers for a spin (and shows them, usually, how lucky they are). It humanizes the alien. More often than not it celebrates the unsung. It uncovers truths that are stranger than fiction. It gives eyewitness proof of life’s infinite possibilities." ("Not a Tourist." The Wilson Quarterly , Winter 2010)

Casey Blanton

• "There exists at the center of travel books like [Graham] Greene's Journey Without Maps or [V.S.] Naipaul's An Area of Darkness a mediating consciousness that monitors the journey, judges, thinks, confesses, changes, and even grows. This narrator , so central to what we have come to expect in modern travel writing , is a relatively new ingredient in travel literature, but it is one that irrevocably changed the genre . . . . "Freed from strictly chronological , fact-driven narratives , nearly all contemporary travel writers include their own dreams and memories of childhood as well as chunks of historical data and synopses of other travel books. Self reflexivity and instability, both as theme and style , offer the writer a way to show the effects of his or her own presence in a foreign country and to expose the arbitrariness of truth and the absence of norms." ( Travel Writing: The Self and the World . Routledge, 2002)

Frances Mayes

• "Some travel writers can become serious to the point of lapsing into good ol' American puritanism. . . . What nonsense! I have traveled much in Concord. Good travel writing can be as much about having a good time as about eating grubs and chasing drug lords. . . . [T]ravel is for learning, for fun, for escape, for personal quests, for challenge, for exploration, for opening the imagination to other lives and languages." (Introduction to The Best American Travel Writing 2002 . Houghton, 2002)

Travel Writers on Travel Writing

In the past, travel writing was considered to be nothing more than the detailing of specific routes to various destinations. Today, however, travel writing has become much more. Read on to find out what famous travel writers such as V.S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux say about the profession.

V.S. Naipaul

• "My books have to be called ' travel writing ,' but that can be misleading because in the old days travel writing was essentially done by men describing the routes they were taking. . . . What I do is quite different. I travel on a theme . I travel to make an inquiry. I am not a journalist. I am taking with me the gifts of sympathy, observation, and curiosity that I developed as an imaginative writer. The books I write now, these inquiries, are really constructed narratives." (Interview with Ahmed Rashid, "Death of the Novel." The Observer , Feb. 25, 1996)

Paul Theroux

• - "Most travel narratives—perhaps all of them, the classics anyway—describe the miseries and splendors of going from one remote place to another. The quest, the getting there, the difficulty of the road is the story; the journey, not the arrival, matters, and most of the time the traveler—the traveler’s mood, especially—is the subject of the whole business. I have made a career out of this sort of slogging and self-portraiture, travel writing as diffused autobiography ; and so have many others in the old, laborious look-at-me way that informs travel writing ." (Paul Theroux, "The Soul of the South." Smithsonian Magazine , July-August 2014) - "Most visitors to coastal Maine know it in the summer. In the nature of visitation, people show up in the season. The snow and ice are a bleak memory now on the long warm days of early summer, but it seems to me that to understand a place best, the visitor needs to see figures in a landscape in all seasons. Maine is a joy in the summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in the winter. You see that the population is actually quite small, the roads are empty, some of the restaurants are closed, the houses of the summer people are dark, their driveways unplowed. But Maine out of season is unmistakably a great destination: hospitable, good-humored, plenty of elbow room, short days, dark nights of crackling ice crystals. "Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. Boats are repaired, traps fixed, nets mended. “I need the winter to rest my body,” my friend the lobsterman told me, speaking of how he suspended his lobstering in December and did not resume until April. . . ." ("The Wicked Coast." The Atlantic , June 2011)

Susan Orlean

• - "To be honest, I view all stories as journeys. Journeys are the essential text of the human experience—the journey from birth to death, from innocence to wisdom, from ignorance to knowledge, from where we start to where we end. There is almost no piece of important writing—the Bible, the Odyssey , Chaucer, Ulysses —that isn't explicitly or implicitly the story of a journey. Even when I don't actually go anywhere for a particular story, the way I report is to immerse myself in something I usually know very little about, and what I experience is the journey toward a grasp of what I've seen." (Susan Orlean, Introduction to My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere . Random House, 2004) - "When I went to Scotland for a friend's wedding last summer, I didn't plan on firing a gun. Getting into a fistfight, maybe; hurling insults about badly dressed bridesmaids, of course; but I didn't expect to shoot or get shot at. The wedding was taking place in a medieval castle in a speck of a village called Biggar. There was not a lot to do in Biggar, but the caretaker of the castle had skeet-shooting gear, and the male guests announced that before the rehearsal dinner they were going to give it a go. The women were advised to knit or shop or something. I don't know if any of us women actually wanted to join them, but we didn't want to be left out, so we insisted on coming along. . . ." (Opening paragraph of "Shooting Party." The New Yorker , September 29, 1999)

Jonathan Raban

• - "As a literary form, travel writing is a notoriously raffish open house where different genres are likely to end up in the bed. It accommodates the private diary , the essay , the short story, the prose poem, the rough note and polished table talk with indiscriminate hospitality. It freely mixes narrative and discursive writing." ( For Love & Money: Writing - Reading - Travelling 1968-1987 . Picador, 1988)
• - "Travel in its purest form requires no certain destination, no fixed itinerary, no advance reservation and no return ticket, for you are trying to launch yourself onto the haphazard drift of things, and put yourself in the way of whatever changes the journey may throw up. It's when you miss the one flight of the week, when the expected friend fails to show, when the pre-booked hotel reveals itself as a collection of steel joists stuck into a ravaged hillside, when a stranger asks you to share the cost of a hired car to a town whose name you've never heard, that you begin to travel in earnest." ("Why Travel?" Driving Home: An American Journey . Pantheon, 2011)
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The Cambridge introduction to travel writing

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Uploaded by station39.cebu on July 16, 2023

The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing, by Tim Youngs

2018, H-Travel, H-net Reviews.

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The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing brings together specialists from anthropology, history, literature, and cultural studies to offer a broad and vibrant introduction to travel writing in English between 1500 and the present. This ...

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Title of book: New Directions in Travel Writing Studies. Eds. Paul Smethurst and Julia Kuehn. Published: Comparative Critical Studies 14.2-3 (2017): 380-383.

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The article provides a definition of the text genre of travel writing as well as a historical overview of major types of journey accounts produced about the Americas. Since the European colonization of the Americas, various types of travel reports have been catering to the desire of broadening audiences for geographic and cultural knowledge of unfamiliar places and peoples, for economic, socio-political, or strategic information, as well as for entertainment through captivating stories. As such, the genre has contributed to formulating and circulating hegemonic concepts of the region that inform public discourses, knowledge, and power relations to this day. | Due to copyright laws, I cannot make a public copy available here or link to a repository holding my article. Please request a private copy if you are interested in my work.

Studies in Travel Writing

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Ijariit Journal

Travel writing as a genre of literature has not been a contemporary happening, as a cursory look at the annals of literary history shows us that from the biblical times till the present day, though the forms and media have changed, the passion of travel writing has remained much in vogue. The paper explores the ways in which travel writing has been an indispensable part of English literature, both in terms of its contribution to its richness as well as an avenue for human's development. Human's psychology is positively impacted through travel and the resultant travel memoirs prepared-discoveries, mysteries, and socio-cultural planes give humans experiences with nature and people inhabiting them, so as to result in various forms of travel writing-travelogues, guides, and stories. These, in turn, inspire others to undertake a similar travel and experience firsthand their " acquired knowledge from travel writings ". The paper also explores the ways in which travel accounts of voyage and discovery of new lands led to the development of the genre of travel writing in literature, and how it had positive externalities towards enriching other disciplines as well like history, geography, science etc. In turn, it has also been influenced by the socio-cultural settings, as well as questions of identity in society. The paper also traces the writing styles of Charles Darwin in his masterpiece " Origin of Species " and how that set the path right for the flourishing of the genre further. Charles Dickens, Carl Thompson, James Cook, Lawrence, Henry James are other luminaries who embraced literature through their travel writings. The paper also throws light on the inhibitions and bottlenecks which a traveler has to face while on travel-alienation from the homeland, feeling of otherness among a foreign crowd, loss of self-identity and seclusion from the larger group, inability to comprehend alien culture, religion, customs etc. But overcoming such challenges is the very essence of a hardcore travel writer-the passion to undertake travel against all odds to distant places to feel oneness with nature and hence contribute to humankind's development.

The book entitled »Exercises in Travel Writing and Literary Tourism – A Teaching and Learning Experiment« emerged as a result of experimental project work in teaching English during the subject English in Tourism – Higher Level 1 at the Faculty of Tourism in Brežice, University of Maribor. This approach included teaching in the classroom, research in libraries and at home, and field work. The collection brings eight very different texts on Travel Writing and Literary Tourism by Master's students of Tourism, who were free in choosing the topic of the texts, their styles and the titles . The field of Travel Writing is significant, not only as its own discourse, a tourism trend and a tool of branding and embedding attractions and/or destinations, but also as a tool of teaching and learning a foreign language, which, along with upgrading specific language knowledge, encourages curiosity, research, creativity, reflection and self-development.

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Great Travel Writing Examples from World Renowned Travel Writers

Are you ready to be a better travel writer? One of the best ways to do this is to read great travel writing examples from great travel writers.

Writing about travel in a way that keeps your reader reading is not always easy. Knowing how to write an irresistible first paragraph to entice the reader to keep reading is key. Writing a lede paragraph that convinces the reader to finish the article, story or book is great travel writing.  This article features travel writing examples from award-winning travel writers, top-selling books, New York Times travel writers, and award-winning travel blogs.

Ads are how we pay our bills and keep our blog free for you to enjoy. We also use affiliate links; if you make a purchase through them, we may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

The writers featured in this article are some of my personal favorite travel writers. I am lucky to have met most of them in person and even luckier to consider many friends. Many I have interviewed on my podcast and have learned writing tips from their years of travel writing, editing and wisdom.

11 Great Travel Writing Examples

Writing with feeling, tone, and point of view creates a compelling story. Below are examples of travel writing that include; first paragraphs, middle paragraphs, and final paragraphs for both travel articles as well as travel books.

I hope the below examples of travel writing inspire you to write more, study great travel writing and take your writing to a higher level.

Writing Example of a Travel Book Closing Paragraphs

Don George is the author of the award-winning anthology The Way of Wanderlust: The Best Travel Writing of Don George , and the best-selling travel writing guide in the world: How to Be a Travel Writer .

He is currently Editor at Large for National Geographic Travel, and has been Travel Editor at the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle, Salon, and Lonely Planet.

I had the wonderful opportunity to see Don speak at Tbex and read from one of his books as well as interview him on the Break Into Travel Writing podcast. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Below is the closing of Don’s ebook: Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus: Dispatches from a Year of Traveling Close to Home

I continued hiking up to Lost Trail and then along Canopy View Trail. Around noon I serendipitously came upon a bench by the side of the trail, parked my backpack, and unpacked my lunch. Along with my sandwiches and carrot sticks, I feasted on the tranquility and serenity, the sequoia-swabbed purity of the air, the bird and brook sounds and sun-baked earth and pine needle smells, the sunlight slanting through the branches, the bright patch of blue sky beyond.

At one point I thought of shinrin-yoku, forest bathing, the Japanese practice that has become widely popular in the U.S. This was a perfect example of shinrin-yoku, I thought: Here I am, alone in this forest, immersed in the sense and spirit of these old-growth redwoods, taking in their tranquility and timelessness, losing myself to their sheer size and age and their wild wisdom that fills the air.

I sat there for an hour, and let all the trials, tremors, and tribulations of the world I had left in the parking lot drift away. I felt grounded, calm, quiet—earth-bound, forest-embraced.

In another hour, or two, I would walk back to the main paved trail, where other pilgrims would be exclaiming in awe at the sacred sequoias, just as I had earlier that day.

But for now, I was content to root right here, on this blessed bench in the middle of nowhere, or rather, in the middle of everywhere, the wind whooshing through me, bird-chirps strung from my boughs, toes spreading under scratchy pine needles into hard-packed earth, sun-warmed canopy reaching for the sky, aging trunk textured by time, deep-pulsing, in the heart of Muir Woods.

• You can read the whole story here: Old Growth: Hiking into the Heart of Muir Woods
• Please also download Don’s free ebook here:  Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus
• In addition to writing and editing, Don speaks at conferences, lectures on tours around the world, and teaches travel writing workshops through www.bookpassage.com .

Writing Example of a Travel Book Intro Paragraphs

Francis tapon.

Francis Tapon , author of Hike Your Own Hike and The Hidden Europe , also created a TV series and book called The Unseen Africa, which is based on his five-year journey across all 54 African countries.

He is a three-time TEDx speaker. His social media username is always FTapon. I interviewed Francis on the Break Into Travel Writing podcast about “How to Find An Original Point of View as a Travel Writer “. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Below is the opening of Francis’ book, The Hidden Europe:

“This would be a pretty lousy way to die,” I thought.

I was locked in an outhouse with no way out. Outhouses sometimes have two latches—one on the outside and one on the inside. The outside latch keeps the door shut to prevent rodents and other creatures who like hanging out in crap from coming in. Somehow, that outer latch accidentally closed, thereby locking me in this smelly toilet. I was wearing a thin rain jacket. The temperature was rapidly dropping.

“This stinks,” I mumbled. It was midnight, I was above the Arctic Circle, and the temperatures at night would be just above freezing. There was no one around for kilometers. If I didn’t get out, I could freeze to death in this tiny, smelly, fly-infested shithole.

My mom would kill me if I died so disgracefully. She would observe that when Elvis died next to a toilet, he was in Graceland. I, on the other hand, was in Finland, not far from Santa Claus. This Nordic country was a jump board for visiting all 25 nations in Eastern Europe.

You can find his book on Amazon: The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us

For $2 a month, you can get Francis’ book as he writes it: Patreon.com/ftapon

Intro (Lede) Paragraph Examples of Great Travel Writing Articles

Michele peterson.

Former banking executive Michele Peterson is a multi-award-winning travel and food writer who divides her time between Canada, Guatemala, and Mexico (or the nearest tropical beach).

Former banking executive Michele Peterson is a multi-award-winning travel and food writer who divides her time between Canada, Guatemala, and Mexico (or the nearest tropical beach). Her writing has appeared in Lonely Planet’s Mexico from the Source cookbook, National Geographic Traveler, Conde Nast’s Gold List, the Globe and Mail, Fifty-five Plus and more than 100 other online and print publications.

She blogs about world cuisine and sun destinations at A Taste for Travel website. I met Michele on my first media trip that took place in Nova Scotia, Canada. I also had the pleasure of interviewing about “ Why the Odds are in Your Favor if you Want to Become a Travel Writer” . You can listen to the full podcast here .

Michele’s Lede Paragraph Travel Writing Example

I’m hiking through a forest of oak trees following a farmer who is bleating like a pied piper. Emerging from a gully is a herd of black Iberian pigs, snuffling in response. If they weren’t so focused on following the swineherd, I would run for the hills. These pigs look nothing like the pink-cheeked Babe of Hollywood fame.

These are the world’s original swine, with lineage dating back to the Paleolithic Stone Age period where the earliest humans decorated Spain’s caves with images of wild boars. Their powerful hoofs stab the earth as they devour their prized food, the Spanish bellota acorn, as fast as the farmer can shake them from the tree with his long wooden staff. My experience is part of a culinary journey exploring the secrets of producingjamón ibérico de Bellota, one of the world’s finest hams.

You can read the full article here: Hunting for Jamón in Spain

Perry Garfinkel

Perry Garfinkel has been a journalist and author for an unbelievable 40 years, except for some years of defection into media/PR communications and consulting.

He is a contributor to The New York Times since the late ’80s, writing for many sections and departments. He has been an editor for, among others, the Boston Globe, the Middlesex News, and the Martha’s Vineyard Times.

He’s the author of the national bestseller “ Buddha or Bust: In Search of the Truth, Meaning, Happiness and the Man Who Found Them All ” and “ Travel Writing for Profit and Pleasure “.

Perry has been a guest on my podcast twice. He gave a “ Master Class in Travel Writing ” you can listen to the full podcast here . He also shared “ How to Find Your Point Of View as a Travel Writer ” you can listen to the full episode here .

Perry’s Lede Travel Article Example from the New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — A block off Grant Avenue in San Francisco’s Chinatown – beyond the well-worn path tourists take past souvenir shops, restaurants and a dive saloon called the Buddha Bar – begins a historical tour of a more spiritual nature. Duck into a nondescript doorway at 125 Waverly Place, ascend five narrow flights and step into the first and oldest Buddhist temple in the United States.

At the Tien Hau Temple, before an intricately carved gilded wooden shrine and ornate Buddha statues, under dozens of paper lanterns, Buddhists in the Chinese tradition still burn pungent incense and leave offerings to the goddess Tien Hau in return for the promise of happiness and a long life.

You can read the full article here: Taking a Buddhist pilgrimage in San Francisco

Elaine Masters

Elaine Masters apologizes for pissing off fellow travelers while tracking story ideas, cultural clues, and inspiring images but can’t resist ducking in doorways or talking with strangers.

She’s recently been spotted driving her hybrid around the North American West Coast and diving cenotes in the Yucatan. Founder of Tripwellgal.com, Elaine covers mindful travel, local food, overlooked destinations and experiences. Elaine was a guest on my podcast where we spoke about “ How to Master the CVB Relationship “. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Elaine’s Lede Example

I jiggered my luggage onto the escalator crawling up to the street. As it rose into the afternoon light, an immense shadow rose over my shoulder. Stepping onto the sidewalk, I burst into giggles, looking like a madwoman, laughing alone on the busy Barcelona boulevard.  The shadow looming overhead was the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. It had mesmerized me forty years earlier and it was the reason I’d finally returned to Spain.

You can read the full article here: Don’t Miss Going Inside Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s Beloved Cathedral

Along with his wife, photographer Mary Gabbett, Bret Love is the Co-Founder/Editor In Chief of Green Global Travel and the Blue Ridge Mountains Travel Guide.

