The William-Kate wedding is slated to become the hot ticket event of the year, with tourism promoters hoping to use the event to tap the massive Indian market
The William-Kate wedding is slated to become the hot ticket event of the year, with tourism promoters hoping to use the event to tap the massive Indian market
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VisitBritain, the organisation that promotes tourism to the United Kingdom (UK), got it right when it did a survey of India. The survey said, 'Indians travelling abroad do a fair bit of shopping and love to show off their 'imported' purchases to friends and relatives when they get back home'.
u00a0Indian social culture, 'also dictates that travellers bring back gifts and trinkets for family and friends from their trips abroad', the survey also found.
Souvenirs to mark Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton on April 29 are already flooding the market. Some are a trifle tacky. But collectors of English fine bone China may wish to go back with three tasteful pieces unveiled by the Royal Collections.
Featuring 22-carat gold, there is an eight-inch plate costing Pound40 (approximately Rs 2,915) a tankard valued at Pound35 (approximately Rs 2,551) and a Pound25 (approximately Rs 1,821) pill box. William and Kate, whose initials decorate each of the items, have personally approved the designs.
The prince's coronet appears above the letters - W in gold and C (for Catherine) in silver - and written in a circle are the words, 'To celebrate the marriage of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton 29th April 2011.'
u00a0They are available from the Royal Collection website and its shops at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and are also sold at the royal estates in Balmoral, Highgrove and Sandringham. The royal family has decided that if there is money to be made, it should have a share of the proceeds.
However, profits from the sale of the authorised souvenirs will go to the Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity set up by the Queen in 1993 under the chairmanship of Prince Charles to look after the royal family's art works and make them available to the wider public.
u00a0There will be plenty of mugs, plates, tea towels, cushions and other souvenirs on the market. Some will refer to "William & Kate", others to "William and Catherine".
u00a0It is estimated that 30m overseas visitors a year add over Pound17 billion annually to the UK exchequer. As two of the world's leading economies, China and India are being targetted.
How many from India?
The number of visitors from India is now edging towards the million mark but many come to see their relatives in Britain the Indian origin population in the UK is put at 1.6m. This explains why the average length of stay for Indian tourists is nearly a month.
VisitBritain is encouraging Indians to come, if possible, for the wedding. The route of the wedding will be published well in advance so that tourists can take up vantage points if they wish to see the royal coaches transport William and Kate to Westminster Abbey. It will be a view of old world Britain.
"London has enough hotel capacity to handle extra demand," according to a VisitBritain spokesman. "People don't have to stay in the centre of town - a half hour tube journey can bring them in from the outlying suburbs."
Research shows that for Indians, "London is the key area of interest." Visiting iconic attractions such as Madame Tussauds, London Eye and the Tower of London is common. But most, "spend a fair amount of time in shops and shopping malls", even though few things are not available in Mumbai and other big cities these days.
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William and Kate graduated from St Andrew's University where she first caught his eye
Nevertheless, Indians will, "invariably buy clothes, branded perfumes, cosmetics items (watches, jewellery) and gifts/ novelties. Practically all Indians shop for souvenirs, chocolates and confectionary when they travel."
Out of London, St Andrew's, a small Scottish town where William and Kate studied, is expected to receive increased visitor numbers, along with Wales, where the couple will live close to where the prince is serving with the RAF.
Indians are influenced by movies, it seems. "Bollywood is a major driver in visiting locations used in popular films."
Scotland has always been popular, along with the Lake District and, for repeat visitors, the Cotswolds. But Yorkshire, the largest county that offers some of Britain's most spectacular scenery, has yet to be discovered by Indians who are still apprehensive of self-drive holidays.
When Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, a billion television viewers watched the wedding ceremony at St Paul's Cathedral across the world. This time the audience might be four billion, which would make it "easily the biggest broadcast event in history.
Coverage of the wedding will give Britain a golden opportunity to demonstrate the strength of its history and tradition, but also show the world how that story is being brought right up to date."
Sandie Dawson, chief executive of VisitBritain, says, "The Royal Wedding is set to deliver a welcome boost not just to the tourism industry in London but across Britain."
She hopes the cool people of Mumbai, for example, will be able to identify with cool Britannia. "William and Kate are a modern couple."
They hang out at the equivalent of places like Indigo in Mumbai. "They go to nightclubs and they are outdoor people," adds Dawson. "Kate seems to shop on the high street which is very accessible.
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The wedding dress will give us a chance to highlight our designers while the wedding gifts will showcase our outstanding craftspeople, potters, glass and textiles. All this helps us tell the story of contemporary Britain. It is the most wonderful publicity boost for the country."
