Swedish royal wedding 'would benefit economy'

Crown Princess Victoria has no need to worry about the cost for the taxpayer of an eventual wedding date with her boyfriend Daniel Westling, a new report has shown.

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While the bill is likely to amount to tens of millions of kronor, the festivities would also bring in billions in revenue for Sweden, according to a report commissioned by Dagens Industri.

The newspaper enlisted the help of the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel), the Swedish Retail Institute (Handelns utredningsinstitut) and the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Association (Sveriges hotell- och restaurangföretagare) to calculate the costs and benefits of a royal wedding bash.

The Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Association said it would expect every hotel room in Stockholm county to be fully booked for a week, leading to extra tourist revenue of around 200 million kronor.

The Swedish Retail Institute predicted that sales of wedding related products in the weeks immediately before and after the ceremony would bring in a cool 2.5 billion kronor.

The Swedish Trade Federation estimated that the arrival of an additional 12,000 tourists to the capital would mean extra retail sales amounting to 30 million kronor.

But what of the costs? The security bill for visiting royals and various other celebrity guests would be astronomical.

The Royal Palace would need to be decorated and the entire Grand Hotel reserved for wedding guests.

When Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik married Mary Donaldson in 2004, the bill came to 15 million Danish kroner. There is nothing to suggest that a Swedish royal wedding would be any less expensive.

But all three organizations involved in compiling the report believe that Stockholm and Sweden would benefit greatly from the long-term PR value of a wedding between the Crown Princess and her gym-owner beau. All that remains is for one of them to pop the question.