King Charles’ 2024 Royal Tour of Australia Amounted to Less Than Half the Cost of Queen Elizabeth’s 2006 Tour Down Under

King Charles and Queen Camilla’s visit to Australia in October cost significantly less than Queen Elizabeth’s visit 18 years earlier.

When Queen Elizabeth visited in 2006 – a five-day trip that included stops in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and the Commonwealth Games – it cost $899,701 (£716,774), according to The Telegraph. In 2011, during what would prove to be her last visit to Australia, the Queen visited Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth over 11 days; the trip cost over $1.6 million (£1,328,461).

Queen Elizabeth II greets crowds upon arrival at Fairbairn Base on October 19, 2011 in Canberra, Australia.

Alex Coppel – Pool/Getty

By comparison, the King and Queen’s trip two months ago cost $372,797 (£297,000) — which The Telegraph it is less than half the cost of the late Queen’s short visit 18 years ago.

The total cost of Charles and Camilla’s six-day tour – which works out to just over $62,000 per day – includes travel, accommodation, meals, events, hospitality, transport and flag making, according to The Telegraph.

The royal tour, which preceded the second stop in Samoa, was the king’s first visit Down Under as monarch. The trip has been adjusted to include a day off while he continues his cancer treatment, which will last until 2025 but is moving in a positive direction, according to a Dec. 20 palace report.

Charles and Camilla’s tour of Australia appears to have been well received by the public there, apart from one senator mocking them during a reception in Canberra at Parliament. The couple had up to 10 engagements a day and were welcomed by an estimated 10,000 fans at the Sydney Opera House.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla leave after the service at the Anglican Church of St. Tom on October 20, 2024 in Sydney, Australia.

Dean Lewins – Pool/Getty

Although they flew part of the way (from the UK to Singapore and back) on a commercial airline, the tour figures – published in Sydney Morning Herald — “likely to draw criticism from the republican movement as Australia grapples with a cost-of-living crisis,” The Telegraph reported.

Australia Solve the Political Monitor showed that 31% of people think the king, 76, is “doing a good job”, down from 45% just after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth, in 2022. Support for Australia becoming a republic rose from 36% to 41% of those surveyed, and the king said before his tour of Australia this year that Australia’s retention of him as head of state was “a matter for the Australian public to decide”.

King Charles believes Australia whether he remains head of state is ‘a matter for the Australian public to decide’

Queen Camilla and King Charles III visit the Australian National Botanic Gardens on October 21, 2024 in Canberra, Australia.

Arthur Edwards/Pool/Getty

Jamaica is taking the first step towards removing King Charles as head of state

Australia is still one of 14 countries in the world that retain a British monarch as head of state. In 2021, Barbados became the latest nation to become a republic, and Jamaica — which currently considers Charles its head of state — recently took a step toward removing the king in that capacity.

A recent UK IPSOS survey found that 43% of the British public think the Royal Family is “good value for money for UK taxpayers”. In terms of dollars and cents, “travel expenses are among the biggest bills in the royal finances each year,” The Telegraph reported. For example, Charles and Camilla’s three-day state visit to France last year cost almost $148,000, and their state visit to Kenya cost $209,000.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive for a visit to Canberra at Defense Establishment Fairbairn, Canberra Airport on October 21, 2024 in Canberra, Australia.

Tracey Nearmy/Getty

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Specifically for the royal tour of Australia, most of the money was spent primarily on travel, accommodation and meals, followed by event and hospitality costs; land transport; and costs including the national contribution to the Greening Australia conservation project.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education