He’s also an award-winning writer whose work has been featured by more than 100 publications around the world, including National Geographic, Rolling Stone, American Way, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

Bret’s Lede Example

Congo Square is quiet now. Traffic forms a dull drone in the distance. A lone percussionist taps out ancient tribal rhythms on a two-headed drum. An air compressor from Rampart Street road construction provides perfectly syncopated whooshes of accompaniment.

Shaded park benches are surrounded by blooming azaleas, magnolias, and massive live oaks that stretch to provide relief from the blazing midday sun. It’s an oasis of solitude directly across the street from the French Quarter.

Congo Square is quiet now. But it’s here that the seeds of American culture as we know it were sown more than 200 years ago. And the scents, sounds, and sights that originated here have never been more vital to New Orleans than they are now, more than a decade after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.

You can read the full article here: Treme, New Orleans (How Congo Square Was The Birthplace Of American Culture)

Middle Paragraph Examples of Great Travel Writing Articles

Mariellen ward.

Canadian travel writer and blogger Mariellen Ward runs the award-winning travel site Breathedreamgo.com , inspired by her extensive travels in India.

She has been published in leading media outlets worldwide and offers custom tours to India through her company India for Beginners. Though Canadian by birth, Mariellen considers India to be her “soul culture” and she is passionate about encouraging mindful travel.

Mariellen’s Middle Paragraph Example

While the festival atmosphere swirled around me, I imbued my  diya with hope for personal transformation. I had come to India because a river of loss had run through my life, and I had struggled with grief, despair and depression for eight years. I felt I was clinging to the bank, but the effort was wearing me out. Deciding to leave my life and go to India was like letting go of the bank and going with the flow of the river. I had no idea where it would lead me, what I would learn or how I would change. I only knew that it was going to be big.

You can read the full article here: The River: A tale of grief and healing in India

Joe Baur is an author and filmmaker from Cleveland currently based in Berlin. His work has appeared in a variety of international publications, including BBC Travel, National Geographic, and Deutsche Welle.

He regularly reports for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and is the author of Talking Tico detailing his year of living in Costa Rica and traveling around Central America. I interviewed Joe about “ How to Find Unique Travel Stories “. You can listen to the full podcast here .

Joe Baur’s Middle Paragraph Example

I first became aware of the Harz mountains and the Brocken when reading the works of some of Germany’s great writers, like Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Legends of witches congregating with the devil being the main theme of the mountain’s mythology. I, however, was more interested in a refreshing time spent in nature rather than reveling with the devil.

The first stage from Osterode to Buntenbock was a warm-up to the more rigorous stages ahead. It began on sidewalks before sliding into the forest sporting a healthy shade of green — a gentle jaunt that made my hiking boots feel a bit like overkill given the dry, pleasant weather.

You can read the full article here: Follow the witch through the forest: 5 days hiking Germany’s Harz

Samantha Shea

Samantha is a freelance travel writer with bylines in Matador Network, GoNomad and more. She also runs the travel blog Intentional Detours which provides thorough guides and tales related to offbeat adventure travel in South Asia and beyond.

When she’s not writing she enjoys cycling, hiking, the beach, as well as language learning.

Samantha Shea’s Middle Paragraph Example

Suddenly, the spark of a match pulsed through the early-fall afternoon and my head snapped towards the men. Amir touched the flame to an unidentifiable object that seconds later made itself known by the deep earthy scent of Pakistani hashish.

Amir’s ice blue eyes focused intently on his creation: a combination of tobacco and nuggets of greenish-brown charas. He forced the mixture back into the cigarette, before bringing it to his pursed lips, flicking the match, and setting flame to his high.

I reached out from the cot to take my turn and took a deep inhale, acutely pleased. I savored the familiar burn of the drag, the rows and rows of corn and apple plants in front of me, the stuttered cacophony of animal exclamations behind me, and the generosity of the men to my left, some of whom we had just met an hour before.

You can read the full article here: Thall Tales: A Hazy Afternoon in Thall, Pakistan

Final Paragraph Example of Great Travel Writing Articles

Cassie bailey.

Cassie is a travel writer who has solo backpacked around Asia and the Balkans, and is currently based in Auckland. Alongside in-depth destination guides, her blog has a particular focus on storytelling, mental health, and neurodiversity.

Cassie’s Final Paragraphs Example

So my goal is to feel, I guess. And I don’t mean that in a dirty way (although obvz I do mean that in a dirty way too). This is why we travel, right? To taste crazy new foods and to feel the sea breeze against our skin or the burn on the back of our legs on the way down a mountain. We want to feel like shite getting off night buses at 4am and the sting of mosquito bites. We know we’re going to feel lost or frustrated or overwhelmed but we do it anyway. Because we know it’s worth it for the ecstasy of seeing a perfect view or making a new connection or finding shitty wine after a bad day.

My goal is never to become numb to all of this. To never kid myself into settling for less than everything our bodies allow us to perceive. I’m after the full human experience; every bit, every feeling.

You can read the full article here: Goals inspired by life as a solo backpacker

Lydia Carey

Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City who spends her time mangling the Spanish language, scouring the country for true stories and “researching” every taco stand in her neighborhood.

She is the author of “ Mexico City Streets: La Roma ,” a guide to one of Mexico City’s most eclectic neighborhoods and she chronicles her life in the city on her blog MexicoCityStreets.com .

Lydia’s Final Paragraphs Example

Guys from the barrio huddle around their motorcycles smoking weed and drinking forties. Entire families, each dressed as St. Jude, eat tacos al pastor and grilled corn on a stick. Police stand at a distance, keeping an eye on the crowd but trying not to get too involved.

After this celebration, many of the pilgrims will travel on to Puebla where they will visit some of the religious relics on display in the San Judas church there. But many more will simply go back to their trades—legal and illegal—hoping that their attendance will mean that San Judas protects them for another year, and that he has their back in this monster of a city.

You can read the full article here: San Judas de Tadeo: Mexico’s Defender of Lost Causes

I hope you enjoyed these examples of travel writing and they have inspired you to want to write more and write better! The next article that will be published is a follow-up to this and will include travel writing examples from my first travel writing teacher, Amanda Castleman. This article will include travel writing tips from Amanda and travel writing examples from her students as well as one from her own writing.

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Alexa Meisler is the editorial director of 52 Perfect Days. Born in Paris, France she has since lived in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. She currently resides in San Diego with her husband and son where they enjoy exploring California and Mexico.

Travel has always been a part of her life; traveling to such places as Morocco, Tangiers and Spain as a young child as well as taking many road trips to Mexico with her grandparents as a young girl. Since then, she has traveled abroad to locations such as Russia, Taiwan and throughout Europe.

Prior to working at 52 Perfect Days she was a freelance travel writer; focusing on family and women’s adventure experiences.

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Travel Writing by Alasdair Pettinger LAST REVIEWED: 31 July 2019 LAST MODIFIED: 31 July 2019 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846719-0119

A minimal definition of travel writing might be any account of a journey or description of a place that is based on firsthand experience. As such, it may be found in many different kinds of text: diaries, letters, postcards, newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, essays, official reports, promotional brochures, and ethnographies, as well as travel books. Travel writing is often distinguished from guidebooks on the one hand and imaginative fiction, drama, and poetry on the other, but the term may sometimes include them, especially when discussing writings from before the 19th century, when such distinctions would have carried less weight with authors and readers. While it has long served as a vital source material by historians and biographers, travel writing rarely, even in those cultural histories documenting the “images” of or “attitudes” toward “other” races or nationalities that proliferated in the 1960s and 1970s, attracted the kind of close critical attention commonly given to literary fiction until the 1980s, coinciding with several related developments. First, there was an increasingly politicized self-questioning within literary studies and anthropology, combined with an interdisciplinary theoretical sophistication. Second, beyond the academy, there was a surge in popularity of literary travel writing, associated with authors such as Bruce Chatwin, Jonathan Raban, Paul Theroux, Colin Thubron, and others, promoted especially in the English-speaking world by Granta magazine. Within two decades, travel-writing studies could claim to be an academic discipline in its own right, with dedicated journals, textbooks, research centers, and conferences. If most of the influential early studies were dominated by anglophone critics studying anglophone texts, the field has since broadened significantly. Nevertheless, many studies of travel writing, without announcing it in their titles, continue to be largely concerned with English-speaking authors, often British. The reasons for restricting their scope in this way are rarely explicitly addressed; it is as if this is a default position for the scholars concerned rather than because “British and Irish travel writing” is a coherent object of study as such. As in many other fields, “British” is often used when “English” would be more accurate, and “English” sometimes silently includes texts that might be better described as Scottish, Welsh, or Irish.

The growth of travel-writing studies as an academic discipline has generated a number of general introductions to the subject aimed at students, typically offering a combination of historical overviews and discussions of key topics such as genre, techniques of representation, narrative organization, the relationship with the reader, and the treatment of race, nation, and gender. Blanton 1997 , Gannier 2001 , and Thompson 2011 provide the most-approachable introductions, while Hulme and Youngs 2002 , Youngs 2013 , Thompson 2015 , and Das and Youngs 2019 survey the field in more depth and reflect its shifting preoccupations. Most of these works acknowledge the difficulty in defining “travel writing.” Borm 2004 makes a case for a broad definition that includes fictional as well as nonfictional writing, but the decision made in Youngs 2013 to restrict it to “predominantly factual, first-person prose accounts that have been undertaken by the author-narrator” (p. 3) is more typical.

Blanton, Casey. Travel Writing: The Self and the World . Studies in Literary Themes and Genres 15. New York: Twayne, 1997.

Short historical overview, focusing on “the modern travel book,” with close readings of texts by James Boswell, Mary Kingsley, Graham Greene, Peter Matthiessen, V. S. Naipaul, Bruce Chatwin, Paul Theroux, and Roland Barthes. Includes useful list of recommended titles and a survey of critical scholarship.

Borm, Jan. “Defining Travel: On the Travel Book, Travel Writing and Terminology.” In Perspectives on Travel Writing . Edited by Glenn Hooper and Tim Youngs, 13–26. Studies in European Cultural Transition 19. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2004.

Argues for a broad definition of “travel writing” (or “travel literature”) to include “texts both predominantly fictional and non-fictional whose main theme is travel” (p. 13), while restricting the terms “travel book” or “travelogue” to predominantly nonfictional narratives.

Das, Nandini, and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge History of Travel Writing . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

The thirty-six essays here collectively showcase the latest scholarship on the genre, exhibiting historical depth and a truly global reach, extending well beyond North American and Western European authors. Includes sections that examine writings about different kinds of places, analyze a wide range of literary forms, and profile a selection of critical approaches.

Gannier, Odile. La littérature de voyage . Thèmes & Études. Paris: Ellipses, 2001.

Short introduction, drawing on mainly francophone examples but tackling general issues such as the definition of travel writing, the relationship between author and reader, representation, language, and tourism.

Hulme, Peter, and Tim Youngs, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing . Cambridge Companions to Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Fifteen essays by leading scholars in the field, arranged in three sections dealing with particular historical periods, key geographical regions, and general topics (gender, ethnography, and theory). Includes useful chronology and extensive guide to further reading.

Thompson, Carl. Travel Writing . New Critical Idiom. New York: Routledge, 2011.

DOI: 10.4324/9780203816240

A concise introduction that offers a broad historical overview and discussions of major topics such as the definition of the genre, authority and veracity, representation of the self and the other, and gender. Close readings of a small group of texts by representative authors from William Dampier to Bill Bryson.

Thompson, Carl, ed. The Routledge Companion to Travel Writing . Routledge Literature Companions. London: Routledge, 2015.

Forty-two essays that approach the subject from a wide range of historical, geographical, theoretical, thematic, and stylistic perspectives. Especially important for its coverage of themes (ethics, corporeality) and subgenres (guidebooks, blogs, dark tourism) that are relatively new areas of interest to travel-writing scholars.

Youngs, Tim. The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing . Cambridge Introductions to Literature. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

An impressive condensation of a wide range of scholarship, illustrated by insightful readings of representative primary texts from the Middle Ages to the early 21st century. Reflects more-recent trends with its attention to travel writers of non-European descent and closes by identifying some emerging developments that are likely to be important in the coming decades.

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Introduction: Curiosity, Identities, and Knowledge in Travel Writings on Asia

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• First Online: 01 June 2022

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• Christian Mueller 9 &
• Matteo Salonia 9  

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies ((PSAPS))

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The first chapter reflects on the nature of travelling as the paradigmatic form of human experience and its literary reflection in travel writings. In linking travels and experiences of human encounters, the chapter enquires into the relations between time and space by linking the historiographical traditions of travel writings on Asian spaces as readings of space across time with a critical analysis of the development of conceptualisations and inventions of Asian spaces. In addressing the analytical concepts of curiosity, identities, and knowledge, the chapter questions the dominance of an ideologically biased framework based on the Foucault–Saidian power–knowledge nexus that privileges the ideological assumption that imperialist appropriations of space are the human condition of travel writings. The chapter re-establishes curiosity as a human intellectual capacity at the centre of analysis to capture transnational space of encounters in which mutual curiosities complement the ideological claims for conquest through writing down encounters of difference.

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• Orientalism

1 Travellers and Their Literary Reflections

In his late reflections on travel writings as part of the discovery and measurement of the earth, the famous nineteenth-century scientific explorer and global traveller Alexander von Humboldt addressed the fundamental premise that human movements irrespective of their intentions lead to forms of discovery.

The greatest of all mistakes that can be found in the geography of Ptolemy [in the opinion on the extension of Asia to the East], has led humankind to the greatest discoveries in relation to new parts of the earth. […] Everything that triggers movement, whatever the moving force may be: mistakes, unfounded speculations, instinctive divinations, deductions based on facts, will lead to the broadening of the horizon of ideas and to new ways of intelligent inquiries. Footnote 1

Alexander von Humboldt starts his “Critical Inquiries” in 1852 with the observation that the miscalculation of one authority has triggered many forms of human action in exploring the planet. It is for him the act of travelling that generates knowledge and ultimately drives forward human intellectual progress, even if the travellers themselves might be misguided. Human triggers and reasons for travelling can be numerous, but Humboldt also indicated that the mental mapping of the world might provoke individual difficulties in reconciling preconceived constructions of space with the encountered human geography. This process of curiosity and its individual and collective processing in configuring, reflecting, and readjusting knowledge and identities about Asia is the topic of this book.

The most prominent European example for the individual difficulty to readjust his curiosity and preconceptions of Asia with his experienced encounter could arguably be Christopher Columbus. Footnote 2 As early as 1470, Columbus claimed his plans for the westward voyage and his curiosity on “well founded scientific reasons” in establishing the distance between the Canary Islands off the North African coast and Asia (or rather Chipangu = Japan) at an optimistic 2.760 miles instead of the actual 12.000 miles. Footnote 3 When he finally reached the Caribbean in search for Chipangu and Cathay, nothing matched his spatially preconceived knowledge. Columbus elaborated in a letter to Luis de Santangel, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Kingdom of Aragon upon his return in March 1493 the meandering travels through the Caribbean islands. “I followed its coast to the westward and found it so large that I thought it must be the mainland, - the province of Cathay; and, as I found neither towns nor villages on the sea coast […], I kept on the same route, thinking that I could not fail to light upon some large cities and towns.” Footnote 4 The absence of towns and in fact everything that China and Japan stood for in the European imaginary finally made Columbus partly readjust his mental image of the encountered space.

Travelling appears in the vast literature as the paradigmatic form of human experience. Semantically and conceptually, travel and experience are linked in Germanic languages while most other European languages connect travel to a laborious ordeal and connect acquired liberal education semantically to a widely travelled person. Footnote 5 Travels require a huge effort to mentally and cognitively appropriate a different world while the travellers remain rooted in the cultural, mental and social framework of their original background. Footnote 6 It is this specific combination of experience, generation of meanings, and the continuous articulation of space that make travel reports a unique source for the specific ways of thinking and interpretations of individual travellers. The results of this articulation, the travel reports, open windows to understand the human social and mental structures that conceptualise knowledge about space in different times. Footnote 7 This volume focuses on different actors from across the globe who travelled to, within, and through a geographical space that we may broadly consider as Asia. In reflecting upon their experiences and encounters in travelling this space in its diversity, the travel writers try to locate these within their diverse worldviews and preconceived knowledge. Even when discussing accounts penned by European travellers, the contributions to the volume trace some of these individual and collective attempts through the analytical lens of curiosity as a human capacity and a mode of observation that led to the creation of a plurality of Asias before and against the scholarly assumption of a coherent dominating othering of “the Orient.”

2 “In Space We Read time”—Historiographical Locations of Travel Writings on Asia

Friedrich Ratzel ( 1904 , 28). See Schlögel ( 2016 , 3–7), Osterhammel ( 2013 , 86–87).

