Will royal wedding bells produce a financial boom in Britain?

It's still a good four months before the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, but vendors in Windsor are already trying to clear out stock from the last royal wedding. Nearly seven years ago, Prince William and Duchess Catherine wed as the whole world watched in Westminster Abbey. But now, a clearance sign hangs above the basket with the William and Kate souvenir mugs.
"We need room for the new goods," explains the woman working the counter. On May 19, Harry and Markle are to wed in Windsor, the royal residence town of 32,000 just outside the gates of London.
Souvenir merchants are, above all, looking forward to US tourists. "The Americans really spend a lot of money," she says. That Harry's fiancee is not only a US citizen, but also a famous actress, is one of a few reasons this wedding could be a financial boon to Britain.
Financial consulting firm Brand Finance projects a boost of more than 1 billion pounds (1.4 billion dollars) for the British economy in 2018 from the wedding festivities. A good 300 million pounds is expected to come from tourism, while 300 million pounds will be generated by media coverage, picture and television rights, and the overall publicity for Britain.
Another 250 million pounds could be spent on partying, according to Brand Finance. And then there's the "Meghan Effect," similar to the "Kate Effect" caused by the Duchess of Cambridge: The clothing that Markle wears sells out almost overnight. This phenomenon could potentially generate as much as 150 million pounds for the British economy.
And lastly, souvenir items could bring in another 50 million. However, some question whether US tourists are actually going to be flocking to Britain for the wedding.
Oliver Jager, chief executive of ForwardKeys, which monitors 17 million flight bookings a day, said that "there was no discernible increase in bookings for the UK as a consequence of the royal wedding." Similar caution is also being expressed by European Tourism Association CEO Tom Jenkins: "Don't expect visitors from abroad to come for this royal wedding; it is a pageant for domestic consumption. In the past, we have seen hotel prices rise around major royal events, but they soon come back to normality when hotels realize there is no additional demand."
Still, souvenir merchants in Windsor remain cautiously optimistic. One of them is Malkit Singh Aujla, who runs a shop directly across the street from Windsor Castle. He expects only increased demand in the week before and after the wedding - nothing more, nothing less.
But even if the huge crush of tourists doesn't materialize on the wedding day, the tourism industry could not come up with a better marketing event if it tried: Hotels in Windsor were almost completely booked out soon after the wedding date was announced in December. A likely explanation, however, is the large number of reporters from around the world expected to descend on Windsor to cover the wedding.
According to the Office of National Statistics, there was an increase of about 354,000 visitors to Britain in April 2011, the month that William and Kate got married - a 15 percent increase in comparison to April 2010. That was less than expected, yet when viewed over the span of the entire year, an overall positive effect was felt, with the number of holidaymakers in Britain up more than 7 percent. Whatever happens, Britain is chalking up record visitor numbers - not in the least because the pound has dropped in the wake of the Brexit vote.
Many sectors of the British economy look set to profit from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. From hotel managers to souvenir merchants, folks are already rubbing their hands in expectation.