Long Live The Queen

There’s no doubt about the major news story right now. This weekend, travel sections down-paged, or disappeared completely, as newspapers devoted nearly all their focus to Elizabeth II’s death at Balmoral on Thursday.

Expect the story to still be very well covered as far ahead as next weekend and the funeral, with that very much extending to travel sections. When the angle – as cold and calculating as it feels to call a death that – is this big, there’s simply no ignoring it.

There are various possible travel responses, some of which we’ve already seen (in this morning’s Metro, for instance). A list of Her Majesty’s most beloved destinations. A destination feature about Windsor. A run-through of royal palaces one can visit. Commonwealth round-ups. Filming locations featured in the four seasons of the series The Queen – which Netflix will be flogging – and indeed for the upcoming fifth, whose November release can’t come soon enough. If you haven’t already, I’d assemble anything you can to pitch to those angles, and that you get the all-client press releases rolling out.

It’s worth considering cleverer things, too. If any of your clients have a less-told, fascinating link with the Queen or royal family (but maybe less so Prince Harry), that could be worth exploring. Soon enough, too, the focus will switch to King Charles III, and the same lists or potential features will be applied to him. Tread carefully here, though, in terms of Diana: I’d miss off Paris in a round-up of seminal destinations, for instance. You don’t want to attract any kind of controversy.

Finally, be conscious of the mood in general. This is not the time for peddling any anti-monarchist sentiment – as much as some celebs will undoubtedly do so in order to make noise on Twitter, etc. – and thus nor for anti-monarchist travel features. It’s not worth going there.