In recent years, the historiography on travel writings and on the re-discovery of space as an analytical category has taken off to the extent that the fields of history, ethnography, anthropology, and cultural studies articulated emphatically a “spatial turn.” Footnote 8 The introduction reviews the different conceptual and analytical approaches to travel writing and travel and locates the volume in the literature by offering an analytical concept that has been largely neglected—the aspect of human curiosity. Footnote 9 Since the 1970s, scholarship has asked for a stronger conceptualisation of travel as a form of cultural practice. Footnote 10 In the last decades, different authors have proposed an interdisciplinary programme that would embrace the practice, the programmatic intentions, the literary representation, and the repercussions as the four themes for research. Footnote 11 It is striking that the field has seen a considerable amount of publications around these themes, yet mostly with a focus on Europe and the Americas, Eastern Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. Asia and East Asia in particular as a historical meso-region has not been the subject of prominent studies of travel writing on a larger scale or as part of a polycentric or integrative perspective on human travellers and their reflections on travel experiences and practices. Footnote 12

This is surprising for at least two reasons. Firstly, a strict historicisation and contextualisation of travels and travel practices allows us to integrate mechanisms of actions and biographical specificities of travellers in their specific historical circumstances. Asia as a spatial and perceived cultural meso-region offers a vast field for individual and collective perceptions and creations of space. The production of knowledge through the act of travel as a form of intellectual self-recognition (“Erkenntnis”) and the relationship of experience and text between semantics and social history with a clear regional focus on Asia offers the potential to understand the dialogic nature between the far and the near, the known and the yet unknown, and the self and the other. Footnote 13 These intellectual and existential processes are not confined to a mere “Western” or imperial act of travelling as generating power through knowing an Orientalised “Asia” in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Footnote 14 Europeans travelled with different mental capacities and ideological agendas, and they apply different modes of observation that do not necessarily add up in a coherent ideology to conquer. So did Chinese, Japanese, and other people. Footnote 15 Tuan and Wang have shown that Europeans were not the only expansionist powers who used “othering” and “imperial gazes” to inscribe ethnocentric ethnographies into Asian spaces. Footnote 16 At times, inscribing political or expansionist programmes through specific forms of travel was one of the outcomes of a guided curiosity to know and exercise influence. Many social groups and individuals in Asia also travelled and conceptualised their own mental maps and cultural geographies of Asia, yet with different coordinates of generating meaning. Footnote 17 However, the cultural and social formation of Asia from multiple actors inside and outside of Asia and its diverse historical, topographic, and cultural representations have been relatively under-researched.

Secondly, Asia in its more ideological form of the “Orient” has been at the forefront of theoretical and conceptual discussions on travel writing since the 1970s. Empirical studies take still for granted the stimulating yet overly schematic and simplistic assumptions of Edward Said. In following Foucault’s concept of knowledge as power, Said assumes rather than evidences the unity of an imperial ideology that all encounters between West and East entail, with the sole intention to dominate and rule the East. Footnote 18 “From travelers’ tales […] colonies were created and ethnographic perspectives secured.” Footnote 19 Said suggests that travel writings in particular create colonial power and discourse which are possessed entirely by the coloniser. Ambiguities, nuances, and in fact other forms of inquiry or knowledge that are not primarily understood in the form of discursive power are completely absent from the ideological conceptualisation of “Orientalism.” Other postcolonial theorists have held Said responsible for a historical and theoretical oversimplification in his quest for an assumed single “intentionality and unidirectionality” of all colonial power. Footnote 20 Interestingly, although equally adhering to a relatively unhistorical and ideological assumption of unified colonial power, Homi Bhabha has argued strongly for a much more diverse and open approach in studying especially prejudice as an ambivalent form of “appropriating” the East in colonial discourse. Footnote 21 However, many historical and literary studies on travel writings seem to focus on the “imperial gaze” under Said’s paradigm of unified ideological accusation rather than on Bhabha’s ambiguity as a heuristic tool when analysing Western and Asian travel writers. The volume seeks to fill the gap left by the fact that singularised narratives of imperialistic conquest have dominated the scholarly landscape where the recognition of a multiplicity of voices and nuances within those voices who entered the region of Asia cannot be subsumed under an ideological effort of postcolonial homogenization. On the contrary, the volume traces some of the writers travelling the world and Asia in order to know and understand the encountered spaces and populations, and to analyse how they utilised their gathered knowledge through different operations of curiosity to act upon the perceived spaces. Footnote 22 In doing so, the entrenched debates around Orientalism and Eurocentrism are considered conceptual inclines that as such do not represent theoretical absolutes, but perspectives with varying degrees of overlap that need to be supplemented with more categories to give full meaning to the narratives of travelling individuals.

Space has geographical and geological as well as mental dimensions. Research on maps and cartography has traditionally drawn on travel writings as part of the socio-cultural and political representations of physical geography. Although in 1824 Alexander von Humboldt celebrated the decline of opinionated representations of the world through the rise of exact mathematical and statistical tools, the “critical comparison of descriptive works,” mostly travel writings and missionary reports, remained a highly important source of mapping. Footnote 23 Critical cartography has contributed immensely to the understanding of the relationship between power and knowledge, especially when mapping non-European spaces. J.B. Harley in particular as representative of a critical Marxist cartography used Foucault and Said to reflect on mapping as an exercise of colonial power. Footnote 24 Yet, his focus was on physical maps as the product of imperial reflection, not on travel reports as the process of curious knowledge collection and inward roads into the understanding of individual perceptions of space and their social repercussions in disseminating them. Furthermore, the Saidian literature ignores how often, at the moment of encounter with non-European geographies, European writers have produced instances of anti-imperial argumentations and sustained self-criticism. Footnote 25 Our volume shows that there is no clear linear direction towards more imperialism and “Orientalist” gazes since the beginning of European overseas expansion in the sixteenth century, although imperial attitudes, moral and “racial” classifications of different centres relate to a European way of viewing, classifying, and knowing the world until the present.

In the context of the “spatial turn” in the humanities and social sciences, interest has shifted towards the history of collective concepts of different global macro-regions as imagined historical and cultural spaces. The concept of a “mental map,” deriving from cognitive psychology, does not represent a clearly defined theory. Footnote 26 The mental maps as a concept “represent the world as it appears to the respective observer. […] It reflects the world as some person believes it to be; it need not be correct. In fact, distortions are highly likely.” Footnote 27 The spatial mental structures contain attributive values and meanings that relate the observer with their experience and encounter equally to their own backgrounds and to the encountered culture. In our volume, this concept lends itself readily to the study of descriptions, observations, and experiences of travels as we ask how individual concepts of Asia as a space were influenced by human assumptions about the self and society. This cultural semiotic process of reflecting and (re)creating our assumptions about the encountered also embraces the multiplicity inherent in this process that allows us to challenge the assumptions of an essentialist or reductionist approach by uncovering regularities instead of rules and exploring patterns and exceptions instead of insisting on prescriptions. We ask how the worldviews emerging from the travel writings are shaped through the encounters that demand a comprehensive inclusion of meaning of the encountered into existing systems of meaning of the observing travellers, and how shared collective representations of an experienced or imagined spatial environment in turn affect processes of cultural group and identity formations.

This volume addresses these inventions of Asian “realities” as documents of self- and other-recognitions. We suggest that in order to fully understand the process of aligning travel perceptions with the cognitive structures, the individual in their encounters and experiences through travel as well as the literary representation of their processed experiences needs to be taken seriously. While travellers expose intentions when they actively bring about cultural encounters and experiences on their travels, their motives and intentions cannot be assumed to match specific single concepts or even ideologies. Lifting the general suspicion of a unity of bourgeois imperial travellers to the East, the volume proposes to reconsider the very forms and motives of encounter with different, far away cultures and societies. Especially through the concept of curiosity that can be framed as less ideological than “Orientalism” and more open to understanding alignments, interferences, and collisions of culturally different expectations and experiences, the volume explores the possibilities of understanding individual practices of constructing Asia beyond a monolithic “Orientalist” suspicion. This however does not prescribe a naïve ignorance of the multiple motives that underlie individual actions. Rather, we propose a problematisation of standard dichotomies, and crucially, to this end we include chapters exploring also intra-Asian curiosities and travels. Specific motives and their ideological foundations must be read as part of the critical analysis of travel writings as historical sources.

3 In Time We Read Space—Continuities and Changes in Representing Asia

Asia is by itself not a unified single natural entity. Footnote 28 It is many. Thus, our concept of Asia is a term of human geography gone through human historical consciousness. This positions our sources, the travel reports, at the crossroads of source criticism between remains of unconscious human reports about their curiosity and conscious human narratives about the legacies and morals of their experiences. In deciphering these two distinct historical dimensions of individual operations in giving meaning to experienced environments, the humanities can first contribute to reading space in time, in an Asia that changes according to the historically bound context of the unconscious and conscious descriptions of a differentiated meso-region. Footnote 29 Further, the volume contributes to reading time in space, in a chronology of travel reports about Asia in which space emerges in different distinctions and subtle nuances as a continuously shifting meso-region with characteristics of subdivision and differentiations.

The assumed perception of superiority of Europeans in terms of civilisation facing Asian modernity loses its dogmatic strength when we look at the diversities of parallel synchronous and asynchronous interpretations of time in and between spaces. In this context, the perception of Asian space and spaces influences the perception of normative times of development and progress—notably more prominent after the seventeenth century. The perception of space and the way in which it is described also relates to the critique of the sources. In the tradition of source categories like the travel report, the education of the objective observing individual gives way increasingly to an observing authentic individual who appropriates reality of encountered spaces through a personal critique and not through an objective categorization of collecting knowledge. This becomes prominent and problematic around 1800. Footnote 30

Travellers were supposed to deliver authentic yet objective information. This preoccupation was already apparent in the Middle Ages, for example in the composition, transmission, and reception of the account of Marco Polo’s travels (1254–1324). Footnote 31 The emergence of an ars apodemica in the West in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and the ethnographic observations in China starting from the Ming dynasty were utilised to turn objective facts into political and administrative knowledge. Footnote 32 While this knowledge–power nexus was to some extent always present, it did not predetermine the categories of observation or the anthropological constant of observing outside of given categories for the sense of curiosity itself—simply to know and to report what was not yet known. This trend to deliver information based on curiosity not channelled merely through the utilisation for power sees peaks in the sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries during the first European Encounters and the Enlightenment. In 1789, the French Anquetil-Duperron could still claim the aim of an educated traveller for the enhancement of the knowledge of humankind.

The true Traveller is someone who loves all humans like brothers and who is insusceptible to pleasures and needs, who stands beyond grandeur and low sentiments, praise and criticism, riches and poverty. Without binding himself to a special place, he rapidly moves throughout the world as an observer of good and evil, without interest in its origin or its motives within a specific nation. If this traveller is knowledgeable, he has a clear judgement and discovers at once what is ridiculous and untrue in a behaviour, a habit, or an opinion.” Footnote 33

The ideal traveller as described here is invented as a cosmopolitan citizen who is knowledgeable and prepared, but also abstracts from his own person and sentiments towards an elevated point of observation without suspending his own critical judgement. The purification of lower sentiments and the rational observation bestow upon the traveller the right of an opinion that is no longer bound to a European context of culture, but the true voice of reason. Most travel reports do not conform with this ideal, yet they mirror and reflect upon important elements of the problem of authenticity and critical reasoning to understand the generation of different types of knowledge about other cultures. Thomas Thornton highlighted in his Ottoman travels in 1809 the vital importance of impartiality, a superiority to prejudice, a sobriety of observation, and a patience of inquiry “which few travellers possess.” Footnote 34

This element of impartiality becomes an ambivalent feature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the tradition of romantic individualism that placed sentiments and experiences before factual accounts. The competition and differentiation between professional explorer and individual tourist gaze became already apparent in the normative evaluation of travellers. Friedrich Ratzel saw this professionalisation in danger when he insisted that the aim should always be to “elevate from a higher form of tourism towards a professionalized scientific travel.” Footnote 35 This rather European or Western shift in observations on Asia has profound repercussions for intra-Asian travel reports as they also shift from factual to normative accounts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ella Maillart when reflecting on her travel through Central Asia in 1935/6 famously captured this. “When I crossed Asia with my friend Peter Fleming, we spoke to no one than each other during many months, and we covered exactly the same ground. Nevertheless my journey differed completely from his.” Footnote 36 Subjective observations multiplied views on Asia, but also opened the doors of entry for ethnocentric and racial hierarchies that attributed civilizational stages in a linear historical process of development to regions in Asia.

This is however not necessarily a process of Western appropriation of Asian spaces only. European and North American travellers increasingly attempt to appropriate Asia as a diversified space on moral grounds and those of racial distinction. But in adopting Western ideas of progress beyond the fiction of a distinction between Western technology and Asian values ( ti yong - 体用), Asian travellers equally applied a linear element of historical progress to characterise the differentiation of Asian spaces and ultimately claims to leadership on Pan-Asian ideas. Footnote 37 The ideological origins of a normative progressive pattern with the West against the West can be traced in the adoption of normative observations on intra-Asian difference by experiencing, conceptualising, and ultimately understanding space through a new conceptualisation of linear and normative progress in time.

4 Curiosity, Knowledge, Identity—Reflections on the Analytical Categories for the Travelling Construction of Asia

The current volume follows a more specific and modest, yet analytically much clearer concept. It focuses on the self-definition of the traveller as they move across Asian human geographies in different epochs to understand the forms of knowledge about the East generated in specific contacts and encounters. Footnote 38 In uncovering the core human desire of meaning-making individuals to seek and to relate to their findings, the volume connects individual traveller experiences from the Middle Ages to the modern vlogs and social media travels. Although the cases picked are mostly featuring elite men in travelling, the volume is cognisant of the still largely unwritten history of women and non-elite men travellers across Asia. Yet, in focusing on male perspectives, the volume presents a more specific interpretation of gendered narratives to argue for nuances beyond the male colonial gaze in the exploration and conceptualisation of Asia. Footnote 39

Among those categories of encounters, contributions will discuss religion and spirituality, governance and legitimacy, practices and symbolism of different forms of mobility, and the question of knowledge as a tool of reasoning, judgement, and power. All contributions will take up the perspectives of the travellers to reflect upon the act of personal observation as source of authenticity and legitimacy to investigate the intricate dialogic relations between the knowledgeable observing subject and the observed object. This changing relationship does not follow a clear-cut chronology, nor easy categorizations of Western and Eastern. At times, Christian and Islamic travellers entering Asia manifest a genuine curiosity, even as they accept civilizational discourses and hierarchies. More importantly, such hierarchies are not necessarily self-referential and self-congratulatory, but rather often based on a concept of civilization that could be shared transculturally. Footnote 40 On the other hand, early modern and modern examples that are also considered in this volume exemplify both Western and intra-Asian (Japanese) narratives that sometimes accompany empire-building efforts and either assume or conceptualise methods for the study of “others.” Even in these cases, instances of scepticism and self-criticism complicate the picture, so that our case studies on the reverberations of curiosity and the testing of self-perception in travel writing truly problematize current dichotomies and a reductive focus on the category of power in the literature on encounters. Such problematization is relevant and challenging also for those who study (and live in) a contemporary world where the tensions and opportunities surrounding the relations between East and West appear more pressing, and where the phenomenon of de-territorialised identity formation across Asia involves both transnational communities and people moving within a nation-state.

The history of travel writing and the historical dimension of Asia’s human geographies are two fields that continue to produce important scholarly works. For instance, recently Boris Stojkovski has carefully collected in two volumes an enjoyable array of essays on travel writing that touch upon themes such as flora and fauna, music and spirituality, from Herodotus to the twenty-first century. Footnote 41 And with regard to intra-Asian encounters, Upinder Singh’s and Parul Pandya Dhar’s book on connections, imperial expansion, and historical networks represents a gem for any reader interested in the flows of ideas, political and cultural patterns across this continent. Footnote 42 Edited volumes have turned out to be the most flexible means also to gather essays at the intersection of these two topics, exploring the history of travel literature specifically treating voyages and encounters across Asia. Footnote 43 And we now have an increasingly clear and varied picture of changing descriptions of Asian social and physical landscapes across time.

Still, the existing literature, even when surveying the intersection between travel accounts and Asian spaces, and even when alternating different chronologies and rationales for the juxtaposition of certain case studies, is lacking in conceptual depth and chronological breath. What ideas are particularly well suited to open windows into the reasoning and emotions behind the written record of travellers moving across Asia? And what continuities can we trace over time and among both non-Asian and intra-Asian travellers? In their book A Century of Travels in China: Critical Essays on Travel Writing from the 1840s to the 1940s , Douglas Kerr and Julia Kuehn combined a narrow chronological focus coinciding with the aftermath of the Opium War with the choice to look only at English-speaking writers. Footnote 44 This undeniably deepens our grasp of preoccupations and agendas of Anglophone travellers during a key century in the history of China, but it also determines much of the tone and many of the conclusions found throughout the volume, which ultimately in many of its essays finds what it seeks: European “othering” and imperialist gazes. Readers interested in longer trends, comparative reflections, and nuanced conclusions remain unsatisfied.

Attempts to stress the openness and curiosity of European travellers to Asia during the Enlightenment have also turned out to be promising but problematic. Through a brilliant and compelling analysis of materials from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, Jürgen Osterhammel has portrayed the Enlightenment as an exceptional period in the history of European encounters with (and representations of) Asian human geographies. Footnote 45 However, in doing so, he has indirectly reinforced the presumption that, before and after this exception, European travel writers were supposedly unable to experience and express similar forms of openness and curiosity. Moreover, we should not assume that civilizational discourses were always proceeding on different, mutually unintelligible tracks. Interestingly, Steve Clark and Paul Smethurst have questioned this assumption by including in their collection of essays studies of Asian authors, but their chronological focus is still quite narrow, while their volume is not regionally focused as it considers also the impact of Asians travelling to the West. Footnote 46 In the present collection of essays, we focus on one global region, Asia, and we aim to broaden the chronological framework—beyond an admittedly important yet uncharacteristic century such as the one following the Opium War, and beyond a period surrounded by an aura of exceptionality such as the Enlightenment.

We also wish to both expand and problematize Gerard Delanty’s suggestion that commonalities and links between East and West are more relevant than apparent dichotomies. Footnote 47 Indeed, to some extent, it is relatively easy to develop comparative analyses that stress apparent similarities, and the study of the experiences and reconstructions of the same Asian landscapes by different Eurasian actors is no exception. Since at least the late medieval period, a basic definition of civilised societies was shared transculturally by the “three eyes”—Christendom, the Islamic world, and China. This common understanding of ordered polities and civilizational traits, in turn, sparked genuine curiosity as well as production of knowledge among European and Asian travellers, both before and after the Enlightenment—which was therefore not exceptional. Footnote 48 Yet, it is crucial to recognise that, besides this shared idea of civilization and shared notions of space and movement, each traveller also articulated unique discourses underpinned by locally rooted meanings, and political, cultural, and/or spiritual identities. The desire to stress commonalities should not blind us to the fact that Christian and Islamic universalisms engendered intellectual and cosmological world-scapes that differed radically from those of China, or to the fact that Columbus had Jerusalem in mind while seeking Asia—something that can only be explained by taking locally rooted identities seriously. Footnote 49 The contributors to our volume are sensitive to this reality, which rules out the option of merely universalising post-modernist categories and probes the terminologies and narratives usually employed in global history. On the one hand, cosmopolitanism has truly been a dimension of the encounters taking place across Asia, underscoring the poverty of reducing human interactions to power structures, or the generation of knowledge about social landscapes to univocally European “othering.” On the other hand, the global turn is not applicable seamlessly across chronologies and should not be a license to only focus on networks and convergences. Permanence(s) gave value to encounters and networks. And underneath the experiences of travellers and the intelligibility of cosmopolitan institutions, there remain local identities, value systems and audiences, which deserve attention if we want to decipher the origins and literary uniqueness of different texts.

