Flexible Office & Work Space Blog
Keep up to date with all the latest news and trends from the flexible space sector. By Jennifer Brooke
Apr18
The Royal Wedding and the economy
We’re currently hearing much about the Royal Wedding and its possible effect on British business which takes place on Friday 29 April 2011 at Westminster Abbey.
Suggestions that the £10m wedding will cost the economy £6bn in revenue due to lost productivity and overtime payments are rife. The number has been calculated by the CBI.
The timing of the wedding certainly hasn’t helped the UK economy, falling three days after Easter Monday and just before the first May bank holiday, providing two three day weeks for businesses.
Officebroker have recently issued a blog post stating they will be fully open during the wedding celebrations and has launched the campaign keepbritainmoving.com with growing support.
Jim Venables, Managing Director of Officebroker states “While I am proud of the history and heritage that accompanies our Monarchy (simply the best tourist attraction in the world) – it seems ridiculous that the UK government would choose to bring the country to a grinding, unnecessary halt given the current state of the economy. That is why I want business owners to join me and make it clear to Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne that: While the wedding bells may be ringing for William and Kate, it could be the funeral drum beating for UK businesses.”
Looking at the positives, the wedding will drive revenues in retailing and tourism. The estimates are expected to range from £400m to £1bn. VisitBritian have recently issued a press release suggesting much interest from wealthy BRIC countries.
“Our research shows that in a typical year Britain’s Monarchy generates, on the most conservative estimates, well over £500 million a year directly and indirectly from overseas tourists – but the benefit of a Royal Wedding year is likely to outstrip that.”
What are your thoughts on the wedding, and how will it affect your business?
Image courtesy of WolfieWolf - Flickr Creative Commons.
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Good news for the UK economy as consumers set to spend more this year, according to E&Y - http://t.co/7iZytO2gax
posted on 11/06/2013 13:43:13
@BizspaceUK Thanks - Marcus was a fantastic speaker, very positive & motivational. His tips do help, even on a grey Monday!
posted on 11/06/2013 09:26:10
Posted on April 21, 2011 by Andy Jacobs
I think the Royal Wedding is a great thing for this country and how often do they happen? This is the future King or England getting married. We don’t get this with every Royal Wedding.
My advice to anyone would be to get over it and enjoy the day whether you sit in front of the telly waving a little flag on a stick or take advantage of the fact that lots of people will stay at home and go to the beach or something.
Moaning about the cost to industry is just lazy politics. It’s one day from a year that will probably be repeated 4 or 5 times a CENTURY, the feel good factor that it will create will be a shot in the arm for business and there are plenty of other drains on the economy to worry about before this. Hopefully, in terms of tourism, this will have a net gain to the UK economy. There are plenty of other issues in business that have no positive effect that need to be picked on first.
Jumping on the anti-wedding bandwagon seems to me to be a disingenuous attempt to be different. And ‘funeral drum’??? Sensationalist rubbish.