To receive a presentation on the above titled item from Julia White, Visitor Manager (RBWM).  

Julia White, Visitor Manager presented and outlined the above titled item. The Forum were informed that the Royal Wedding had attracted over 120,000 visitors to the borough. The Royal Wedding had been watched by an audience of 2 billion individuals worldwide with Windsor being captured by various media outlets. It was noted that 120 Royal Ambassadors had volunteered to help with the safety and crowd management of the day. As part of the crowd safety and planning measures in place on the day there had been 7km of crowd barriers placed along the procession route, along with 746 extra toilets and 13 tonnes of waste had been collected by a team of 80 waste collectors from Veolia and Urbaser. It was also highlighted that there had been 68 catering units, 20,160 bottles of Buxton water handed out, 45,000 passenger journeys on South Western Railway, 22,000 on Great Western Railway, 100,000 pints of Windsor & Eton Brewery’s Harry and Meghan’s Windsor Knot sold nationally and 1000 tonnes of material had been used to resurface town centre roads.

Members were told that there had been a significant impact to the local economy and that local businesses had benefitted from increased trade both before and after the Royal Wedding, with some achieving staggering increases such as 400% compared to 2017 data. The Forum were told that the hotel occupancy rates throughout the Royal wedding was 98%. Windsor Town Centre had seen increased footfall with a further 82% on the Royal Wedding day. It was reported that footfall had increased by 35% weekly since the wedding and some business had seen further increases of up to 150%  for the week leading up to the wedding.

It was highlighted that in the lead up to the Royal Wedding that 50 journalists and broadcast crews from Australia, USA, Canada, Japan, UK, Brazil, Argentina, Norway, Sweden, Spain, France and the UAE had been hosted by the VisitWindsor team. There had also been multiple enquiries which had been directed to partners for specific tailored needs and editorial images had been provided. It was also noted that on the website and social media platforms that messaging encouraging visitors to plan ahead, extend their stay and return again had been received well. The Visitor Information Centre had also sold official royal wedding merchandise and had run the box office for the car park on the Review Ground.

There had been 120 trained and deployed Royal Ambassadors who supported the Royal Wedding and there had been 12 new ambassadors from East Berkshire College who also took part. The Forum were told that the borough’s Ceremonial Wardens also worked as Ambassadors for the event and that refresher training on spectator safety, first aid training and counter terrorism (provided by Project Griffin) had been provided. Ambassadors also received media attention for their shoes which had been provided by Hotter Shoes.

At the conclusion of the presentation Members discussed whether timed ticketing could be introduced at Windsor Castle and it was stated that conversations surrounding this had happened. It was noted that the focus should be on promotion of advances ticket sales. Members also discussed whether there were any locations suitable for secure bag drop offs and it was noted that some operator tours provided the facility for luggage to be held on their vehicles and that sites were being looked at for a left luggage facility. Operators were now offering whole day tours in Windsor as opposed to only a couple of hours which is a positive improvement on previous arrangements. Members discussed their role in the Royal Wedding celebrations and that they had also been involved with the media with giving interviews and that the perception of their robes had been well received by members of the public. Forum Members also discussed ways in which visitor volume and income generated from their visits could be monitored and it was noted that there was not enough budget to carry out economic impact assessments or any further research work. Members were informed that limited footfall figures could be monitored but that it was not a clear indicator of specific retail expenditure or if there had been any economic impact.