The three concepts proposed in this volume—curiosity, identities, knowledge—are flexible enough to shed light on voyages taking place across different chronologies. They also allow our contributors to test the limits of continuities and delve into specific cultural backgrounds that distinguished travel writers, their anxieties, expectations, responses, and motives. Curiosity is intended here as a genuine, persistent interest towards unknown or partly known areas and societies of the Asian continent, expressed in deeds and words by travellers moving to Asia or within it. Other historians studying travel literature about Asia have already toyed with the idea of curiosity, Footnote 50 but they never placed it centre stage in their analysis, maybe to avoid charges of naiveté. Yet, taking curiosity seriously does not imply abandoning a rigorous study of travel accounts: to the contrary, it expands it by acknowledging the role played by emotions and by the expectation of encountering intelligible social institutions and human actions. Besides, genuine curiosity itself contributes to colour our understanding of self-interested and self-conscious authorship, because inquisitiveness—more than often half-baked political agendas—links the author’s frustrations and successes to the readership, assigning value to information about civilised polities and uncharted spaces.

Identity is a fundamental analytical concept to contextualise the experience of the traveller, both when he/she moves and when he/she writes. While it is certainly true that the experience of encounter can challenge and change the identity of the traveller, we should not overlook the multiform ways in which the identity of the traveller can draw unnoticed and apparently counterintuitive networks on a map of Asia—such as in the case of the spiritual networks drawn by the Japanese Otani expeditions and discussed in one of our chapters. Identity determines also the locally rooted value assigned to the intellectual images of spaces and ordering of geographies. For instance, as evidenced in the writings of Ma Huan (c. 1380–1460), by the Ming period Chinese intellectuals were developing a tradition of Sinocentric discourses that categorised Asian societies according to an increasingly self-confident imperial geography. Footnote 51 This tributary worldview was relatively recent, in the long history of Chinese civilization. As reconstructed by Mingming Wang, ethnocentric discourses had emerged during the Song-Yuan period, should be placed within a broader, more varied tradition of Occidentalism, and need to be contextualised in a changing geopolitical and economic landscape where travels to the “Western Ocean” had ceased to be primarily pilgrimages and had become profit- and tribute-seeking. Footnote 52

Finally, travel literature illuminates the modes and channels through which knowledge about Asian spaces, polities and peoples has been produced and disseminated in different contexts and centuries. To be sure, we shall not be blind to the role often played by knowledge in the construction and elaboration of hierarchies and political discourses for the original readership. However, it is also true that knowledge about the vast Asian landscapes across which different civilizations encountered each other could be produced to express human emotions, to crystallise memories, and then disseminated to quench genuine curiosity just as much as to claim an active role in a specific intellectual tradition. Aristotle famously noted that human beings enjoy seeing above all other senses, not merely with the intention to use the absorbed information, but also, simply, seeing for the sake of seeing. Footnote 53 The Italian readers of Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s sixteenth-century collection of travel accounts were the same crowds chasing and interrogating Giovanni da Empoli (1483–1517) upon his return from “the Indies:” they desired to complete the geographic knowledge of the ancients, by harmoniously integrating it with their generation’s voyages to Asia. Footnote 54 These are dimensions of knowledge that can be recovered only when we move away from narratives of naked power structures and instead take curiosity and identity seriously. This is not to say that our volume ignores writings produced in political and military contexts such as British imperialism and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. On the contrary, we aim to offer to readers a more balanced and varied picture of continuities and changes in travel literature on Asia across the centuries.

5 Navigating the Constructions of Asia—The Contributions

The volume opens with two chapters on the history of travel, encounters, and travel writing in Asia during the Mongol period. Claire Taylor invites readers to appreciate the different experiences and emotions lived by two late medieval authors entering Asia from the West: the Franciscan missionary and envoy William of Rubruck and the pilgrim adventurer Ibn Battuta. Their narratives reflect the different circumstances of their voyages, and Taylor’s careful contextualization and nuanced comparison allows us to go beyond apparent divergences and to uncover how geopolitical situations could prompt the two authors to redefine the very notions of space, home, and other, thereby affecting the images of Asia created for Frankish Christian and north-African Islamic audiences. Joseph Benjamin Askew integrates this picture of mobilities across Eurasia during the so-called Pax Mongolica by questioning the extent to which this period favoured trade and by shedding light on the different motivations of an array of travel writers who journeyed across Asia during those centuries. The writers considered by Askew include not only Europeans like the merchant Francesco Balducci Pegolotti and the Franciscan friar Odoric of Pordenone, but also intra-Asian travellers like the Korean official Ch’oe Pu. The overall picture emerging from these opening chapters offers an invaluable introduction to Asia in the Mongol period. Islamic, European and intra-Asian travellers moved across Eurasia for different reasons and with different expectations, sharing at times similar mental attitudes, such as curiosity, but also eventually constructing a human geography profoundly influenced by their identities and by resilient cultural and religious frameworks.

The next two chapters in the volume explore the theme of curiosity in European writings about Asia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Matteo Salonia guides readers through the Asian sections of Antonio Pigafetta’s account of Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition. It is a voyage across the Pacific Ocean and then through vivid descriptions of Asian ceremonies, including friendly banquets, funerary rites, courtly audiences, and sexual practices. Pigafetta is an inquisitive yet also empathetic observer who avoids judgements and captures his audience in a constant invitation to draw their own conclusions. His account is, crucially, also a text saturated with Christian chivalry. Compassion and locally rooted identity therefore coexist, and incidentally the periodization separating medieval and early modern mindsets is yet again found wanting. Georg Schindler’s chapter about European discussions on the dynastic transition between the Ming and the Qing dynasties continues this reflection on curiosity by exploring the responses of Catholic missionaries to political changes in China. Texts by Martini, Schall, and Navarrete are compared to reflect the different agendas and responses of these authors, but also to reflect on the pervasive curiosity about news from China in the European audience. Schindler demonstrates that European Catholic attitudes towards the East were very far from dismissive or uniformly colonial, as these important writers recognised the sophisticated civilization of the Chinese empire and even agreed that the conquering Manchu were not “barbarian.” Moreover, this chapter will be of interest to scholars interested in the opportunity to flesh out political theories and conceptualizations of legitimacy in the international stage from early modern travel literature and ethnography.

That simplistic Saidian narratives are completely confounded by a serious hermeneutical study and a respect for the often conflicting and not seldom self-critical thoughts of individual travel writers—even when one reaches the period of more intense European colonialism—is confirmed by the splendid analysis of Duncan McPherson’s writing, which is offered in Chapter 6 . Here, Ruairidh J. Brown compellingly argues that even in a text that is punctuated by imperialist rhetoric and dichotomies, things are not as simple as they may at first appear. McPherson’s determination to spread what he triumphantly perceived as rational scientific knowledge leads him to label some Chinese traditions as “barbaric,” but also to denounce some British customs as reckless. Dichotomies do not correspond to East vs West, and they instead overlap throughout the text to show the lights of reason and the sufferings brought by passion and irrationality wherever they can be found. China is re-conceptualised according to Enlightenment ideas of progress, becoming a space where human reason struggles to emerge victorious, among Europeans and Asians alike. Such nuanced and fruitful approach to nineteenth-century sources is evident also in Christian Mueller’s chapter on German imperial dreams in the Far East. In the writings of Ferdinand von Richthofen we find a peculiar vision of industrial and commercial progress, where across Eurasia peoples at different civilizational stages would cooperate, and where China in particular is assigned an important role and independent agency. Richthofen’s curiosity, to be sure, is still guided by a clearly Eurocentric understanding of material development, but his images of the East do not correspond to crude racial stereotypes and are actually characterised by a genuine inquisitiveness and a desire to learn more about Asian peoples. This is noticeable especially about nations like Japan, on which Richthofen had very limited knowledge before reaching the East. Taken together, Brown’s and Mueller’s chapters demonstrate how, even during the period of most intense imperial expansion, European travel literature about Asia does not fit broad generalisations. If one trait emerges more clearly, it is the confidence in material progress and human reason applied to science and industry—something that is not perceived as entirely alien to Asian spaces and human geographies.

Continuing the discussion of intra-Asian travel sketched by Joseph Askew for the pre-modern period, Chapters 9 and 10 present two modern case studies. Stephen W. Kohl and Ronald S. Green investigate some of the Ōtani expeditions seeking Buddhist treasures and establishing non-political Tibetan-Japanese connections at the start of the twentieth century. Nagatomi Hirayama writes about Japanese imperialism in Manchuria in the 1930s. Besides expanding the scope of the volume to include a sustained reflection of intra-Asian travel literature, these topics also integrate each other. On the one hand, the Ōtani expeditions so captivatingly reconstructed by Kohl and Green were moved by a genuine interest in discovering archaeological remnants of Buddhism along the Silk Road and in developing spiritual networks and friendly relations between temples across Asian spaces and, significantly, around obstacles posed by political tensions and imperial rivalries. While on the other hand, the Japanese texts presented by Hirayama were part of a Japanese propaganda effort aiming to reimagine entire areas of the Asian continent to spatialize Japanese interests and stabilise a project of intra-Asian colonialism. Therefore, these chapters represent pivotal contributions to the discussion of a wide array of themes, including respectively informal exchange of knowledge through long-distance religious networks and the production of geographic and ethnographic “knowledge” at the service of an expanding, militarised state. Yet taken together they also offer a striking juxtaposition of two alternative geographies: a state-driven one easily seen on political maps of imperial Japan, and a religious one drawing lines of communication and fellowship underneath political borders as well as across time.

Chapter 10 focuses on a specific decade, the 1960s, to illustrate the surprisingly divergent agendas and guided curiosities with which different genres of Western literature approached Asian spaces. Salonia and Mueller do so inviting the reader to juxtapose political and tourism narratives from the 1960s—at times reaching back to travel experiences across China and Central Asia in the 1930s like the influential novel travelogues by André Malraux—with the reportages from China written by the Italian novelist Goffredo Parise. The final chapter by K. Cohen Tan continues the reflection on intra-Asian mobilities by exploring contemporary issues of identity and the inscription of power as they relate to space and migration in China. The importance of the contribution is to consider different forms of travel as mobilities and their influence on the re-articulation of space. This re-articulation of space and curiosity in a very guided and preconfigured way is also part of the rise of modern consumerism and tourism since the 1860s. European perspectives on Asia would highlight and even call for the curiosity of the travellers to correct the Baedekers and Thomas Cook handbooks since the early twentieth century. The claims to provide “independence of travel” to “open the eyes of the tourist to the possibilities of finding something different, something new” suggest a curiosity that is increasingly countered with the clear structure of hierarchically organised knowledge and sights that must be seen. Footnote 55 “To-day the Chinese people are as simple and primitive in their habits and customs as they have been for ages past” is a clear testimony to the shift of curiosity guided towards the consumption of the expected. Footnote 56 This, however, happens in intra-Asian travel reports as much as in Western travel reports on Asia and relates much more to the overarching structure of reading a modernisation concept of time as stages of progress into a differentiated Asian space.

Humboldt ( 1852 , 34). The addition in the quote appeared in Humboldt’s footnote.

Navarrete ( 1853 , 80–82). See already Humboldt ( 1852 , 35–38).

Columbus ( 1969 , 13). See also Parry ( 1981 , 222–223).

Columbus ( 1870 , 2).

Bauerkämper et al. ( 2004 , 9–14), Gebhardt ( 1986 , 97–99), Fernández-Armesto ( 2006 , 1–2).

Kennedy ( 2014 , 5–7), Robinson ( 2014 , 21–22), Tuan ( 1974 , 30, 37).

See e.g. Harbsmeier ( 1982 ), Parry ( 1981 ), Duncan and Gregory ( 1999 ), Hulme and Youngs ( 2002 ), Osterhammel ( 2013 , 139–142), Das and Youngs ( 2019 ), Youngs and Pettinger ( 2020 ). For Asia see in particular Strassberg ( 1994 ), Tuan ( 1974 , 30–38), Hostetler ( 2001 ), Hargett ( 2018 ).

Osterhammel ( 1998 ), Schlögel ( 2005 ), Döring and Thielmann ( 2008 ). See the new publications in Bavaj et al. ( 2022 ), esp. Bavaj ( 2022 , 1–5, 9–17).

On curiosity see: Blumberg ( 1983 , 229–444), Parry ( 1981 , 42–47) Gebhardt ( 1986 , 97–113), Stagl ( 1995 , 1–12), Ball ( 2013 , 2, 16, 98), Osterhammel ( 2013 , 27–29; 2018 , x), Pennock ( 2019 , 1–31), Gustafsson Chorell ( 2021 , 242–248).

Maczak and Teuteberg ( 1982 ), Bauerkämper et al. ( 2004 ).

See e.g. Bauerkämper et al. ( 2004 , 9–31).

Tuan ( 1974 ), Hostetler ( 2001 ), and Hargett ( 2018 ) address the relative lack of research on travel, knowledge, ethnocentrism, and power in Asia (China in particular) but also do not attempt to connect this insight with a more inclusive reflection on travel writings as a source of space and identity construction in encountering non-Asian actors. Wang ( 2014 ) has provided an insightful perspective on China’s anthropological and cosmological views of East and West, stressing how the concept of Orientalism in the tradition of Said diminishes China’s rich intellectual history and denies its own agency and “world-scapes” (Wang 2014 , 7–17).

Blumberg ( 1983 , 235–236), Gebhardt ( 1986 , 97–102), Wang ( 2014 , 12), Osterhammel ( 2018 , x).

Osterhammel ( 2013 , 400–405; 2018 , x), Hostetler ( 2001 , xvii), Reinhard ( 2015 , 4–8).

See Tuan ( 1974 , 37), Strassberg ( 1994 , passim), Hostetler ( 2001 , xvii, 21), Wang ( 2014 , 12–16 and passim), Hargett ( 2018 , 13).

Tuan ( 1974 , 36–38), Wang ( 2014 , 13–17).

Tuan ( 1974 , 30–37), Rubiés ( 2002 , 243, 250–251), Wang ( 2014 , 1–17, 179–211, and passim).

Said ( 1978 , passim), Said ( 1994 , xviii-xix, 58), Bhabha ( 1983 , 24–27).

Said ( 1978 , 58–9, 117 (Quote)), Said ( 1994 , 58–59). Few sources in the nineteenth century are so explicit and audacious as Sven Hedin in his Autobiography published in 1925: “When I reached home, in the spring of 1891, I felt like the conqueror of an immense territory; for I had traversed Caucasia, Mesopotamia, Persia, Russian Turkestan, and Bokhara, and had penetrated into Chinese Turkestan. I therefore felt confident that I could strike a fresh blow, and conquer all Asia, from west to east.” Hedin ( 2003 , 80).

Bhabha ( 1983 , 25).

Bhabha ( 1983 , 24–26).

Paradigmatic are the contributions on travel writing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. See e.g. Pratt ( 2008 ). Osterhammel discusses this critically in the different editions of his book Unfabling the East . Osterhammel ( 2013 ), Nachwort; Osterhammel ( 2018 , x–xii), and the discussions on “pre-colonialism” and Global Middle Ages: Phillips ( 2014 , 2016 ).

Humboldt ( 1824 , 208, 215).

Harley ( 1988 ).

The most significant example here would be the first debate on human rights, in the sixteenth-century Spanish Empire. Hanke ( 1949 ), Schuster ( 1966 ), Clayton ( 2009 ), Fitzmaurice ( 2014 , 33–51), Sison and Redín ( 2021 ). But cases of self-criticism among European travel writers are widespread beyond the great Spanish debate. See for example Salonia ( 2021 ) and several of the contributions in this volume, including Ruairidh Brown’s and Christian Mueller’s chapters. For a broader discussion of rights’ discourses in the Western tradition, see Tierney ( 2004 ).

Gould and White ( 1974 ), Schenk ( 2013 ), Osterhammel ( 2015 , 86–94). See also Osterhammel ( 1998 ).

Gould and White ( 1974 , 6).

Koselleck ( 2018 , 28).

The practices of travellers offers us individual windows into analysing spatial differentiation across time through different imagined perceptions of Asia. The individual analyses also comprise detailed understandings of Asian spaces that emerge at the same time in front of the observing and curious travellers. They show imagined times of development among and across cultures as a synchronous development towards a prescribed normative development of civilization or as an independent emergence of comparable and compatible systems of values and societal rules. The exploration of asynchronous developments and their perceptions as well as the tolerance of ambiguity towards synchronous developments of social and cultural forms that are comparable is part of the programme to take serious the views of our observing protagonists in their curious descriptions and conceptualisations of Asia in its variety and diversity.

Osterhammel ( 2018 , ix–x, 400–404).

Busi ( 2018 ).

Gebhardt ( 1986 , 98–100), Stagl ( 1995 , 51–55), Hostetler ( 2001 ). See for an early modern example Bauch ( 1712 ).

Anquetil-Duperron ( 1789 , V). See also Osterhammel ( 2013 , 146–147).

Thornton ( 1809 , I, 3).

Ratzel ( 1884 , 154).