If Kate is gifted a sari by Mumbai, the chances are she will wear it. Prince Charles's wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, has yet to take out the nine-metre green silk sari with a traditional zari border, blouse and bangles given to her as wedding gifts by the dabbawallahs of Mumbai in 2005.
Charles, a frequent visitor to India, has introduced Camilla to the country he obviously loves. William has yet to do that with Kate - in fact, neither William nor Harry has been to India yet.
When she walked the catwalk in a fashion show
A word of warning for visitors from India: women should not put their jewellery or other valuables in check-in luggage.
And people should be wary of out of date ufffd20 notes, which many foreign currency dealers in India are currently off loading on unsuspecting customers these notes are no longer legal tender.
A show to remember
As Britain prepares for Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton on April 29, I can remember another equally momentous one that of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer on July 29, 1981. As the most junior reporter on The Daily Telegraph, I was naturally low down the pecking order.
Weasel
We had just been issued with what passed then for mobile phones, big, heavy walkie-talkies, with the most senior reporter assigning himself the call sign, 'Weasel one' for some reason, which I never quite grasped, "weasel" was a joke word on the paper.
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I was, 'Weasel 43' and assigned three positions: I had to stand in The Strand and report that the carriage containing Diana had passed me on its way to St Paul's where the wedding would take place.
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The second position was in front of Buckingham Palace where I later stood patiently with tens of thousands of people for a glimpse of the newly married bride and groom as they came out and exchanged a brief kiss on the balcony.
My third and final position was to stand on a platform at Paddington Station and see out the train as it ferried Charles and Diana to Lord Mountbatten's home, Broadlands, in Hampshire, for what would be the start of their honeymoon.
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After the train had departed, I scooped up some of the colourful confetti that had been tossed over the royal couple, pressed it in my diary and later gave it to my wife as a memento of British history. She still has it.
Italian
Since William's parents had married in St Paul's, he decided not to choose the cathedral as his wedding venue. Charles and Diana were divorced but, in the early years, the marriage seemed happy enough. It fell to me to travel with "Carlo and Deeyana", as the Italians called them, to Sicily, Florence, Venice and elsewhere in Italy. Later, I went with them to the Middle East - Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain.
I got hauled over burning coals for reporting the Saudi Royal family had given Diana jewels worth a million pounds when the accompanying Buckingham Palace press officer had insisted only nominal gifts would be exchanged between the two sides I could not let on my source was, as they say, reliable, but it took two or more years for the truth to emerge.
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By the time we got to India in 1992, the marriage had fallen apart but I was the last to realise it I was there with Diana at Rashtrapati Bhavan, then in Calcutta, in Agra in front of the Taj and in Jaipur where she turned her face away when Charles, after winning a trophy in a polo match, tried to give her a kiss.
Forgiven
It cannot have been easy for William to choose Westminster Abbey either for his wedding for it was here that his mother's funeral was held in 1997. We remember her two sons, William and Harry, heads bowed, walking behind their mother's cortege.
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The image was heart breaking. Today, it has become fashionable for some to denigrate the monarchy. A handful even argue for a republic. But Britain is not Nepal. Despite all that has happened, the monarchy remains an integral and respected part of British history.
This is largely because the Queen has scarcely put a foot wrong since she was crowned Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953. It is my guess that when Charles succeeds his mother as king, his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, will become Queen Camilla, although many have not forgiven her for being what Diana called the third person in her marriage. And in time, Kate Middleton will become Queen Catherine.
Skimpy
The official machinery has already swung into action and refers to her as, "Miss Catherine Middleton" in all its pronouncements. But to the public, whose perceptions are shaped by the tabloids, she is still "Kate" the nice girl who caught William's eye when she strutted the catwalk wearing a skimpy outfit in a fresher's fashion show at St Andrew's University in Scotland.
They have more or less been together since they met in 2001. Save for a short period when they had a tiff, William and Kate, now both 28, appear to have lived together as a couple and been accepted as such by their friends.
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Does it matter that Kate comes from a reasonably well to do business family and isn't like Diana from the ranks of blue blooded aristocracy? For some it does because class is imbedded in the British character.
The photographer Mario Testino, responsible for the iconic images of Diana, recently also took pictures of William and Kate and found them "brimming with happiness". The indications are that William and Kate truly love each other and are well suited. As Charles joked, they have been "practising" long enough.
Memorable
Though William and Kate may wish to have a quiet, private wedding that will not be possible. As happened with Diana after the tragedy of her car crash, the authorities demonstrated that they could put on a memorable funeral.
Compared with the past Britain may be a declining power. But when it comes to a royal wedding, Britain will prove that no other country can touch it when it comes to pomp and circumstance.
For William's bachelor bash, turn to & section
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