Royal Events: Coronations, Births and Marriages - Impacts on UK Shopping

Coronation of King Charles III & Queen Camilla           - Coronation spending by Consumers expected to be more than £1.4 billion

King Charles' Coronation will be held on Saturday, 6 May 2023.

The Centre for Retail Research has calculated the amount being spent by households on Coronation souvenirs and memorabilia, street parties and celebratory meals, extra spending in pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, and spending by foreign tourists wishing to view the Coronation will be £1,415.7 million (equivalent to US$1747.75m or €1608.72m).

If you are a journalist and want the press release, please contact us at research@retailresearch.org. 

• Souvenirs and Memorabilia: spending of £245.91m
• Hospitality: Celebratory Spending of £846.84m
• Spending by Additional Foreign Tourists of £322.93m
• TOTAL INCREASE IN SPENDING £1,415.7 million 

Souvenirs and Memorabilia: spending of £245.91m. The main categories are: 6 million coins, tokens and medallions, £20m spent on flags, bunting and table decorations, 10,000 celebratory teapots, 3.8m Coronation mugs, cups and other crockery, £22m of Coronation-themed jewellery. Sales of Coronation-themed books, albums, biographies, DVDs and digital media should total £35.4m, bags £3m, and toys, games, stationery and pens should mean sales of £19.8m.

Celebratory Spending of £846.84m. Spending of £61m on formal and informal street parties, barbeques and ‘friends invited over’. Celebrations at home should lead to increased spending on bakery, confectionery and non-alcoholic drinks of a further £73.25m.  A further £56.55m will be spent on champagne, sparkling wine, table wines, beer, cider and spirits.

Hospitality venues such as pubs, bars, and restaurants should do well, with two hours extra over the Coronation Weekend and an extra Bank Holiday on Monday. This should boost spending in the hospitality sector by £194.04m. We consider that the chances that Londoners will break into The Lambeth Walk or Knee’s Up, Mother Brown! In celebration of the Coronation are extremely remote (though very welcome).

Spending by Additional Foreign Tourists of £322.93m. Accommodation for the Coronation period is already in short supply and many London hotels have increased their room rates (this increased profitability has been included in the totals). Another 250,000 foreign tourists are to come to Britain to experience the Coronation, spending a further £322.93m on hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, visiting attractions in London and away from London.

Millions of people are now getting organised to make this event a time to remember, particularly for children. Although some nay-sayers complain about the expense of this slimmed-down Coronation, we have shown that at more than £1.4 billion it will generate at least seven times its cost in additional demand, involving people having - at last - a thoroughly good time.  As the Coronation is beamed into television sets in every country around the world it will also help to stimulate interest in visiting Britain and in our tourism offer, providing further longer-term benefits.

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The Queen's Platinum Jubilee 2022 (70th Anniversary)

For the last ten years the Centre for Retail Research has carried out surveys of how significant royal events, such as weddings and births, affect retail spending.

2022 is the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years since she ascended to the throne. It will be marked by a variety of national and local events, culminating in a four-day UK bank holiday weekend (Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June). There will be Trooping the Colour with 1400 soldiers, 400 musicians and 200 horses. A Birthday Parade, 1,500 Jubilee Beacons to be lit and a Platinum Party at the Palace. On Sunday 5th June there will be The Big Jubilee Lunch, celebrated by street parties and similar events up and down the country. One million trees have already been planted. The Tower of London will be filled by 20m flowers to celebrate 70 years. 'Visitors will plunge', according to The Telegraph, 'down a giant slide, traverse a huge woven willow nest and immerse themselves in a "swarm" of copper insect sculptures'. Crumbs!

Based on previous work for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Centre for Retail Research estimates that new retail spending relating to the Platinum Jubilee will amount to a total of £408.29m (million). The period covered is April-June 2022.

Summary of Retail Spending for Platinum Royal Jubilee 2022

Souvenirs, Memorabilia, Mugs. Souvenir spending at £281.55m will be more than half this total, including the purchase of 6m mugs, 10m flags and royal decorations, and more than 1m books and royal pictures. Around 1.8m DVDs and digital media dealing with the Queen’s life and her family will be sold and around 2.8m items of stationery and pens.

Street Parties and Informal Events. These were an important part of the last Jubilee. Anxiety about covid has probably reduced commitment to street parties, but we expect 7m people to join The Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday 5 June. This should produce spending of £21.90m on food (much home-made) and £25.22m on drinks, a total of £46.92m.  There have been forecasts that the numbers at the Big Jubilee Lunch will be as high as 10m, but this is not borne out by the number of applications so far for street closures.  Informal celebrations and private events by an estimated 6.75m persons should produce sales of £29.64m. Sales of Jubilee-themed cakes and confectionery will produce spending of £44.80m.

Royal Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday Events. The main royal events should be watched by tens of thousands of spectators, directly or on specially-provided screens. The Platinum Party at the Palace should be watched by 510,000, slightly more than last time.

Trooping of the Colour on Thursday 2 June, is expected to be watched by more than 12,000 spectators. The special Epsom Derby Day will get 20,000 spectators. The Platinum Jubilee Pageant should get a crowd of 10,000-20,000. Overall we expect a total of 674,000 people to watch these events in person, more than 23m to watch on TV, and spending on food and drink of £5.4m.

Tourist Spending. Tourism from abroad has been badly hit by the covid pandemic, but we expect a further 207,000 tourists to visit London, attracted by the Jubilee, who would not otherwise have visited. Their spending should be around £143m. 

Around the country. Many events of local significance will be organised during or around the Platinum Bank Holiday period. To name four, the Royal Norfolk Show this year will feature a Royal Salute involving 1,000 artistes, in Birmingham the CBSO will present a Royal Concert, in Stoke-on-Trent a Garden Party and Celebration will be held in the Potteries Museum, and as an example of smaller communities the village of Hopton-on-Sea (Norfolk) is planning a range of activities and entertainments to celebrate the Paltinum Jubilee. At this stage we have been unable to make any estimate of spending relating to these local events.

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle according to Nielsen (CNBC, 2018) drew 29mn viewers in the U.S. alone, starting at 7 am EST. At the more highbrow end, an article on their marriage on The Economist website received more views in a single day than any other in 2018.

Retail businesses, restaurants, pubs, hotels, the tourist industry and companies that produce souvenirs have to take a view about how much celebratory spending there is likely to be.