Maillairt ( 1951 , 5). Her writings convey this focus on the relationship between travel and the exploration of the self: “[Travelling to escape] cannot be done since one travels with one’s mind. It is always one’s self on finds at the end of the journey.” See also Maillart ( 1936/2009 ), Forsdick ( 2009 ) and Mulligan ( 2008 ).

Carrier ( 1995 , 3).

See among others Foltz ( 2010 , 19–20), Mills ( 1991 ), Smith ( 2001 ), Wang ( 2013 ).

Our attempt follows the nuanced approach found in Rubiés ( 2000 ). For a beautiful discussion of a shared, cross-cultural concept of civilization in Latin Christian, Muslim, and Chinese travel writings, starting from the example of the late medieval proverb of the “three eyes of the world,” see Rubiés ( 2009 , 37–112).

Stojkovski ( 2020 ). An important, more theoretical volume on this historical field is Hulme ( 2002 ).

Singh and Dhar ( 2014 ).

This is not to say that there are no important monographs in this field, best exemplified by Emma Teng’s fascinating work on Chinese colonial representations of Taiwan (Teng 2004 ).

Kerr and Kuehn ( 2007 ).

Osterhammel ( 2018 ).

Clark and Smethurst ( 2008 ).

Delanty ( 2006 ).

Rubiés ( 2009 ).

On Columbus’s cosmology and motives, see Delaney ( 2011 ).

See for instance Paolo Chiesa’s essay in Odoric of Pordenone ( 2002 , especially 42–43).

Ma Huan ( 2019 ), for instance in his evaluation of the countries around China on 11–13. On the emergence of the idea of Asia among Chinese intellectuals, see Xiangyuan ( 2021 ).

Wang ( 2014 , 200–211).

Lear ( 1988 , 1–2).

On Ramusio see the reflections in Small ( 2012 ). On Giovanni da Empoli see Salonia ( 2019 , 2021 ).

Baedeker ( 1914 , iv–v), Cook ( 1924 , Introduction, n.p.).

Cook ( 1924 , Introduction, n.p.).

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Mueller, C., Salonia, M. (2022). Introduction: Curiosity, Identities, and Knowledge in Travel Writings on Asia. In: Mueller, C., Salonia, M. (eds) Travel Writings on Asia. Palgrave Series in Asia and Pacific Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0124-9_1

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Mastering the Art of Travel Writing: Tips for Students

D o you love writing and traveling? Do you dream about seeing the world and discovering hidden gems in every country you go to? Then you might have considered becoming a travel writer. Even though this is one of the dream jobs many students have, it comes with challenges too. Mastering the art of travel writing is not hard, but you have to put in a lot of dedication, effort, and time. This is a captivating genre that allows you to share your experiences, observations, and adventures from your journey. Writing about travel is what you, as a student, might aspire to.

So, you are probably looking for some tips and tricks on how to get started. What is travel writing? Are there more types of travel writing? Learn more about some travel writing tips that can enhance your craft and help you create engaging stories. While some spots can inspire you to write fascinating posts, you can take matters into your own hands and improve your skill.

Immerse Yourself in Traveling

Well, you cannot be a travel writer if you are not traveling. This is why it is essential to travel extensively. Explore distinct places , cultures, and landscapes. Get to know the locals, talk with them and find out more about the local traditions and social norms. Every country is different from another one. And even though some beliefs or lifestyles might be similar, there are so many things that tell them apart. And you can learn more about this by traveling and talking with locals too.

However, as a student, you have academic responsibilities too. Getting an education in school is not only about attending classes or what notes you take during teaching but about writing essays and assignments too. And traveling around the world is time-consuming, which might make you fall behind your deadlines. Thankfully, there are essay writers for hire, essay writers that are skilled and professional and can help you complete your assignments. Getting some much-needed help will help you follow your passion and travel around the world. This way, you will gather experiences you can write about.

Maintain a Travel Journal

To write a travel short story or an article for your blog, you need to travel. But you also need to observe the peculiarities of every place you go to. You may not have time every day to write an article, but there is a solution. You could maintain a travel journal. Have it with you everywhere you go.

Write down your thoughts, impressions, and experiences while they are still fresh in your mind. This way, you make sure you do not forget anything worth mentioning. When you will sit down and write your articles later, this journal will be an invaluable resource.

Take Photos

If you want to become a travel writer, you have to write, of course. But photos can add more value to your travel stories or articles. So, whenever you can, aim to capture high-quality photos . Learn more about the art of photography to complement your words with images.

Read Widely

Besides practicing the art of writing more and traveling around the world, you could hone these skills by reading too. It is known that reading helps you expand your vocabulary as you learn new words that will help you convey the message effectively.

But, reading what other travel writers have published will help you learn more about writing techniques. How do they tell a story? How do they hook you and capture your attention? Reading widely does not mean that you will end up copying others. It just serves as a source of inspiration that will help you develop your unique voice.

Honesty and Authenticity

Many students who are aspiring to become travel writers think that they only have to share positive experiences from their travels. Indeed, when you discover new places and cultures, everything you see might be through some pink lens.

However, readers appreciate honesty and authenticity. So, help them see your experience through your eyes. Do not be afraid to share the parts of the trip that were not as pleasant. This will help them have a clear idea of what to expect from specific places. They are looking for genuine insights.

What to Keep in Mind?

Writing about traveling and trips around the world is an art. To excel in this craft, not only do you need to improve your writing skills, but also gain as much traveling experience as you can. For those who might not have the time or expertise, there are paper writers for hire who specialize in travel content. However, do not forget that travel writing is a journey in itself. Embrace the process, keep practicing, and let your passion for exploration and storytelling shine through your words.

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COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19

• Cabinet Office

Updated 6 May 2022

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-living-with-covid-19/covid-19-response-living-with-covid-19

1. Introduction

The Government’s aim throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has been to protect the lives and livelihoods of citizens across the United Kingdom (UK). This document sets out how the Government has and will continue to protect and support citizens by: enabling society and the economy to open up more quickly than many comparable countries; using vaccines; and supporting the National Health Service ( NHS ) and social care sector. It also sets out how England will move into a new phase of managing COVID-19. The Devolved Administrations will each set out how they will manage this transition in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The global pandemic is not yet over and the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies ( SAGE ) is clear there is considerable uncertainty about the path that the pandemic will now take in the UK. [footnote 1] This document therefore also sets out how the Government will ensure resilience, maintaining contingency capabilities to deal with a range of possible scenarios.

COVID-19 response: Roadmap to the present day

Vaccines have enabled the gradual and safe removal of restrictions on everyday life over the past year, and will remain at the heart of the Government’s approach to living with the virus in the future. The Government and the NHS , with the help of volunteers, has delivered one of the largest vaccination programmes in history.

Figure 1: Vaccines: UK Cumulative vaccinations [footnote 2]

Area chart of the percentage of the UK population aged 12+ who have received first doses, second doses and booster doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. On the 14 of September 2021, 84% of the population had had a first dose, 77% had had a second dose, and the booster programme had not yet started. On 16 February 2022, this had increased to 91% of the over 12 population who had received a first dose, 85% who had received a second dose and 66% who had received a booster dose.

The speed of the vaccine rollout put the UK in a strong position. The UK was the first country in the world to authorise and deploy the Pfizer and Oxford / AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines. [footnote 3] The UK was the first major European economy and first G20 member to vaccinate 50% of its population with at least one dose, [footnote 4] and to provide boosters to 50% of the population. [footnote 5] Moreover, on JCVI advice, the UK prioritised those at highest risk from COVID-19 for vaccination early in the roll-out. Although other countries now exceed the UK’s proportion of the total population vaccinated, the speed and highly targeted nature of the vaccination programme had a direct impact on the Government’s ability to open up the economy and ease social restrictions sooner than other comparator countries, without placing the NHS under unsustainable pressure.

As a result of the vaccine rollout, the Government was able to ease restrictions in England through the first half of 2021 - following the plan set out in the Roadmap in the Government’s ‘COVID-19 Response: Spring 2021’ publication. [footnote 6] The nationwide lockdown introduced in January 2021 was lifted in four steps, with decisions to progress based on data not dates. Each step was taken at least five weeks apart, allowing time to assess the impact of the previous step against four key tests before taking the next step.

On 19 July 2021, the Government removed most restrictions in England at step 4 of the Roadmap and, in doing so, opened up earlier than many other comparable countries. The Government made a deliberate choice to do so at this point as it coincided with the end of the school term and meant that restrictions were removed over the summer period when more activities take place outdoors and there is less pressure on the NHS .

In September 2021 the Government published its ‘COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan’, setting out a comprehensive plan for managing the virus over the colder months. [footnote 7] Plan A for England relied on booster vaccinations, testing and isolation, guidance on safer behaviours and measures at the border. The publication also outlined a Plan B which could be deployed later in the winter if the situation deteriorated. The measures in Plan B – mandatory face coverings, working from home guidance and COVID-19 certification – were designed to reduce transmission while minimising economic and social impacts.

From September to November 2021, the Government:

• a. Extended the vaccine programme to children aged between 12 and 15 and started the booster campaign for those 50 and over and in high risk groups;
• b. Maintained a lower level of restrictions than most European comparator countries; and
• c. Managed relatively high levels of Delta infections without placing the NHS at risk of unsustainable pressures.

On 24 November, scientists in South Africa reported a new variant with troubling yet uncertain characteristics to the World Health Organization ( WHO ). This was subsequently named the Omicron variant. [footnote 8] The UK was one of the first countries to respond, initially through travel restrictions, then through accelerating and extending the COVID-19 vaccine booster campaign. The Government was in a position to implement Plan B measures in England at short notice as a result of the plans developed for managing the virus over the autumn and winter period.

Although the Omicron variant drove prevalence of the virus to an unprecedented high, adherence to Plan B, wider behaviour change and large-scale testing appeared to slow the growth sufficiently to buy time for the extended booster campaign. This trend was improved by high and sustained vaccine-induced protection in the population against severe disease, and a decrease in severity found in the Omicron variant, which meant that hospitalisation rates remained lower than in previous waves. In particular, the proportion of patients being admitted to intensive care and requiring mechanical ventilation remained lower, with rates declining even when prevalence had increased. [footnote 9] This was in part also due to better clinical understanding of the disease.

During this period, the public continued to show willingness to get vaccinated and boosted, to test and self-isolate if they had symptoms or tested positive, and to follow behaviours and actions that limit methods of transmission.

The people of the UK also owe much to the NHS and its brilliant staff - as well as to providers and staff in adult social care - who throughout the pandemic have drawn deeply on their professionalism, skills and training to do their very best for patients and care recipients. This includes hugely ramping up the booster campaign last winter in response to the Omicron variant. This response played a key role in avoiding the kind of stringent restrictions seen in other countries this winter. Against this backdrop, the Government reverted to Plan A on 27 January, maintaining England as one of the most open countries in Europe.

COVID-19: Future outlook

There are a range of possible futures for the course of the pandemic. SAGE has recently considered four scenarios describing plausible outcomes, though these are not predictions. [footnote 10] All scenarios assume that a more stable position will eventually be reached over several years. In the ‘reasonable best case’ there may be a comparatively small resurgence in infections during autumn/winter 2022-23, and in the ‘reasonable worst case’ a very large wave of infections with increased levels of severe disease. The ‘optimistic central’ and ‘pessimistic central’ scenarios are considered the most likely.

The emergence of new variants will be a significant factor in determining the future path of the virus. New variants of COVID-19 will continue to emerge. [footnote 11] This could include variants that render vaccines less effective, are resistant to antivirals, or cause more severe disease. [footnote 12] The pathway to greater stability will also be affected by the use of vaccination and available treatments.

The term ‘endemic’ is sometimes used to denote when a more steady or more predictable state has been reached but it does not mean that a virus will necessarily circulate at low levels or that outbreaks cannot or will not occur. Given the uncertainty, the Government will need to continue to monitor how COVID-19 is behaving and be ready to respond to resurgences and new variants.

Once COVID-19 becomes endemic it should be possible to respond to the virus in a similar way to other existing respiratory illnesses, through sustainable public health measures. The transition to an endemic state will be highly dynamic and affected by the international situation. It will occur at different times globally due to differences in the spread of the disease and access to vaccines.

The Government expects that the population’s defences against new variants will continue to strengthen as immunity increases through advances in vaccine technology and repeated exposure to the virus. As with other human coronaviruses, children will very likely be exposed to COVID-19 during their childhood and future generations are likely to become progressively more protected by the combination of vaccination and infection.

Studying other infectious diseases can offer insights into the future of COVID-19, though comparisons are imperfect. While a different disease to COVID-19, the most common comparison is to influenza. Both viruses can result in severe illness and complications and are thought to spread in similar ways. The virus that causes COVID-19 is far more contagious and can cause more serious illness, even in otherwise healthy people. Influenza is managed through ongoing surveillance, annual vaccination and annual public messaging, including campaigns to increase vaccine uptake and the ‘Catch it, Bin it, Kill it’ campaign to reduce transmission from coughs and sneezes. Influenza still produces regular winter epidemics, causing pressure on the NHS every winter. The interaction of future COVID-19 waves with other respiratory infections, like influenza, will be important to monitor. Co- or sequential circulation could lead to an increased or longer period of pressure on healthcare services.

Over time, though hard to predict, it is likely that COVID-19 will become a predominantly winter seasonal illness with some years seeing larger levels of infection than others. This may take several years to occur and waves of infection may occur during winter or at other times in the year.

COVID-19: Future response

The Government’s objective in the next phase of the COVID-19 response is to enable the country to manage COVID-19 like other respiratory illnesses, while minimising mortality and retaining the ability to respond if a new variant emerges with more dangerous properties than the Omicron variant, or during periods of waning immunity, that could again threaten to place the NHS under unsustainable pressure.

To meet this objective, the Government will structure its ongoing response around four principles:

• a. Living with COVID-19: removing domestic restrictions while encouraging safer behaviours through public health advice, in common with longstanding ways of managing most other respiratory illnesses;
• b. Protecting people most vulnerable to COVID-19: vaccination guided by Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation ( JCVI ) advice, and deploying targeted testing;
• c. Maintaining resilience: ongoing surveillance, contingency planning and the ability to reintroduce key capabilities such as mass vaccination and testing in an emergency; and
• d. Securing innovations and opportunities from the COVID-19 response, including investment in life sciences.

Vaccines underpin all of these principles and form the basis of the Government’s strategy for living with COVID-19. Effective vaccines have allowed the economy and society to reopen and the country’s ability to live with the virus in the future will continue to depend on deeper and broader population immunity conferred by vaccines and infections. In line with this:

• a. The Government will continue to be guided by JCVI advice on deploying vaccinations. This includes the recent decision to offer vaccination to all 5-11 year olds later in the spring. Subject to JCVI advice, further vaccinations (boosters) may be recommended for people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 this autumn and, ahead of that, a spring booster for groups JCVI consider to be at particularly high risk.
• b. To enable any further vaccination programme, if necessary, the Government has procured enough doses of vaccine to anticipate a wide range of possible JCVI recommendations. The UK’s procurement approach will continue to consider a range of long term contingency plans to ensure adequate protection is always available for those who need it and to respond quickly in an emergency.
• c. The Government has secured contracts with vaccine manufacturers that secure UK access to the most up-to-date vaccines - including protection against emerging variants. The UK remains an attractive destination for life sciences investment, and the Government is committed to supporting UK resilience for future pandemics, by considering how to support research, development and manufacturing capability.
• d. The Government will help build global resilience to COVID-19 by meeting its commitment to donate 100 million vaccine doses by June 2022 and by continuing to support the ACT Accelerator. The Government is also working domestically and with the G7, G20, and international partners to reduce the impact of future pandemics through the 100 Days Mission. [footnote 13]

Work is underway across the health and care system to consider how vaccines will be procured, prioritised and deployed in the future. The Government’s aim is to capture the best learning from the pandemic response.

2. COVID-19: Data and impacts

Vaccination, infection and hospitalisation rates.

Booster doses of a COVID-19 vaccine provide good protection against severe disease and hospitalisation for the Omicron variant. Following two doses of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines, a Pfizer booster initially gives around 90% protection against hospitalisation, though this effect wanes over time. [footnote 14] Similarly, a Moderna booster gives 90 to 95% protection against hospitalisation up to 9 weeks after vaccination. [footnote 15]

Vaccine uptake

In England, over 65% of all those aged 12 and over have received a booster, increasing to 66% across the UK. [footnote 16] [footnote 17] Vaccination rates are even higher among those most vulnerable to COVID-19 - who were prioritised for vaccination - and in England, over 93% of those aged 70 and over have received a booster. [footnote 18]

Figure 2: UK population COVID-19 vaccine coverage, by dose, of those aged 12 and over as of 16 February 2022 [footnote 19]

Pie chart showing the percentage share of the population over 12 years old who are unvaccinated or received one, only two or three doses of a COVID-19 vaccination. As of 16 February 2022, 9% of the over 12 population were unvaccinated, 6% had received only one dose, 19% had received only two doses and 66% had received a booster dose.

Since the start of September 2021 over 1.5 million adults over the age of 18 in England have come forward for a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, long after receiving an initial offer. [footnote 20] As a result, the percentage of the population aged over 18 in England who have received at least one dose has increased from 88 to 92%. [footnote 21] However, over 3.4 million people in England aged 18 and older remain unvaccinated. [footnote 22]

Whilst vaccine uptake has increased across many groups, it remains considerably lower amongst certain communities. The UK Health Security Agency ( UKHSA ) data show booster uptake was lowest amongst Black and Pakistani adults (below 35%). [footnote 23] Data also shows that adults living in the most deprived areas of England also had lower booster uptake (53%) than those living in the least deprived areas (84%). [footnote 24] Analysis also shows that disparities in vaccine uptake are also present in younger age groups: only 39% of 18 to 24 year olds in England have received a booster dose, much lower than for older age groups. [footnote 25]

The proportion of 12 to 15 year olds who have received at least one dose of vaccine is lowest in Gypsy/Roma, Traveller Irish, Black Caribbean and Black African groups (all below 30%), with a 63 percentage point difference between the most and least vaccinated ethnic groups. [footnote 26] There is also large variation in vaccine coverage by deprivation in 12 to 15 year olds. In the least deprived areas in England 70% of this age group have received at least one dose, compared to 36% in the most deprived. [footnote 27]

Overall, the accumulation of immunity, as well as the use of effective treatments, means the link between COVID-19 infections and progression to severe disease is substantially weaker than in earlier phases of the pandemic. Patients in hospital per 100 infections have remained low over the last six months, with less than 1 hospitalisation per 100 infections compared to above 4 per 100 infections during the Alpha variant peak. [footnote 28] [footnote 29] Lower hospitalisation is partly due to improved treatments but also in part attributable to the lowered virulence of the Omicron variant.

