by James Ruggia
Last updated: 10:50 AM ET, Mon September 15, 2014
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
British tourism got an unexpected boost last week when Prince William and Kate Middleton announced that they were expecting a second royal child. In case you didn't know it, tourists, especially American tourists love the British royalty and all of the attractions attached to it.
William and Kate's Royal Wedding brought 600,000 visitors to Buckingham Palace so they could see the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress. Britain's Centre for Retail Research estimated that the first Royal Baby boosted British retail sales by about £243 million thanks to the sales of coffee mugs, t-shirts and even royal pacifiers. No wonder, Christopher Rodrigues, VisitBritain's chairman joked at the opening of the Destination Britain Show in Las Vegas (Sept.14, 15 and 16), that he had put in a special request for a second royal baby.
A poll last December by VisitBritain of 10,000 potential visitors (10 percent from the U.S.) showed that Britain's countryside and its heritage were key attractions. Royalty is important component of heritage in Britain. Buckingham Palace was at the top of what Americans wanted to see in Britain. Other popular royal sites include Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle (the Queen's weekend palace), the Royal Mews (where the Queen's horses are kept), Kensington Palace (the last home of Princess Diana), and the Tower of London (where many Queens met their untimely deaths).
"The Tower of London is our biggest attraction," said Ann Wilson, head of sales for Historic Royal Palaces, a consortia of such palaces as Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and Hillsborough Castle among others. "The Tower gets 3.4 million visitors per year, about 26 percent of them. We get many visitors who come for the history of these palaces and the history of the monarchy, but many people come because of the celebrity status of the royal family. We love them all."
London Pass recently revealed the sightseeing choices of card users over the course of a year. The pass' smartcard technology showed that in 2013, 23.7 percent of all visits to sites with Royal connections (including Windsor Castle and Kensington Palace) were made by visitors from the United States. Americans represented 19.32 percent of visits to all London Pass attractions, so the higher percentage point for Royal sites identifies them as a key draw for US tourists.
The royals have had their ups and downs over the years, but apparently the most Royal Wedding and the subsequent Royal Baby have restored the brand among U.S. visitors. Since 2011, American London Pass holders have grown their visits to royal attractions by more than 4 percent. The data also showed that Americans were more likely to wander well beyond city center. A third of all visits to Hampton Court Palace; a quarter of visits to Windsor Castle and almost 25 percent of visits to Chislehurst Caves in Kent were made by Americans.
Americans are in-depth sightseers, visiting fewer attractions than visitors from other nations (an average of just 1.39 attraction visits per pass per day compared to German pass holders who visited on average 1.72 attractions per pass per day, or French pass holders who visited 1.78 attractions per day). Taking their time to really explore and understand their chosen attractions, 76 percent of Americans bought longer duration London Passes for either three days or six days, rather than the one-day or two-day options.
The special relationship is not all the stuff of royal intrigues and pageantry as sites related to the World Wars, in which American and British commoners stood shoulder to shoulder was also popular with American pass holders. About 24 percent of visits to the pass' six World War attractions (HMS Belfast, the Imperial War Museum, the Firepower Royal Artillery Museum, the Jewish Museum and the Royal Air Force Museum) were all visited at a much higher ratio by U.S. visitors than London Pass attractions overall. A three-day London Pass is priced at £81 per adult and £56 per child (aged 5-15), and a six day pass at £108 per adult and £76 per child (aged 5-15).
The impact that domestic visitors have on the popularity pyramid of attractions becomes apparent in VisitLondon.com's overall Top Ten Attractions in the city for all visitors. They are in order: 1. The British Museum; 2. The National Gallery; 3. Natural History Museum; 4. Tate Modern; 5. EDF Energy London Eye; 6. Science Museum; 7. Victoria and Albert Museum; 8. Tower of London; 9. Royal Museums Greenwich (Royal Observatory Greenwich, The Queen's House, National Maritime Museum, Cutty Sark); and 10. Madame Tussauds London.
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