The Royal Family Received an Extra £1 Million Last Year Thanks to a Big Boost in Tourism
The past year has been filled with milestones for the British royal family, from weddings to births (and a few christenings and international tours in between). All those headlines and celebrations meant a major increase in visitors to royal residences, which in turn meant a rise in funds for the royal household.
Numbers released today in the annual Sovereign Grant report show that £7 million (or roughly $8.9 million) was paid to the royal household from the Royal Collection Trust, which manages exhibitions in royal residences, in the fiscal year ending March 2019. This is up from £6 million the previous year (April 2017-March 2018).
In the 2017-2018 fiscal year, 1.48 million people visited Windsor Castle. A spokeswoman for the Royal Collection Trust confirmed today that there had been an increase in visitor numbers to Windsor over the past year, although exact figures have yet to be released.
Weather, weddings, and currencies may all have played a role: "The increase in visitors could be due to a number of factors including increased interest following the Royal Weddings, an increase in inbound tourism due to the weak pound and the hot summer we experienced last year," she said.
Weddings can provide multiple occasions on which to visit a palace. Following Harry and Meghan’s wedding in May of 2018 at St George’s Chapel, their outfits went on display in Windsor Castle for several months, beginning in October. That same exhibit recently moved to the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Scotland.
Similarly, after Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank wed in October of last year at the same venue, their outfits were featured in a Windsor Castle exhibition starting in March of 2019.
Buckingham Palace is also open to visitors from July to September every year. The Royal Collection Trust pays the facilities management charge to the royal household for services provided in connection with admitting the public to the exhibitions.
All of that is added to the funds the Queen can spend in a year.
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