I'd suggest that centuries of tradition have value, not least for the older generations of Brits, but especially for the tourist dollars drawn to the pageantry. Yes, it's a bit Disney, but it has a little more class and visitors seem to love it.
France got rid of their monarchy some time ago. They still get plenty of tourism. I can give plenty of other examples where the royal family was let go and tourism continued to flourish. The important thing is that all of the palaces and castles would still exist and become open to the public as museums. If anything, tourism would improve if people could visit Buckingham Palace like they visit the Palace at Versailles.
That's a good point, and well made, but it is still the case that royal-themed souvenirs fly off the shelves and also that overseas visitors flock to any royal/state spectacle when in the UK; mostly, I reckon, for the sheer anachronistic oddity and weirdness.
But we probably have no need to get rid of our monarchy, the family seems to be doing that job for us. When that happens, we can see whether tourist revenues go up or down :-)
Maybe if you did a bit of basic research you would learn that the public _can_ visit Buckingham Palace and tour various rooms that were basically mini-museums containing parts of the royal collections. Last time I popped in was soon after watching Tim's Vermeer when I learned that the picture in question had been rotated into the collection on display.
It is absolutely amazing to see so many people who obviously have no skin in this particular game crawling out from under their rocks to share their strongly held beliefs about the royal family, as if the rest of us give a toss about your opinion...
