Why Do People Think The Royal Family Helps Tourism?

Question

Surely if the monarchy was abolished there would still be tourists coming to this country. We do have other things to offer.

The French got rid of their monarch over 200 years ago but it does not stop people wishing to visit France and savour the historic sites like Versailles.

Answer 1

I completely disagree.  Our Royal Family is highly respected throughout the world and draws millions if not billions in tourism every year.  They only cost each tax payer 66p last year.  They are something we should be very proud of and part of our rich and glorious heritage.  All members of the Armed Forces give a lot for their Queen

Answer 2

British people are stupid if they believe the royal family helps tourism.  I will come to Britain if they guarantee me a personal dinner with a member of the royal family.  Absent that, I might as well go to Newport, Rhode Island, and visit the Vanderbilt mansion.

A palace is a palace even if people haven't lived there for years. I have visited palaces in Britain, France, Germany, and Austria.  In fact, I have visited more royal palaces in France than in Britain.

Answer 3

I agree with you, it's just an excuse to keep them.

France got rid of their monarchy decades ago, but the Palace of Versailles gets far more tourists than what buckingham palace could ever dream of....

Answer 4

It's a desperate attempt by monarchist apologists to defend the morally indefensible.

www.republic.org.uk

Answer 5

I must disagree with you;as an American when someone mentions Great Britain and the United Kingdom,I think of the Queen first,the Royal Family second,the royals of the past,then of Wimbledon Tennis Championships,then of other things.Your royal family lends the UK a certain panache that other places lack.As a Franco-American,sure,the Eiffel Tower and Versailles have some meaning,but I am one of many of French extraction who don't think much of the Revolution.France is known for great food,great museums and royalty from the past.

Royalty does have meaning in France--why else would the aristocracy pay to keep their titles?

Answer 6

yes, there would still be tourists coming to this country if there wasn't a royal family.  But do we really want to be like France?  why?  Must our country be dictated to by the French?  is it not enough that they have managed to foist their damnable decimal and metric systems on us, and their tiresome EU regulations, without abolishing our monarchy too?

d**n the French.  Britian is not France, and we should keep our monarchy.

Answer 7

People come to London inspite of the Royal Family and not because of it.

Quite rightly you have focused upon France as a tourist destination and it just happens to be the most visited country on Earth.

France received 75.1 million tourists in 2004, being world number 1 destination.

France also happens to be the number one holiday destination for the British going abroad.

I have just spent four days in Paris - everything, climate, the food, nighlife etc., is vastly superior to anything here in UK.

Standing outside Notre Dam cathedral, there is a temperature sign and while I was there it was reading 35C - that's about 98F [approx] and that was one week ago.  Back home in London it was a freezing cold 65-70F.

Restaurants around Montmartre where my partner and me stayed, remained open until 1am.

Paris - some free night-time street entertainment

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=C7QdRSTzWC...

Montmatre - Paris

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAj2UMLLv...

Paris restaurant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxgq9qRe3...

Paris is everything I knew it would be and much much more.  It is a very beautiful city which has not been destroyed by war like London - my home-town - a mere shadow of it's former Imperial Glory.

The Paris Metro is superb - fast, efficient and clean and the trains run on rubber wheels, less noise and none of that vile shrieking you get down the London Choob!

Answer 8

You are right.  This reason for keeping a royal family is a complete and utter lie.

Answer 9

Whilst people would certainly visit to see our other attractions, it's somewhat daft to suggest the Queen is not something of a draw. The Americans and Japanese, in particular, seem to like turning up to stare at the ol' lady...

Furthermore, I'm not sure where your logic would lead. So long as we have *other* attractions, it's fine to get rid of one or two? Righto - I'm putting in a plan to tarmac over the Wiltshire ritual landscape, on the grounds that people might still want to come and see the Angel of the North.

Answer 10

To answer its ignorance and not knowing how to guage the issue my argument is it cost each one of us .66p last year to have the royal family imagen if we had some other tourist attraction that cost say £5 each the new attraction im sure would be something that makes the attraction of a royal family rather dim....  out with the old in with the new i say......

Answer 11

I believe taxpayers pay more to keep people on the dole than they do to support the Queen.

My tax dollars go towards the President's salary, keeping up the White House, Camp David, Air Force 1, Marine 1, the Secret Service, the VIce President and all his accouterments, my Senators, Congressman, ad nauseam...

I think the Queen does a great service for the UK.  So, her family has had a hard time.  Whose hasn't???

Getting rid of the Royal Family is such an old debate, anyway.

Answer 12

Two words for you; Walt Disney.

Disney romantisized the idea of Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses, and many people in the west grew up with those fairy tales which sugar coated (to put it lightly) the reality of the monarchies of Europe.

But because most westerners are ignorant of the facts, they have this romantic ideal painted in their head which oportunistic business people in Europe no doubt readily exploit.

It sounds like you're a Brit, so, as someone living in America, just two words for you; Walt Disney.

Observe and analyze early Disney films.  You'll see what I'm talking about; an entire generation of Americans was brainwashed by those movies and they do not know the reality of the monarchies.

My apologies on their behalf, since I know they will never apologize.

peace out.

Answer 13

Yes,of course there would still be tourists going to Buckingham Palace but,would there be as many if it wasn't a lived in palace?

Answer 14

So many people go to Britain in hopes of catching a glimpse of the royals.  Not many really do, but they hope to.

Answer 15

What you say is true

Answer 16

The tourism argument doesn't really work as France abolished its monarchy 200 years ago and is the world's top tourist destination.

The Palace of Versailles is the top attraction in Europe and if Buckingham palace was to become more open to the public then I expect we would have the same results. Also we still have the London eye, Stone Henge, Tower of London, Millennium Stadium etc.

Don't forget the royal family cost the UK £150 MILLION per year or as they like to say on here 60-something pence per person.

Answer 17

What planet are you from the Queen is the only thing that this country has got worth having. I always thought it was a waste of money but statistics prove they treble there expenditure

Answer 18

I don't think that anyone would be say that tourists will stop coming to UK if there were no royal family. But royalty is a source of a great deal of fascination in the USA. It is undoubtedly the single greatest drawing card behind the fact that Americans are deathly afraid of foreign languages.

  USA and UK are are neck and neck for the number two position for expenditures in international tourist dollars (Germany is #1). It's a little suprising considering that USA is 5 times the population of UK.

  China has 16 times the population of Germany. Just the sheer numbers of people suggest that as their economy grows China will soon supplant Germany in the #1 position for expenditures of international tourist dollars . Most of the population will soon have grown children. Since they have no language connection to Europe, it will be interesting to see where they travel. I think that the royal family will attract a lot of the Chinese.

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My understanding is that civil list is £7,900,000 for the queen which she distributes to her family and £359,000 for the duke. The palaces would need to maintained anyway. That's not that much money. I would think the family generates hundreds of not thousands of times that amount in tourist revenue.

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International Tourism Receipts (millions US$) for the top five countries in the world (year 2005).

$30,669 UK

$35,398 Italy

$42,276 France

$47,891 Spain

$81,680 USA