In the summer of 2012, the remains of King Richard III were found under a parking lot in Leicester, not far from the Bosworth battlefield where he was felled in 1485 as the last of Britain’s Plantagenet kings.

The king had been buried by monks beneath a long gone abbey, which was also buried beneath a municipal parking lot. The city of Leicester wasted no time in making the king, who is arguably Shakespeare’s most loathsome villain, a pillar of its tourism plan.

Royalty is a strong attraction in British tourism. The Royal Wedding of 2011, watched globally by two billion people on TV, brought 600,000 visitors to the summer opening of Buckingham Palace so they could see Kate’s wedding dress, but Richard III?

Most historians agree that Richard was not the monster that Shakespeare portrayed him as. The Tudors who were in power when the Bard was writing had been on the other side of the War of the Roses. Still Shakespeare’s ruthless psychopath remains the popular perception.

For Leicester tourism, he’s an angel.

“What we've seen with Richard III is a significant increase in hotel occupancy” and a lifting of “the profile of Leicester right across the world,” said Traynor Martin of Leicester’s Chamber of Commerce.

“The discovery has been huge for Leicester,” says Erica Graffin, the marketing manager of Kent-based Tours International. Leicester has always been proud of its connections with Richard III and in particular his last battle at Bosworth. The actual discovery of the King underneath a city car park will really drive tourism, especially among history enthusiasts.”

Leicester, despite grumblings from York, which believes his remains belong with them, will place the bones in a tomb in Leicester’s Anglican Cathedral next May as the center of a new $6.2 million Visitors’ Center that it hopes will give the city a powerful tourist attraction. The center will include a haunting facial reconstruction made from DNA evidence.

“As of yet we haven’t seen the Visitor Center, but we do know that it will be situated on the site of the discovery of his remains,” says Graffin.

Tours International has put together a package that includes all key Richard III sites in the UK, covering his birth, marriage and death at the hands of Henry Tudor. It also includes a Medieval Banquet.

“We only launched our Richard III tour last month but are anticipating significant interest as the discovery of his remains made worldwide news,” says Graffin. “Our history and Shakespeare tours are generally very popular with our U.S. clients.”

The timing couldn’t be better for Leicester as Britain will celebrate Shakespeare’s 450th birthday in April just as the Visitor Center is scheduled to open.

All of the attractions associated with the Bard will be holding special events for the Shakespeare birthday. Tours International, for instance, is offering a Shakespeare package that goes to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit his birthplace, Anne Hathaway's cottage, the Swann Theater, Mary Arden's Tudor Farm and more.

If you get to Leicester before spring, you’ll find a free exhibition on Richard III at Leicester’s medieval Guildhall and Blue Badge Guided Walks that explore Richard III’s connections to Leicester, visiting key locations he was associated with including the Blue Boar Inn (now a Travelodge), where he spent his last night alive.

The Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre features interactive exhibits. From March onwards, the Bosworth Heritage Centre runs guided walks out into the battlefield where the final act of the War of the Roses was fought.