Offices across the UK have been spookily quiet the past few days. First there was the Easter holidays, followed swiftly by the extended Royal Wedding / May Day Bank Holiday weekend. Many workers deemed the three day week in between these two mega-weekends as insignificant, and by taking just three days vacation many could be out of the office for 11 days. So has the Royal Wedding hindered the productivity of the UK economy?
- Extra holidays are a royal nuisance. In the Financial Times, Alison Smith wrote about the staffing troubles some companies have faced through the extended holidays. “Even within a single sector, different practices prevail,” she explained. Tesco, for example, will give the day off with pay to staff contracted to work,?and?will?pay?top?rates to staff who agree to work on the day. But Marks and Spencer is simply altering opening hours, staying shut until 1 pm so that staff can spend the morning watching the occasion if they choose, and then come in for a normal afternoon of work. Smith mused that at least 2012’s?extra bank holiday – for the Queen’s diamond jubilee – comes in early June, two months after Easter. “Not only will this relieve pressure on the days in between but, after this year’s extravaganza, employers will be better at handling the issue.”
- The view from across the Atlantic. Even the LA Times picked up on the fact that it may not be wise for the UK to add an extra holiday, “at an estimated cost of nearly nearly $10 billion”, when climbing out of a recession. “All the hype about block parties, big champagne orders and wedding kitsch of unspeakable tackiness has obscured a dismaying fact: The royal nuptials are likely to be a drag on Britain’s economy, not a boost.” They’ll cost the public purse at a time of painful government austerity. And “That loss dwarfs whatever gains come from tourism and sales associated with the royal wedding.”
- The good news, just in. CPI Financial published the results of a PwC survey into the economic impact of the royal wedding. They found that over six million adults will take extra holidays to make the most of the confluence of Easter, the bank holidays and the Royal Wedding. However, PwC also calculated that the commercial benefit to London from visitors’ expenditure would amount to about £107 million. A quarter of the visitors to London will spend between £50 and £75 a night on accommodation. One in five will spend between £100 and £149. But over 20, 000 people will spend upwards of £300 a night. It is estimated that 36 percent of visitors budgeting to spend between £75 and £99 per person per day on tourist attractions.
- Kate will make Britain financially great. In the Wall Street Journal, think tank director John Belrau argued that Kate Middleton, whose parents have become wealthy through their entrepreneurship and hard work, will be a good economic influence on the UK. “ [H]appiness through individual initiative is something Kate could encourage once she joins the royal family, by pointing to her family’s entrepreneurial background and championing Britain’s innovative firms.” No one can yet gauge what revenue Kate Middleton’s image will generate for Britain, nor how firmly her work ethic will take hold. But Berlau was certain that “When this couple says their ‘I dos,’ the royal family will officially be wed to the dreams and aspirations of millions of entrepreneurs in the United Kingdom and throughout the world.’
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