Over our long weekend in London, the massive tourist appeal and curiosity in the royal family became very apparent. After doing a little research I found that London alone attracts 25 million overnight visitors a year and in 2009 these visitors spent an estimated £10.6 billion. (London Tourism Statistics). Some of the top visited attractions include the British Museum, the National Gallery and the Tate Modern Art Museum all having nearly 5 million visitors a year, not to mention the free admission probably does not hurt all three of these places.
London was a place where I found government and tradition to prevail throughout the city and everyday life. On our royal walking tour our first stop was Buckingham palace right in the midst of the changing of the guard ceremony. If you ever plan to see this ceremony, spectators start finding their perfect spot to watch up to two hours before the ceremony begins. In essense, all I could see peeking over other visitors heads was the Queen’s guards simply marching around and tooting their horns. As we regrouped with our guide, who explained to us that this tradition was started souley for tourism to try to improve Queen Victoria’s popularity at the time and since then this traditition has only expanded and attracted tourists from all over. I think many tourists come to London hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen or one of her sons out in the city. This fascination goes as far as being about to follow the British Monarchy on Twitter (http://twitter.com/BritishMonarchy). Another way of getting a taste of what it would be like to be royal is visiting the Jewel house in the Tower of London. We were all surprised at how much there was to do at the Tower of London and how big it was. We had come for one purpose and that was to see the Crown Jewels. The Crown Jews include crowns and coronation regalia from past and present rulers. It is considered a working collection because things are actually sometimes taken out for royal use. These items house some of the most and largest precious stones including a 105 carot diamond in the Queen Mother’s Crown. Although you are not allowed to take pictures I can never forget the beauty of each of the pieces.
Tourism is already a major part of London’s economy however, this is about to see yet another huge expansion in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. “The UK inbound visitor economy is forecasted to benefit by almost £2 billion over the period 2008-2017”(Source: VisitBritain estimates). Some of the upcoming improvement include 13,300 new hotel rooms available, a £1.5 billion dollar Olympic park and new and improved infrastructure (Investments and benefits of hosting the Olympic game for London). We already noticed them working on the Underground system over the time we were visiting and you can tell the excitement from everyone who talks about this grand upcoming event. I find myself wondering if I do return to London what will be different because of these upcoming events.
More Links:
Facts about the London Olympics http://www.etoa.org/Pdf/visit_britain_olympics_response.pdf
More on the Importance of Tourism and the Olympics in London http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/ministers_speeches/7162.aspx
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