Mentioning the Royal Family in conversation is a sure fire way to elicit a debate amongst your friends and family. On one hand there will be devout Royalists who are firm supporters of the Monarchy, and on the other hand there may be aspiring Republicans who feel the Royal Family has no role to play in modern society. And in the middle there will be the neutrals, either having no fixed views either way or secretly enjoying the numerous television programmes about the Royal Family. Watching the highlights of the Coronation on the BBC, who are without doubt the world leaders for this kind of public broadcasting, it got me thinking about what impact the Royal Family has on tourism.
One of the often cited arguments in favour of the Royal Family is the impact they have on inbound tourism to the country, their net contribution to UK PLC so to speak. The Royal Family along with their various palaces and grand houses is often cited by overseas visitors as one of the reasons they chose to visit the UK but is it in fact the history of the Royal Family and the history of these various buildings that is the attractor more than the people themselves.
For your average visitor from the USA the chances of them actually seeing a member of the Royal Family in London, Windsor or elsewhere in the UK are pretty slim yet still they come in the hope of having some form of meaningful engagement with the monarchy. Perhaps what they are really engaging with is the tradition of the monarchy, the grandeur of Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, the stories and scandals associated with these buildings, or the general pomp and circumstance that comes with the British Royal Family, something that you won’t find in any other country in the world.
I am firmly in the middle ground when it comes to the monarchy but do strongly believe that historical tradition, along with the buildings and artefacts that represent it, is a major component of what makes Britain a special place to visit. To a certain extent our long history defines us as a nation, both good and bad. But saying that we can’t constantly look back, the country of today is a very different place to the Britain of 1953 and we have become a wonderful multi-cultural society that needs to look forward and write it’s own history and traditions.
Now, maybe just one more look at the Coronation coverage on BBC iPlayer to see who else I can spot in Westminster Abbey.