Many British tabloids projected that the wedding between Britain’s Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle, a highly anticipated event that took place on Saturday, May 19th, 2018 at around 7 a.m. Eastern US time, would prove a stimulant for the local economy.
Officials proposed that the wedding would bring increased tourism into the region. They claimed that as a result of this spike in tourism, many more people would patronize local eateries and pubs, which were allowed to stay open later than usual in honor of the occasion. They claimed that as a consequence, the local vendors would see greater profits, which in turn would boost the tourism revenue of the region.
Other officials claimed that revenue would be further amassed through smaller vendors, such as those selling Royal Wedding souvenirs. What is significant about these types of stalls is that they are not an ordinary part of the British cityscape. Instead, they are set up for the express purpose of serving event goers, and thus any money they bring in will be in addition to ordinary tourism revenue.
While these are convincing arguments to support the view that the British economy will strengthen in the short-term as a result of Meghan and Harry’s wedding, there are also many arguments on the contrary. What many officials fail to consider is the reality that while more people indeed visited Britain to witness the royal procession, there were also many others who avoided the area because of a distaste for crowds. Several travel agencies have indicated that their customers raised concerns about traveling to Britain specifically for this reason.
Another important factor is the decrease in revenue attained from local citizens. Likely, many local people chose to stay home and watch the wedding on the television instead of going out and spending money like they might have on a normal Saturday afternoon. This would certainly be a downward pull on the total revenue amassed by local businesses.
In any case, there are valid points on either side of the argument. Economists will simply have to wait for the data to come in before a conclusive answer can be attained.
