Royal Wedding to Boost UK Tourism

26th November 2010

Categories: Tourism News

Visit England officials said that the news is particularly good for England tourism related revenues, with thousands of foreign tourists likely to travel to England to join in with the celebrations.  London is obviously going to gain more in terms of visits to attractions, hotel bookings etc. The thousands of hotel rooms which are being provided for the 2012 Olympics will mean that additional bed space will be available.  Tour operators and airlines are set to benefit from sales of special wedding travel packages. 

Sandie Dawe, chief executive of VisitBritain said that the wedding would "be an enormous boost for tourism". The royals generate £500m in revenues for tourism each year and it is expected that this will be beaten in 2011.

VisitEngland chief executive James Berresford commented "I'm absolutely thrilled for William and Kate, and thrilled for tourism as well. The wedding next year will mean that once again the eyes of the world will be turned to our nation. We will have a wonderful opportunity to showcase all that is best about the country - its heritage and its history and what being English is all about."  Mr Berresford called the news 'a real shot in the arm for tourism'.

Last week the Office of National Statistics announced that the number of visits made to the UK by overseas residents in the first nine months of this year totalled 22.48 million - a 2 per cent dip on the January to September 2009 total.

The wedding will take place on Friday 29th April at Westminster Abbey.  The day has been declared a public holiday and two long weekends in a row (the weekend before is the Easter break) will provide a further boost to the industry.

Source: New Mind