Looking At The PR Of The Royal Wedding

So yesterday saw the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and although many have expressed their congratulations towards the happy couple, as always, there are sceptics amongst the crowds.

Royal weddings, although lovely, are often extortionately priced and this primarily comes out of tax payers money (allegedly) – leading one to question: are they worth the hype?

Wills’ and Kate’s wedding saw a set back of approximately £34 million (so it is rumoured) yet it was also rumoured that it generated around a staggering £2bn towards the economy. Profit margins blew the roof off – yet can we expect to see similar figures next springtime?

How can a wedding bring in so much revenue? Some believe it not to be true, however when you think about the huge boom in tourism (it is thought that the event brought in an extra four million visitors to the UK) – it soon becomes clear just how valuable to the UK economy such proceedings are.

Many, however, remain angered at the announcement and the huge publicity coverage engagements as these generate. Anger turns towards ‘why should taxpayers pay for such affairs?’ With many not seeing how (even if revenue is generated) it will benefit the individual. That is of course, if this soon-to-be wedding will even turn over such high overheads in the first place?

Although a loved public figure, prince Harry is now 5th in the line of succession, soon to be 6th after the announcement that Kate Middleton is pregnant again. Meaning that the upcoming wedding will not nearly be as iconic as the ‘Wills’ and Kate’s’ wedding of 2011. The engagement however, proves iconic in another way. A prince in the direct line of succession marrying a divorced American woman with a black mother, a scenario which would have been unthinkable 20, maybe even 10 years ago. The announcement itself is iconic and will go down in history as symbolising change in traditions if nothing else.

Details of the wedding – vital to predicting costs have not yet been released – all we know at present is that it is set to be in spring 2018. The ambiguity is exciting and although the idea is not welcomed by everyone, the hype it has generated has to be admired. We, at present, have no way of knowing exactly how much of this wedding will be at the taxpayers expense, all we can hope that if it is of a high figure – the returns will be worth it.