Figure 3: UK: Patients in hospital with COVID-19 per 100 infections using ONS COVID-19 Infection Survey estimates [footnote 30] [footnote 31]

Line chart of the ratio of patients in hospital per infection. In early 2021 there were nearly 5 patients for every 100 infections, this has dropped to less than 0.5.

The ratio is lagged by 8 days (the difference in the peak infections to peak admissions), reflecting the estimated number of infections that occurred 8 days ago that went on to be admitted to hospital on a given date.

Reporting on COVID-19

As testing reduces and the Government’s approach to managing COVID-19 further evolves, UKHSA will keep the content and frequency of reporting on COVID-19 under close review - including the Gov.uk Dashboard - to ensure that statistics are being produced with the appropriate level of quality and transparency, and remain useful and relevant as per the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Impact of COVID-19 response to date on the economy and society

Since March 2020, to reduce transmission, protect the NHS from unsustainable pressure and to reduce mortality, the Government has had to introduce stringent measures by restricting social and economic activity.

The measures introduced were necessary because COVID-19 was a new disease to which the population had no immunity, and for which there was no readily available treatment. However, the measures introduced had extraordinarily high social and economic costs with unprecedented impacts on individuals and families, public services and private businesses.

In particular, the health and education sectors have been significantly affected, as well as the provision of other public services such as the court system. The pandemic has also caused a period of unparalleled global economic uncertainty. Restrictions to control the virus - including social distancing, business closures and reduced international travel - on top of voluntary behaviour change, had significant economic costs, and disrupted the delivery of critical private and public sector services.

Impacts on health, education and public services

During the pandemic, over 720,000 patients have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19, [footnote 32] and over 160,000 people have now died within 28 days of a positive test in the UK. [footnote 33] Caring for this number of patients has restricted the ability of the NHS to provide other types of care. As a result the NHS elective backlog has reached a record high and waiting times for ambulances and emergency care have substantially increased.

The provision of other public services has also been significantly affected. The court backlog increased substantially during the pandemic [footnote 34] and restricting face-to-face education has had significant adverse impacts on children and young people’s learning, development and mental health. Pupils and students from disadvantaged backgrounds experienced greater losses in learning than their more affluent peers as a result of the pandemic. [footnote 35] There is clear evidence that time out of education can be detrimental to children and young people’s future prospects and earning potential, with implications also for long-term productivity.

Mental health and well-being have also been negatively impacted. Self-reported measures of personal well-being dropped to record lows during the first and second waves, with some groups experiencing particularly poor or deteriorating mental health - including women, young people, disabled people, those in deprived neighbourhoods, certain ethnic minority groups and those who experienced local lockdowns. [footnote 36] There was a marked increase in the number of under 18s referred to specialist care for issues such as self-harm and eating disorders in 2021. [footnote 37] Reports of domestic abuse increased during lockdown periods. [footnote 38]

Impacts on the economy

The pandemic and associated non-pharmaceutical interventions ( NPIs ) created significant economic disruption and drove the largest recession on record, with the UK economy contracting by 9.4% in 2020. [footnote 39]

As experience allowed for improved understanding of the impact of restrictions, businesses, consumers and the Government adapted. For example, the Government was able to deploy more targeted interventions. Compared to pre-pandemic levels (February 2020), output was 25% lower during the first lockdown (April 2020), and 7% lower in November 2020, coinciding with much of the second lockdown and 8% lower at the height of the third lockdown (January 2021). [footnote 40]

The Government took unprecedented steps to support the economy through the pandemic. The Government has provided around £400 billion of direct support for the economy through the pandemic to date. [footnote 41] This has helped to safeguard jobs and businesses in every region and nation of the UK, and underpinned the faster than expected economic bounce back that occurred when restrictions were lifted. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme succeeded in supporting 11.7 million jobs and 1.3 million employers across the UK and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme supported nearly 3 million self-employed individuals. [footnote 42]

As restrictions were lifted in 2021, supported by the vaccine rollout, consumer activity increased, driving recovery across the economy. As uncertainty declined, business confidence and investment also began to recover. 2021 saw faster than anticipated growth, with the economy regaining its pre-pandemic size in November 2021. [footnote 43] The emergence of the Omicron variant, workforce absences from illness and isolation, and Plan B measures in England impacted economic activity in recent months, with GDP falling 0.2% in December 2021. [footnote 44]

Workforce absences due to illness and self-isolation have weighed on economic growth in periods of particularly high prevalence during the Delta and Omicron waves. Workforce absences disproportionately impacted those less able to work from home, who were more likely to be young, on lower incomes, or from certain ethnic minority groups. [footnote 45] Changes to self-isolation policy helped to mitigate these impacts while accepting a higher risk of transmission.

Government action has supported a strong recovery in the labour market. The number of payrolled employees in January 2022 was 436,000 above February 2020 levels. [footnote 46] Vacancies remained at a record level in the 3 months to January 2022, standing at 1.3 million. [footnote 47]

Following the easing of restrictions in summer 2021, supply pressures due to COVID-19 have acted as a constraint on output in many countries including the UK. This has been a result of: restrictions on people’s ability to work; factory closures globally; and elevated consumer demand for goods. While supply pressures remain acute, there are some initial signs of easing with shipping costs falling from October 2021. However, the possibility of further outbreaks internationally and different approaches to COVID-19 taken by different countries could present further risks to the UK economy.

3. Living with COVID-19

The past 2 years have seen many necessary restrictions imposed on everyday life to manage COVID-19, but these have come with a huge toll on wellbeing and economic output. Scientists (including virologists, epidemiologists, clinicians, and many others) and the Government now understand more about COVID-19, how it behaves and how it can be treated. As the virus continues to evolve, it will be important to continue to add to this understanding.

Living with and managing the virus will mean maintaining the population’s wall of protection and communicating safer behaviours that the public can follow to manage risk. The Government will move away from deploying regulations and requirements in England and replace specific interventions for COVID-19 with public health measures and guidance.

The Government is able to take this step now because of the success of the vaccination programme, and the suite of pharmaceutical tools the NHS can deploy to treat people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19 and the most severely ill (see chapter 4). The Government can only take these steps because it will retain contingency capabilities and will respond as necessary to further resurgences or worse variants of the virus (see chapter 5).

Removing the last domestic restrictions

The Government will remove remaining domestic restrictions in England, subject to appropriate parliamentary scrutiny.

From 24 February, the Government will:

• a. Remove the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test. Adults and children who test positive will continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people. After 5 days, they may choose to take a Lateral Flow Device ( LFD ) followed by another the next day - if both are negative, and they do not have a temperature, they can safely return to their normal routine. Those who test positive should avoid contact with anyone in an at risk group, including if they live in the same household. There will be specific guidance for staff in particularly vulnerable services, such as adult social care, healthcare, and prisons and places of detention.
• b. No longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those under the age of 18 to test daily for 7 days, and remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate. Guidance will set out the precautions that those who live in the same household as someone who has COVID-19, or who have stayed overnight in the same household, are advised to take to reduce risk to other people. Other contacts of people with COVID-19 will be advised to take extra care in following general guidance for the public on safer behaviours.
• c. End self-isolation support payments and national funding for practical support. The medicine delivery service will no longer be available. People who were instructed to self-isolate before this date will still be able to claim support payments within the next 42 days.
• d. Revoke The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 3) Regulations. Local authorities will continue to manage local outbreaks of COVID-19 in high risk settings as they do with other infectious diseases.

From 24 March, the COVID-19 provisions within Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations will end. People with COVID-19 may still be eligible, subject to the normal conditions of entitlement.

From 1 April, the Government will update guidance setting out the ongoing steps that people with COVID-19 should take to minimise contact with other people. This will align with the changes to testing set out later in this chapter.

Testing, tracing and certification

Testing and tracing have been important throughout the response to COVID-19. The Government’s provision of LFDs enabled people to take a test before meeting family, friends and colleagues, allowing them to protect themselves and others, and breaking chains of transmission. This was particularly important during the period of exceptionally high prevalence driven by the Omicron variant towards the end of 2021. Access to LFDs also enabled contacts of positive cases to test daily in lieu of isolation, reducing the workforce impacts of isolation while identifying positive cases.

However, the Government’s free provision of testing at scale has come at a very significant cost to the taxpayer during the pandemic response. The Testing, Tracing and Isolation ( TTI ) budget in the financial year 2020-21 exceeded that of the Home Office, and the programme cost £15.7 billion in the financial year 2021-22. This level of spending was necessary due to the severe risk posed by COVID-19 when the population did not have a high level of protection.

The population now has much stronger protection against COVID-19 than at any other point in the pandemic, due to the vaccination programme, natural immunity, access to antivirals, and increased scientific and public understanding about how to manage risk. For this reason, the Government now assesses that it is time to transition to focus its COVID-19 response towards guidance, while targeting protection on individuals who are most at risk from the virus. Government spending on COVID-19 will reduce significantly in line with this change.

As immunity levels are high, testing and isolation will play a less important role in preventing serious illness. Some changes to testing have already begun. In January, the recommendation for a confirmatory polymerase chain reaction ( PCR ) test following a positive LFD was changed, and the testing regime in adult social care was also changed to a LFD regime.

The Government will implement further changes to the availability of testing in the coming months.

From 21 February, the Government is removing the guidance for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing.

From 1 April, the Government will no longer provide free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public in England.

Over 2 billion lateral flow tests have been provided across the UK since 2020. UKHSA continues to have good stock levels and will manage these to provide flexibility in future. Ahead of the end of free universal testing in England, it will be necessary for UKHSA to cap the number of tests distributed each day to manage demand. Given that advice to test has and continues to reduce, the Government urges people only to order what they need.

The Government will help enable COVID-19 tests to be made available for those who wish to purchase them through the private market. Private markets are established in many European countries - including France, Germany, Italy and Spain - and the United States of America. The Government is working with retailers and pharmacies to help establish the private market in testing.

From 1 April, there will be some limited ongoing free testing:

• a. Limited symptomatic testing available for a small number of at-risk groups - the Government will set out further details on which groups will be eligible.
• b. Free symptomatic testing will remain available to social care staff

Contact tracing

From 24 February, routine contact tracing will end. Contacts will no longer be required to self-isolate or advised to take daily tests. Instead, guidance will set out precautions that contacts can take to reduce risk to themselves and other people - and those testing positive for COVID-19 will be encouraged to inform their close contacts so that they can follow that guidance.

Local health teams continue to use contact tracing and provide context-specific advice where they assess this to be necessary as part of their role in managing infectious diseases.

COVID-status certification

From 1 April, the Government will remove the current guidance on domestic voluntary COVID-status certification and will no longer recommend that certain venues use the NHS COVID Pass. The NHS COVID Pass will remain available within the NHS App for a limited period, to support the use of certification in other parts of the UK. The NHS App will continue to allow individuals access to their vaccination status for international travel, as well as their recovery status for travel to those overseas destinations that recognise it.

Safer behaviours

Throughout the pandemic, Government advice and information has been informed by the best scientific evidence available from health agencies, academics, and experts. [footnote 48]

People will continue to be advised that there are safer behaviours they can adopt to reduce the risk of infection. Precautions remain particularly important to those who are at higher risk if they catch COVID-19, although due to advances in vaccination and therapeutics, this group is now better protected. The majority of people previously considered clinically extremely vulnerable are now advised to follow the same general guidance as everyone else as a result of the protection they have received from vaccination.

Individuals can still reduce the risk of catching and passing on COVID-19 by:

• a. Getting vaccinated;
• b. Letting fresh air in if meeting indoors, or meeting outside;
• c. Wearing a face covering in crowded and enclosed spaces, especially where you come into contact with people you do not usually meet, when rates of transmission are high;
• d. Trying to stay at home if you are unwell;
• e. Taking a test if you have COVID-19 symptoms, and staying at home and avoiding contact with other people if you test positive; and
• f. Washing your hands and following advice to ‘Catch it, Bin it, Kill it’.

From 1 April, guidance to the public and to businesses will be consolidated in line with public health advice. There will continue to be specific guidance for those whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 despite vaccination.

Businesses and other organisations

Employers and businesses have also taken significant steps over the pandemic to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 within their settings. The Government has lifted the majority of legal requirements on businesses, and continues to provide ‘Working Safely’ guidance setting out the steps that employers can take to reduce risk in their workplaces.

From 24 February, workers will not be legally obliged to tell their employers when they are required to self-isolate. Employers and workers should follow Government guidance for those with COVID-19.

From 1 April, the Government will remove the health and safety requirement for every employer to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their risk assessments. The intention is to empower businesses to take responsibility for implementing mitigations that are appropriate for their circumstances. Employers that specifically work with COVID-19, such as laboratories, must continue to undertake a risk assessment that considers COVID-19.

From 1 April, the Government will replace the existing set of ‘Working Safely’ guidance with new public health guidance. Employers should continue to consider the needs of employees at greater risk from COVID-19, including those whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19. The Government will consult with employers and businesses to ensure guidance continues to support them to manage the risk of COVID-19 in workplaces.

Ventilation

The Government will continue to promote and support good ventilation. Employers and businesses should continue identifying poorly ventilated spaces and take steps to improve fresh air flow.

There is increasing evidence of the importance of circulating fresh air in reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Ventilation also helps with reducing transmission of other respiratory infections such as influenza, with some research showing that being in a room with fresh air can in some cases reduce the risk of airborne transmission of COVID-19 by over 70%. [footnote 49] There are also potential wider benefits of good ventilation, for health, concentration, and lower absence rates. [footnote 50] The Government has responded to this evidence through:

• a. Public communications campaigns and comprehensive business guidance on ventilation and fresh air;
• b. Providing over 350,000 CO2 monitors to state-funded education settings backed by £25 million of funding, [footnote 51] and up to 9,000 high efficiency particulate air ( HEPA ) cleaning units for the small number of education settings where poor ventilation could not be quickly rectified; [footnote 52]
• c. Enabling local authorities to use their allocations from the £60 million Adult Social Care Omicron Support Fund, at their discretion, to audit and improve fresh air in adult social care; [footnote 53] and
• d. Completing a ventilation audit of the central government estate.

The Government is also carrying out further ventilation research and the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser has commissioned a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering on how our built environment could be made more infection resilient, to be published this May. The Government will carefully consider its recommendations, alongside the ongoing research.

Changes at a glance

Today, 21 February the Government is:

• Removing the guidance for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice weekly asymptomatic testing.

From 24 February the Government will:

• Remove the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test. Adults and children who test positive will continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least 5 full days and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received 2 negative test results on consecutive days.
• No longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those aged under 18 to test daily for 7 days, and remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate.
• End self-isolation support payments, national funding for practical support and the medicine delivery service will no longer be available.
• End routine contact tracing. Contacts will no longer be required to self-isolate or advised to take daily tests.
• End the legal obligation for individuals to tell their employers when they are required to self-isolate.
• Revoke The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 3) Regulations.

From 24 March, the Government will:

• Remove the COVID-19 provisions within the Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance regulations.

From 1 April, the Government will:

• Remove the current guidance on voluntary COVID-status certification in domestic settings and no longer recommend that certain venues use the NHS COVID Pass.
• Update guidance setting out the ongoing steps that people with COVID-19 should take to minimise contact with other people. This will align with the changes to testing.
• No longer provide free universal symptomatic and asymptomatic testing for the general public in England.
• Consolidate guidance to the public and businesses, in line with public health advice.
• Remove the health and safety requirement for every employer to explicitly consider COVID-19 in their risk assessments.
• Replace the existing set of ‘Working Safely’ guidance with new public health guidance.

4. Protecting people most vulnerable to COVID-19

Since March 2020, the medical and scientific community has learned a lot more about COVID-19, what makes someone more or less vulnerable to it, and how to manage the virus in higher risk settings.

At the start of the pandemic very little was known about risk factors from COVID-19 and vaccines were unavailable, so the Government took a precautionary approach and advised ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ groups to follow shielding advice. These measures were extremely restrictive and often had a significant impact on individuals’ lives and their mental and physical wellbeing, meaning people and their families made considerable sacrifices to stay safe.

Data on COVID-19 related deaths and admissions between December 2020 and June 2021 showed that COVID-19 mortality increased with age (when controlled for vaccination status and other key factors). This same analysis showed that the risk was higher for people with specific clinical conditions such as Down’s syndrome, solid organ transplantation, Dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and neurological conditions. Those living in more deprived areas and from certain ethnic minority groups were also at higher risk of COVID-19 mortality. [footnote 54]

As a result of the success of the Government’s strategy to invest in scientific and medical innovation, the Government has been able to rely more on vaccines and medical treatments, and gradually remove restrictive guidance for those at an increased risk of COVID-19. The shielding programme ended on 15 September 2021.

The Government prioritised those at highest risk from COVID-19 for vaccination by following JCVI advice, and using the COVID-19 Population Risk Assessment. Vaccination has proved to be the most effective way to protect those at increased risk from COVID-19 and everybody should be encouraged to get all doses of the vaccination and boosters for which they are eligible. The Government and UKHSA will continue to communicate to people most vulnerable to COVID-19 about available clinical interventions, including vaccination and treatments, and also testing and public health advice (see previous chapter).

