Members of the British royal family have long been criticized for their use of taxpayer money, (after all, it takes significant amounts of money to help upkeep the family’s many luxurious palaces and other residential properties, not to mention their security detail) but the family is also a huge source of income for the British isles. It’s not just royal weddings that are a huge driver of tourist revenue, but the birth of royal babies as well. Here’s how much the country makes after welcoming a new member of the royal family.
Royal Family Tourism Earns Major $$$
It’s no secret that Great Britain makes a killing every year from tourist revenue thanks to the worldwide fascination with the British royal family. Huge royal weddings like Prince William and Kate Middleton’s 2011 nuptials and Prince Harry’s 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle draw tourists in droves to the island nation, bringing a huge source of revenue with them.
That 2011 wedding brought in an estimated £300 million (or a little over $390 million in US currency) jump in revenue from tourists. Not surprisingly, that’s not the only major milestone in a royal’s life that draws in surges of foreign crowds to Britain’s soil.
Even the kids do their part for the economy
Prince George’s arrival two years after his parents’ wedding in 2013 coincided with a record-breaking number of tourists in London. More than 29 million overseas and U.K. based visitorsThey made their way to the historic city. His younger sister Princess Charlotte’s birth year, 2015, saw that record broken yet again with almost 32 million tourists visiting London throughout the year.
These figures are estimates only. In total, it’s believed that the royal family is responsible for the lion’s share of the nearly $6 billion of tourist revenue that Britain makes every year, according to The Telegraph. With a number that huge, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how much effect on the British economy royal baby births have.
“While it’s impossible to quantify the effect the birth of a new royal baby will have on the number of tourists visiting London, it’s clear that London’s…royal connections and attractions are key drivers that attract people from the U.K. and abroad to the capital,” Gordon Innes, chief executive of London & Partners told the Evening Standard.
Not just tourism
Outside of potential tourist revenue, there’s plenty of other ways savvy business folk take advantage of a new royal baby. British clothing and toy companies experience a surge of sales when the adorable royal children are seen in cute outfits or with new toys.
That’s not the only way the new generation will generate money for their home country. Insider reported Prince George and Princess Charlotte will be moving to the U.K. $3.2 billion and $4.3 billionEach person will receive a sum of, respectively, over the course of their lifetime. That’s a lot of royal dough!
