Will the coronation bring a UK tourism bonanza – or drive people away?
A s soon as the date of the coronation was announced last October, Kathryn Mooney booked a flight to London. “I jumped on it right away,” says Mooney, 54, an executive assistant from Toronto. “All I thought was, I’d better get a property, I’d better get a flight, because I knew there would be huge demand.”
Why did she want to come? “I know it sounds really hokey, but I want to go and send them some support and love from the sidelines. And honour the queen.”
Although she admits she does not quite have the same esteem for King Charles III as she had for his mother, she says the royals still “represent the palaces, they represent the pageantry – and that’s something that I want to experience. I want to see this. I want to feel it. Because in North America we don’t have anything even close.”
Mooney will certainly not be the only person flying to the UK for the coronation – but just how many will there be? A common argument in defence of the royal family is the benefit they bring to the UK economy through tourism. But despite widespread claims of their tourist value, firm evidence that the Windsors are what bring visitors to Britain is hard to come by, with most assertions anecdotal or speculative. The storm-tossed tourist industry may be desperately hoping for a coronation bump, but the benefit the event will bring is not clear.
“The problem is that attaching any causality to anything in tourism is exceptionally difficult,” admits Joss Croft, the CEO of UK Inbound, which represents the incoming tourist industry. “Why do people travel to the UK? Actually picking out a particular element as to why people have decided to come at a particular time is almost impossible.”
For some, of course, the coronation is an uncomplicated plus.
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