COVID-19 vaccines remain the most important and effective way the public can protect themselves and others from becoming seriously ill or dying from the virus. Vaccines have built a wall of defence around communities across the country, saving countless lives and allowing a phased return to normality. A recent review by UKHSA also showed that people who have had one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are less likely to develop long COVID symptoms than those who remain unvaccinated. [footnote 55]

The UK’s vaccination programme, which prioritised the most vulnerable to COVID-19 for early receipt of vaccines, has now protected tens of millions of people and prevented many hospitalisations and deaths. [footnote 56] The programme continues to be extended. The NHS has already given a first dose to 60% of 12 to 15 year olds in England and is now offering second doses. [footnote 57] Vaccinations have also started to be offered to at-risk 5 to 11 year olds since week commencing 31 January (2 doses, 8 weeks apart). From April, all 5 to 11 year olds will be able to come forward for a course of COVID-19 vaccine (2 doses, 12 weeks apart). Every parent will have the opportunity to make an informed choice.

The Government will continue to be guided by JCVI advice on the deployment of the vaccination programme. Subject to JCVI advice, further vaccinations (boosters) may be recommended for people who are most vulnerable to serious outcomes from COVID-19 this autumn ​​and, ahead of that, a spring booster for groups JCVI consider to be at particularly high risk.

For people who have yet to take up their initial vaccine offer, the NHS continues to make vaccines available across the UK to ensure that every eligible person who wants a vaccine can get one. The Government will continue to provide flexible delivery models to ensure vaccines remain accessible.

The Government will continue to support communities with lower rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake, particularly in areas of deprivation and for ethnic minority groups. In December 2021, the Government announced a further £22.5 million in funding for the Community Vaccine Champions Scheme to support 60 local authorities with the lowest COVID-19 vaccine uptake. [footnote 58] Community Champions work with local councils to address barriers to accurate vaccine information and encourage individuals to get vaccinated.

Deploying treatments

The Government has moved quickly since the onset of the pandemic to ensure that those at risk of and suffering from COVID-19 have early access to safe and effective treatments.

In April 2021, the Prime Minister launched the Antivirals Taskforce ( ATF ), in order to identify, procure and deploy novel antiviral treatments for UK patients with COVID-19. Antivirals can be used at the earliest stage of infection to help reduce the development of severe COVID-19 by blocking virus replication.

The ATF has secured a supply of almost 5 million courses of antivirals - more per head than any other country in Europe. [footnote 59] These antivirals are the first medicines which can be given at home to treat people whose immune systems mean they are at higher risk from COVID-19.

In company trials, Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir) reduced the relative risk of COVID-19-associated hospitalisation or death by 88% in unvaccinated patients who received treatment within 5 days of symptoms appearing. [footnote 60] Results from Lagevrio (molnupiravir) company trials show around 30% relative reduction in the rate of hospitalisation in unvaccinated patients. [footnote 61] Both antivirals have now received conditional marketing authorisation from MHRA , making the UK the first country in the world to approve an oral antiviral that can be taken at home for COVID-19. [footnote 62]

People at highest risk of developing severe COVID-19 can now access antivirals should they test positive for COVID-19. UKHSA has sent priority PCR tests to around 1.3 million people to support rapid turnaround of results so they can access the treatments as soon as possible after symptoms begin. [footnote 63] In England, around 14,000 people with weakened immune systems have already been treated with the new antivirals, Lagevrio (molnupiravir) and Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir), and the new monoclonal antibody treatment, Xevudy (sotrovimab).

Therapeutics

The Therapeutics Taskforce was quickly established in April 2020 to ensure that COVID-19 patients in the UK had access to safe and effective treatments as soon as possible. Effective therapeutics have played a vital role in lessening the severity and impact of COVID-19.

The UK has led the way in the testing and deployment of life-saving treatments, which have been made available to patients in the UK and across the world. World-leading clinical trials such as RECOVERY - the world’s largest randomised controlled clinical trial for COVID-19 treatments have helped to discover new effective treatments for COVID-19.

In June 2020, the UK was the first in the world to discover that dexamethasone - a low-cost corticosteroid - reduced the risk of mortality in hospitalised COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen or ventilation by up to 35%. [footnote 64] UK Government-funded trials demonstrated tocilizumab and sarilumab - monoclonal immunomodulatory antibody treatments - reduced the relative risk of mortality by up to 24% when administered to patients within 24 hours of entering intensive care. [footnote 65]

New therapeutics like Xevudy (sotrovimab), a monoclonal antibody, have been authorised for use in people who have mild to moderate COVID-19 infection and at least one risk factor for developing severe illness. In a clinical trial, a single dose of the monoclonal antibody was found to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death by 79% in high-risk adults with symptomatic COVID-19 infection. [footnote 66]

Supporting the NHS and social care

Throughout the pandemic the Government has provided health and social care services with resources and support to respond to the unique challenges they have faced.

The approach to managing COVID-19 in NHS and adult social care services will continue to evolve in the coming months, but will continue to focus on providing care for those that need it and supporting people who are most vulnerable to COVID-19, including people receiving social care and people receiving treatment in hospitals.

A key objective for the NHS over the last two years has been to keep patients and staff safe and limit the spread of COVID-19 within hospitals. Enhanced Infection Prevention Control ( IPC ) measures have been required in NHS settings, including:

• a. Asymptomatic testing for patients and for staff;
• b. Enhanced personal protective equipment ( PPE ) to protect healthcare workers and the patients they come into contact with;
• c. COVID-19 specific bed management and clinical pathways; and
• d. Evaluation of ventilation in line with the latest guidance. [footnote 67]

In the next phase of managing COVID-19, the NHS will continue to:

• a. Deliver and support specific programmes to manage the risk of COVID-19, including the deployment of vaccines (see chapter 4).
• b. Support patients with Long COVID, where the UK is leading the way in research, treatment and care. Specialist services have been established throughout England for adults, children and young people experiencing long-term effects of COVID-19 infection, underpinned by a £100 million plan for 2021-22, and further investment for 2022-23.
• c. Work to better understand COVID-19 and the long-term health impacts it may have, supported by £50 million in research funding.
• d. Use and develop measures to restore and recover elective services and reduce backlogs for treatments.
• e. Providing access to free PPE to the end of March 2023, or until the IPC guidance on PPE usage for COVID-19 is amended or superseded (whichever is sooner).

Adult social care

Care home residents, and those in receipt of adult social care at home and other care settings, are often among the most vulnerable in society to COVID-19. To protect these people, the Government introduced additional protective measures, including:

• a. Free PPE for adult social care workers;
• b. Prioritisation of staff and residents for vaccinations;
• c. Designated settings to ensure that those who need residential care but are still likely to be infectious with COVID-19 at the point of discharge from hospital can complete a period of isolation before moving to their care home;
• d. Introducing visitor restrictions at times of particularly high risk; and
• e. In recognition of the challenges facing the sector, the Government published its first ever set of winter plans for adult social care.

The Government will continue to support the adult social care sector with the following protections:

• a. Supporting and encouraging the take-up of vaccines amongst care recipients and staff, including any further doses that may be recommended by JCVI for COVID-19 and other infections;
• b. Guidance on precautions for visitors and workers in adult social care; and
• c. Providing access to free PPE to the end of March 2023 or until the UK IPC guidance on PPE usage for COVID-19 is amended or superseded (whichever is sooner).

The role of the Government in managing the COVID-19 response in adult social care has been unprecedented. As a part of living sustainably with COVID-19, by 1 April the Government will publish updated IPC guidance. This will replace current COVID-19 IPC guidance for care homes, home care and other adult social care services. The Government will continue to work with local authorities and care providers to respond to outbreaks in care settings and manage local workforce pressures.

Tackling health inequalities

COVID-19 has also exacerbated pre-existing socio-economic and health inequalities, driving poorer outcomes amongst those who were already disadvantaged. Since the start of the pandemic, the NHS has accelerated its preventative health programmes which proactively engage those at greatest risk of poorer health outcomes to address health inequalities.

The Government will continue to support communities with lower rates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake, particularly in areas of deprivation and for ethnic minority groups as part of its approach to both reducing health disparities as and living with COVID-19, but also to support the wider health and social care system.

The recent ‘Levelling Up the United Kingdom’ white paper also aims to reduce geographical inequalities by investing in health, local infrastructure and leadership, and improving education and skills. [footnote 68] The Government will set out a strategy to tackle the core drivers of inequalities in health outcomes in a new white paper on health disparities in 2022.

The Government has provided significant additional funding to respond to the pandemic on an emergency basis through additional borrowing. As the country moves to living with COVID, the Government must ensure that the cost of resilience and contingency measures are met in a responsible and sustainable manner. The Government is already asking taxpayers to make an additional contribution through the Health and Care levy. The Government will meet the cost of living with COVID-19 within this and other existing funding streams.

5. Maintaining resilience

As set out in the introduction, the future path and severity of the virus is uncertain and it may take several years before the virus becomes more predictable. During this period further resurgences will occur, it is possible more severe variants will emerge and there will sadly be more hospitalisations and deaths. As a result, the Government is taking steps to ensure there are plans in place to maintain resilience against significant resurgences or future variants and remains ready to act if a dangerous variant risks placing unsustainable pressure on the NHS .

The Government’s aim is to manage and respond to these risks through more routine public health interventions. As such, the NHS has developed a range of interventions to respond to COVID-19 demand while protecting NHS activity to the fullest possible extent. In future, pharmaceutical capabilities will be the first line of defence in responding to COVID-19 if risk threatens to place unsustainable pressure on the NHS .

The Government will retain surveillance to monitor the virus, understand its evolution and identify changes in characteristics, enabling the Government to make informed decisions. The Government will prepare and maintain the capabilities to ramp up testing and other tools such as laboratory infrastructure to be used as a line of defence against a new variant.

Monitoring and mitigating risks

The UK has been a global leader in sequencing and monitoring, at times uploading the highest number of sequences of any country on the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data ( GISAID ) platform. [footnote 69] UKHSA will continue to sequence some infections and monitor a range of data.

Domestic surveillance

The Government will continue to monitor cases, in hospital settings in particular, including using genomic sequencing, which will allow some insights into the evolution of the virus. UKHSA will maintain scaled down critical surveillance capabilities including the COVID-19 Infection Survey ( CIS ) population level survey, genomic sequencing and additional data. This will be augmented by continuing the SARS-CoV-2 Immunity & Reinfection Evaluation ( SIREN ) and Vivaldi studies.

UK monitoring mechanisms during the pandemic

The Office for National Statistics ( ONS ) has continued to keep pace with the changing evidence needs of the Government and the public in tracking the spread of COVID-19 and understanding its impact. This includes official statistics on health, society, the labour market and the economy.

The COVID-19 Infection Survey was established in April 2020 to measure:

• How many people across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland test positive for a COVID-19 infection at a given point in time, regardless of whether they report experiencing symptoms;
• The average number of new positive test cases per week over the course of the study; and
• The number of people who test positive for antibodies.

The results of the survey contribute to UKHSA ’s estimates of the rate of transmission of the infection, often referred to as “R”. The survey provides important information about the socio-demographic characteristics of the people and households who have contracted COVID-19.

The SIREN study was established in June 2020. The purpose of this study is to understand whether prior infection with SARS-CoV2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) protects against future infection with the same virus.

The Vivaldi Study was also established in June 2020. The purpose of this study is to investigate COVID-19 infections in care homes, to find out how many care home staff and residents have been infected with COVID-19, and inform decisions around the best approach to COVID-19 testing in the future.

Preparing to respond

In order to be prepared for further resurgences and new variants, the Government will maintain resilience and infrastructure required to scale up a proportionate response.

NHS and social care resilience

The NHS has developed a range of interventions to respond to COVID-19 demand while protecting urgent and elective care activity to the fullest possible extent, including during the peaks of demand seen in April 2020, January 2021, and at the present time. These interventions include:

• a. Tried and tested plans to expand general and acute and critical care bed capacity as needed, learning the lessons from previous waves of COVID-19. This includes surging capacity within hospital trusts’ existing footprints, across Integrated Care System footprints and clinical networks, and patient transfers between regions if required.
• b. Maximising patient discharge, working with local authorities and partners to ensure that all medically fit patients can be safely discharged as soon as possible, supporting improved patient outcomes and freeing up beds for elective surgery.
• c. Making full use of non-acute beds in the local health and care system as necessary, including in hospices, hotels, community beds and the independent sector. At points throughout the pandemic NHS England has contracted with independent providers to secure additional surge capacity and prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed due to COVID-19 infections. The Increasing Capacity Framework streamlines central procurement processes and allows the NHS to effectively secure the capacity it needs to meet patient needs on a local level.
• d. The use of ‘virtual wards’ and ‘hospital at home’ models of care have ensured that patients can be safely cared for in their own homes and that additional bed capacity can be freed up in hospitals. The NHS operational planning guidance sets out that, by December 2023, systems should complete the comprehensive development of virtual wards towards a national ambition of 40 to 50 virtual beds per 100,000 population.
• e. Implementing a range of workforce interventions, including increasing staffing numbers, temporary local adjustments to staffing ratios, with flexible redeployment of staff including training for roles in critical or enhanced care.
• f. Ensuring continued improvements to the urgent and emergency care pathway to avoid emergency department crowding. Interventions include using NHS 111 as the first point of triage for urgent care services, which increases the ability to book patients into the full range of local urgent care services, including urgent treatment centres; same day emergency care; speciality clinics; and urgent community and mental health services.

While significant uncertainty remains, the NHS will continue to closely monitor COVID-19 demand and keep the use of these interventions under review, deploying them as necessary to protect the delivery of health services to the fullest extent possible.

Local authorities will have their own contingency plans for maintaining care services in the event of acute workforce supply challenges. In the event that a local authority – having deployed all its contingency measures – is unable to cope, a request for further support could be made via the Local Resilience Forums ( LRFs ).

The Government will continue to work closely with the health and care sectors to identify and understand capacity risks, in the event of another challenging winter and/or new variant of concern.

Pharmaceutical interventions and medical countermeasures

The Government already has experience in successfully deploying a contingency response based on medical countermeasures. During the response to the Omicron variant, the NHS administered a booster programme to all adults and met the surge in demand for vaccines at short notice. The Government will ensure that there are sufficient procurement plans in place to make certain that the UK has access to the most effective vaccines on the market, and that these are available to the health care system and the public when needed.

Testing: Contingency capabilities

The Government will retain core infrastructure and capabilities in England to scale up testing in the case of a new dangerous variant.

Local outbreak management

Local partners have significantly stepped up to support local outbreak management. In future the Government expects COVID-19 to be managed regionally and locally as part of a wider all hazards approach, using existing health protection frameworks.

The Government will revise current COVID-19 outbreak management advice and frameworks, to set out the support that local authorities and other system partners (such as LRFs , regional health protection teams, the NHS and others) can expect from regional and national stakeholders and the core policy and tools for contingency response. The Government will continue to provide guidance via UKHSA engagement with local partners.

Approach at the borders

Last month the Government announced its new system for international travel, underpinned by a commitment to see a return to unrestricted travel and to support recovery across all sectors. There are now no requirements on eligible vaccinated travellers apart from the need to complete a simplified Passenger Locator Form. Travellers who do not qualify as eligible vaccinated also need to take a pre-departure test and an arrival test on or before day 2, but no longer need to isolate or take a day 8 test.

The Government also committed to developing a contingency toolbox of options. The Government recognises that border measures have carried very high personal, economic, and international costs. The Government will only consider implementing new public health measures at the border in extreme circumstances where it is necessary to protect public health.

Contingency measures would only be used where they are proportionate to the threat faced by a COVID-19 variant and effective in slowing ingress to avert pressure on public services such as the NHS . There may be scenarios where border measures are not appropriate and will not form part of a contingency response. The approach will be underpinned by three important principles:

• a. The bar for implementation of any measures is very high;
• b. Any measure will be tailored and proportionate to the threat posed and will seek to minimise economic and social impacts; and
• c. In the event any measures were deemed necessary they would be time limited and not be in place any longer than needed.

Given the current state of the pandemic and a move towards global travel volumes returning to normal, the infrastructure for hotel quarantine will be fully stood down from the end of March and the Government is developing options to increase compliance with home isolation in its place should quarantine measures need to be reintroduced. Previous global responses to variants of COVID-19 that targeted travel from specific countries may not always be appropriate given how quickly the virus can spread, and tailoring measures to the nature of the threat can improve their effectiveness and proportionality. As such, the Government will have in reserve a more agile toolbox tailored depending on the nature and source of the threat, and deployed only where that high bar is crossed. The default will be to first consider whether less stringent measures are appropriate so as to minimise the impact on general travel where possible.

The Government will set out the contingency approach and toolbox of measures in more detail ahead of Easter when reviewing The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021. The Government will continue to work with industry on contingency planning.

6. Securing innovations and opportunities from the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a unique challenge for governments, communities and businesses across the world. These challenges have brought with them opportunities for innovation, as new approaches were developed and deployed at scale and pace. The Government is committed to securing the innovations and opportunities which have emerged during the pandemic, where there is long term benefit to wider Government priorities.

In addition, the COVID-19 public inquiry chaired by Baroness Hallett starts this spring and is intended to enable the Government to learn lessons about its response.

The Government will also remember those that have lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, and commemorate the enormous efforts and sacrifices of all those who have supported the country throughout. On 12 May 2021, the Prime Minister announced that a UK Commission on COVID Commemoration would be established to consider how the country should remember those who have lost their lives and recognise those involved in the response. The Government will set out the Commission’s membership and terms of reference in due course.

Innovation, opportunities and learning

Life sciences.

Over the course of the pandemic the scientific community has made extraordinary scientific advances. The Government directly supported several vaccine manufacturers in their research and development. The first COVID-19 vaccines were ready for clinical trials in under a month, which then led to the deployment of the first safe and effective wide-scale COVID-19 vaccination programme. These vaccines have now been used more widely around the world than many medicines, with extraordinarily successful results.

