Love them or loathe them, the royal family are up there with red telephone boxes and scones when it comes to images of Britishness. Souvenir shops are full of their faces, newspapers across the world discuss them, and television dramas based on their lives have never been more popular.

Whenever people are critical of the royal family, the oft-repeated retort is “but think of the tourism!”. This has been particularly common rhetoric recently, as many people question how a country facing mass strikes and a crippling cost of living crisis can afford the estimated £100 million cost of King Charles III’s coronation.

The royal family does bring tourism to the UK. The economic consultancy Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that the coronation weekend would lead to a £337 million boost from tourism and pub spending.

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