Innovations in vaccines, antivirals and therapeutics will likely play a vital role in the Government’s response against COVID-19 in the future. A number of vaccine suppliers are already trialling new bi-valent vaccines, which would provide protection against COVID-19 variants. The Vaccine Taskforce ( VTF ) will continue to ensure that the UK has access to effective vaccines on the market. The Therapeutics Taskforce will continue to support the eight national priority clinical trial platforms run by the National Institute for Health Research, focused on prevention, novel treatments, and treatments for Long COVID.

The UK remains an attractive prospect for companies to invest in the UK’s life sciences sector, whether it be as part of an established research and innovation network or in the growing biologics manufacturing industry. At the recent Autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced a further £354 million for UK life sciences manufacturing as part of the Global Britain Investment Fund to support investment into the UK economy. The Vaccine Taskforce’s investment into facilities at UKHSA Porton Down has increased the UK’s capacity to test the efficacy of vaccines against emerging variants.

Vaccine Taskforce ( VTF )

The Vaccine Taskforce was set up in April 2020 to drive forward the development, procurement, and production of a COVID-19 vaccine as quickly as possible, bringing together the Government, academia, industry and international cooperation in science and research. Since then, the VTF has had unprecedented success. Using experience and expertise from the private sector has enabled the UK to build a diverse portfolio of vaccines and secure assured supply through to 2023. This has allowed the NHS to run the largest vaccination campaign in its history.

The Government’s longer-term approach to vaccine procurement will seek to build upon the legacy of innovation from the success of the VTF and look to apply the wider lessons from the past two years to other vaccination programmes.

NHS and social care

The Government will implement lessons learnt from the pandemic in the Health and Social Care sector, drawing on what worked well, and on future clinical advice. In particular, the Health and Social Care Integration white paper sets out the Government’s plans to make integrated health and social care a reality for everyone across England and to level up access, experience, and outcomes across the country. [footnote 70]

Improving NHS data

In March 2020, the NHS COVID-19 Data Cell (a partnership between NHS England and NHS Improvement ( NHSEI ) and NHSX) worked with partners to provide a data analysis and modelling platform that brought together multiple complex data sources from across the health and care system into a single, secure location.

The platform proved invaluable in providing a single version of the truth to support data driven decisions. In a matter of months, this system achieved what would have taken years to develop under non-crisis circumstances.

Virtual Wards

To enable patients to be safely discharged as quickly as possible the NHS established “virtual wards”. This allowed clinicians to use technology to remotely monitor COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients while communicating with them at home.

Oximetry@Home

This NHS service provides pulse oximeters to patients with COVID-19 who are at a higher risk, along with supporting information to monitor their oxygen saturation levels at home, with 24/7 access to advice and support. It is usually led by general practice working alongside community teams. The service can help ensure more timely hospital treatment if required.

Emergency registers for health professionals

Section 2 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 has enabled thousands of nurses and other healthcare professionals who no longer work for the NHS to be placed on temporary registers, allowing them to work in NHS services to alleviate workforce pressures during times of emergency.

Following the success of these registers, the Department for Health and Social Care ( DHSC ) will amend legislation to enable the Nursing and Midwifery Council ( NMC ) and the Health and Care Professions Council ( HCPC ) to establish temporary registers to support emergency response arrangements in future.

Strengthening health security at home and abroad

The Government is committed to supporting future health security and resilience.

UK Health Security Agency ( UKHSA )

UKHSA was set up in April 2021 to prepare for, prevent and respond to all hazards to public health. UKHSA has been instrumental in delivering the UK’s response to COVID-19:

• Testing capacity and diagnostics including the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history. The UK has now registered over 467 million COVID-19 tests. [footnote 71]
• Genomic sequencing capabilities where the UK has uploaded over 2 million genome sequences to the international GISAID database, accounting for a quarter of all SARS-CoV-2 genomes shared globally to date. [footnote 72]
• Innovation and technology: the development of the Rosalind Franklin laboratory, and use of innovative new techniques - such as reflex assay technology - strengthened our ability to rapidly detect COVID-19 mutations and support the assessment of variants of concern. At its peak, in December 2021, the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory was processing over 400,000 PCR tests a week. [footnote 73]

UKHSA will continue to lead the wider health protection emergency planning and response system, championing health security across the UK.

International learning and innovation

Epidemics and pandemics are not new, but the rate at which they have occurred has increased during the last 20 years. This increase is thought to be driven by a combination of changes to land use and human behaviours that bring people into closer contact with wild animals, coupled with unprecedented levels of global movement of people and trade.

Supporting global COVID-19 recovery

The UK remains committed to equitable global access to COVID-19 tools to help reduce the risk and frequency of variants of concern, and to contribute to global COVID-19 recovery. The UK has played a leading role in global vaccine access and has committed up to £1.4 billion of UK aid to address the impacts of COVID-19 and to help end the pandemic as quickly as possible. The UK’s commitment included £548 million to support the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment ( AMC ) to deliver COVID-19 vaccines for up to 92 low- and middle-income countries.

The UK’s G7 Presidency delivered a shared commitment to provide one billion doses to vaccinate the world over the next year. As part of this commitment, the Government committed to donate 100 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses by June 2022, at least 80% of which will go to COVAX to enable it to further support those in need. The Government exceeded its target of 30 million doses donated by the end of 2021.

Building resilience to global health threats

The Government continues to invest in and develop resilience to global health threats via improved health and biosecurity and pandemic preparedness, examples include:

• a. Biological Security Strategy: Later this year, the Government will publish a refreshed biological security strategy. COVID-19 has reinforced the need for effective preparation for future biological threats to protect the UK against naturally occurring infections, accidental release and potential deliberate misuse by state and non-state actors, in particular through surveillance, risk monitoring and response planning.
• b. The 100 Days Mission and Early Warning Systems: The 100 Days Mission is a global public-private ambition to harness scientific innovation to reduce the impact of future pandemics by making available safe and effective diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines within the first 100 days of a future pandemic threat being identified. The Mission was launched as part of the UK’s G7 Presidency in 2021 and the UK is working domestically, with the G7, G20, and international partners to ensure sustainable implementation of the 25 recommendations to ensure the Mission is achieved by 2026.
• c. Pandemic preparedness: The UK is hosting a global pandemic preparedness summit in March 2022, (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations ( CEPI ) Summit) which will explore how the world can better prepare for pandemics by harnessing the power of science to revolutionise how new vaccines can be developed, manufactured, and equitably distributed to end pandemics.
• d. Engagement and reform of the WHO : The UK is supporting work underway to harness the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. A stronger architecture for pandemic preparedness and response includes: sustainably financing the WHO ; supporting improvements to the way outbreaks are investigated and the establishment of a Scientific Advisory Group for Origins of Novel Pathogens; and considering amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) to improve management of public health emergencies.

Improved international consistency on global travel health policies

International travel has been severely disrupted throughout the pandemic, causing difficulties for businesses and passengers. The Government will work further with international partners to discuss how cooperation and alignment of border and travel health policies can be improved. This approach will identify opportunities for standardisation to support global efforts to detect, manage, and respond to new health threats as well as seek to deliver as smooth an experience as possible for passengers, helping to support the recovery of the international travel sector.

7. Legislation

During the pandemic, the Government has had to introduce regulations and legislation involving unprecedented government intervention in order to protect public health, and support individuals, businesses and public services. As part of the implementation of the living with COVID-19 strategy, the Government will make the following legislative changes, subject to appropriate parliamentary scrutiny.

Domestic Restrictions under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984

The Government has always said that restrictions would not stay in place a day longer than necessary, and is now able to proceed with removing the last domestic restrictions:

• a. The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 3) Regulations 2020 (“No.3 Regulations”) have been in place since 18 July 2020. These powers will be revoked on 24 February. Local authorities will now be required to manage outbreaks through local planning, and pre-existing public health powers, as they would with other infectious diseases.
• b. The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation) (England) Regulations 2020 have been in place since 28 September 2020, and impose a legal duty on individuals who test positive and certain close contacts to self-isolate. As set out in chapter 3, the legal duty to self-isolate will be lifted on 24 February and be replaced by guidance.

Statutory Sick Pay and Employment and Support Allowance

In light of the Government’s decision to end the legal duty to self-isolate from 24 February, on 24 March:

• a. The Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982 and the Statutory Sick Pay (Coronavirus) (Suspension of Waiting Days and General Amendment) Regulations 2020 will be amended to remove COVID-19 provisions. From this date, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will no longer be payable from day 1 if people are unable to work because they are sick or self-isolating due to COVID-19. Pre-pandemic SSP rules will apply.
• b. The COVID-19 Employment and Support Allowance provisions within The Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit (Coronavirus Disease) Regulations 2020 will automatically expire. From this date, people will no longer be eligible for Employment and Support Allowance because they are self-isolating due to COVID-19. Anyone infected with COVID-19 may, subject to satisfying the conditions of entitlement, still be eligible for Employment and Support Allowance on the basis that they have a health condition or disability that affects their ability to work under the general Employment and Support Allowance regulations.

Vaccines as a Condition of Deployment Regulations

The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 making vaccination a condition of deployment were introduced in Care Quality Commission ( CQC ) registered care homes from 11 November 2021. These regulations require that individuals entering the premises are fully vaccinated, unless otherwise exempt. Regulations to extend vaccination as a condition of deployment to health and wider social care settings were approved by Parliament in December 2021, and its main provisions were set to come into force on 1 April 2022. These regulations would require that anyone providing a CQC regulated activity would also be required to be fully vaccinated, unless otherwise exempt.

After reviewing the latest clinical and scientific evidence, the Government announced its intention to revoke both of the above regulations, subject to consultation and appropriate parliamentary procedure. Whilst vaccination remains the country’s best line of defence against COVID-19, the balance of opportunities and risks of the policy have now changed with the dominance of the Omicron variant. The Government therefore assesses that it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute. Professional bodies, the Royal Colleges, the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer and others consider it is a professional responsibility for health and care staff to be vaccinated. The Government has asked the professional regulators to review how this responsibility could be strengthened through their guidance, and will also be consulting on doing so through the Government’s guidance for CQC regulated providers.

A public consultation on revocation concluded on 16 February 2022, and the Government will publish its response shortly. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, the regulations will be revoked ahead of 1 April 2022.

International travel regulations

With the intention to continue to facilitate safe travel and sector recovery, and in the context of having significantly reduced travel restrictions, the Government will review The Health Protection (Coronavirus, International Travel and Operator Liability) (England) Regulations 2021 before Easter and ahead of their expiry date of 16 May.

The Coronavirus Act 2020

The Coronavirus Act 2020 was first introduced in March 2020 and has enabled the Government to support individuals, businesses, and public services during the pandemic.

Temporary provisions

The Government will expire all remaining non-devolved temporary provisions within the Coronavirus Act 2020. Half of the original 40 temporary non-devolved provisions have already expired, as the Government has removed powers throughout the pandemic which were no longer needed. Of the 20 remaining non-devolved temporary provisions, 16 will expire at midnight on 24 March 2022. These are:

• a. Section 2: Emergency registration of nurses and other health and care professionals.
• b. Section 6: Emergency registration of social workers: England and Wales.
• c. Section 14: NHS Continuing Healthcare Assessments: England.
• d. Section 18: Registrations of deaths and still-births.
• e. Section 19: Confirmatory medical certificate not required for cremations: England and Wales.
• f. Section 22: Appointment of temporary Judicial Commissioners.
• g. Section 38: Temporary continuity: education, training and childcare.
• h. Section 39-41: Statutory Sick Pay: funding of employers’ liabilities; power to disapply waiting period limitation; modification of regulation making powers.
• i. Section 45: NHS pension schemes: suspension of restrictions on return to work: England and Wales.
• j. Section 50: Power to suspend port operations.
• k. Section 58: Powers in relation to transportation, storage and disposal of dead bodies.
• l. Section 75 (2) and (3): Disapplication of limit under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982.
• m. Section 81: Residential tenancies in England and Wales: protection from eviction.
• n. Section 82: Business tenancies in England and Wales: protection from forfeiture

The remaining four provisions will be expired within six months. These provisions have enabled innovations in the delivery of public services and the Government is seeking approval to make them permanent through other primary legislation currently before Parliament and due to come into force over the spring and summer. In each case, a final six-month extension is necessary in order to ensure there is no gap in the legislation that enables public service delivery. The relevant provisions are:

• a. Section 30: has supported coronial services throughout the pandemic in England and Wales by enabling inquests, where COVID-19 is suspected as the cause of death, to take place without a jury, helping reduce pressures and backlogs. This provision will be made permanent via the Judicial Review and Courts Bill.
• b. Sections 53 to 55: have allowed thousands of court hearings to take place using audio and video links. Over 12,000 hearings per week have taken place using remote technology across 3,200 virtual courtrooms, helping courts reduce the backlog in cases and bring more people to justice. The provision for remote hearings will be made permanent via the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.

Permanent provisions and devolved governments

There are a number of permanent provisions within the Coronavirus Act 2020 which would require new primary legislation in order to repeal. Some of these provisions are still necessary to support the recovery from the pandemic, including:

• a. Section 11: Indemnity for health service activity: England and Wales. This provision ensures that any gaps in indemnity cover for NHS clinical negligence do not delay or prevent ongoing care. Without this, NHS Resolution would be unable to pay legitimate clinical negligence claims, leaving clinicians exposed to the full cost and patients without compensation.
• b. Section 75(1): Disapplication of limit under section 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 ( IDA ). This provision ensures that the financial limits set out in section 8 of the IDA do not hinder the allocation of vital Government schemes for businesses such as the Help to Grow scheme, the Automotive Transformation Fund, and the Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme ( OWMIS ).

The Government is committed to removing unnecessary provisions from the statute book as soon as possible and will look for opportunities to do so as the Government’s legislative programme proceeds.

Once the Government has received the conclusions of the COVID-19 public inquiry, it will consider whether further changes to public health legislation are needed. The Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 and any outstanding provisions in the Coronavirus Act 2020 would be in scope for this work.

The Government will also work with the Devolved Administrations, who have used their specific powers within the Coronavirus Act during the pandemic, to help transition provisions into devolved legislation where necessary.

Annex: International comparators

Figure 4: proportion of total population of european countries who have received one dose of covid-19 vaccine [footnote 74].

European countries filtered to the top 30 largest by population

Bar chart showing the percentage coverage of first doses of the vaccine in the top 30 most populous European countries. The UK and Sweden are 11th with 77% of their total populations having received a first dose. Portugal has the highest first dose coverage at 95%.

Figure 5: Date at which 50% of the total population of European countries received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine [footnote 75]

Chart showing the date when the top 20 most populous European countries, reached 50% first dose vaccination coverage of the total population. The UK is first, achieving this vaccine coverage on 29 April 2021.

The speed of the UK’s initial vaccine rollout in early 2021 had a direct impact on the ability to open up the economy, and ease social restrictions sooner than other comparator countries last summer. The success of the rollout also meant that the UK maintained a lower level of restrictions than most other European comparator countries this winter.

Figure 6: Proportion of total population of European countries that are fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine [footnote 76]

Bar chart showing the percentage of the total population who are fully vaccinated in the top 30 most populous European countries.The UK is 12th, along with Greece, Netherlands, and Austria, with 72% of their total population having received a full vaccine protocol. Portugal has the highest proportion of their population fully vaccinated at 91%.

Data extracted on 20 January 2022, however, differences in reporting mean dates of underlying data vary by a few days.

Figure 7: Date at which 50% of the total population of European countries were fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine [footnote 77]

European countries filtered to the top 20 largest by population

Chart showing dates at which the top 30 most populous European countries reached 50% coverage of full vaccinations. The UK is second achieving this on 7 Jul 2021, behind Hungary who reached 50% coverage on 27 Jun 2021. Several countries are yet to meet this milestone.

Vaccine protocols vary by country due to use of different manufacturers. Although the initial protocol (full vaccination) is 2 doses for most vaccines, for a few manufacturers this can be 1 or 3 doses. [footnote 78]

Figure 8: Proportion of total population of European countries who have received a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine [footnote 79]

Bar chart showing the coverage of booster doses in the top 30 most populous European countries The UK is joint 5th with Germany and Ireland at 56% booster coverage. Denmark has the highest coverage with 62% of their total population having received a booster dose.

Figure 9: Date at which 50% of the total population of European countries received a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine [footnote 80]

Chart showing dates at which the top 30 most populous European countries reached 50% booster dose coverage. The UK is first achieving this on 1 January 2022, followed by Denmark who achieved this on 4 January 2022. Several countries are yet to meet this milestone.

Figure 10: COVID-19 tests administered per 1,000 people: G20 countries [footnote 81]

The UK has administered more tests per 1,000 people than any other G20 country since 13 February 2020 (noting that there is no publicly available testing data for China).

Bar chart of tests conducted per 1000 people in the G20. The UK is first, conducting 6,607 tests per 1000 people since 13 February 2020. France is second with 3584 and the US is 4th with 2397.

The methodology for recording daily testing figures varies from country to country. The UK testing figures display the number of PCR and antigen tests conducted across pillars 1 and 2. [footnote 82]

Figure 11: Excess deaths per million in European countries [footnote 83]

Excess deaths are defined as the difference between total deaths during a crisis and the expected number of deaths in ‘normal’ conditions. [footnote 84]

Bar chart showing the number of excess deaths per million in the 30 most populous European countries. The UK is 12th with 1,983 excess deaths per million. Bulgaria has the most excess deaths with 8,627 per million.

Figure 12: Recorded COVID-19 deaths per million in European countries [footnote 85]

Bar chart showing the number of recorded COVID-19 deaths per million for the top 30 most populous European countries. The UK is 14th with 2,355 recorded COVID-19 deaths per million. Bulgaria has the most recorded COVID-19 deaths with 5,075 per million.

This chart shows the number of deaths recorded with COVID-19 on the death certificate. The guidance for including COVID-19 on death certificates varies between countries. It is anticipated that the true number of COVID deaths is higher than the number recorded so excess deaths can provide a more well rounded picture of the impact of the pandemic [footnote 86]

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