British Tour Operator Offers Diana Circuits

May 26, 1998 - 0:0
LONDON A London tour operator will offer tourists this summer the chance to visit places associated with the late Diana Princess of Wales, the Times reported Monday. For prices ranging from 19.5 to 58.5 pounds, tourists will, for example, be able to retrace the route of Diana's funeral procession or shop in Harrod's, the big store owned by the father of Dodi al-Fayed, who died along with the princess in a car crash in Paris last August. The Diana's London trips would include, beside the more classic halts outside Kensington Palace and Westminster Abbey, the Pimlico Nursery School where Diana worked before she married Prince Charles, or the keep-fit club where she used to go to work out.

The Times criticized as in bad taste, a plan to take sightseers to Eton College where Prince William, Diana's eldest son is now a pupil. But Nicole Pearce, who runs the agency and who thought up the Diana Memorial Tour, said the college was in any case easily accessible to the public. Eton is very easy to get to and accessible to the public, she said, adding: These tours will be very high quality.

There will be no salacious gossip or speculation and the guides will not be answering questions like `Would Dodi and Diana have got married?' or `What about Charles and Camilla?'. The Times said the Diana Memorial Fund, which controls the use of Diana's name for commercial ends, had not yet given permission for the tours to go ahead. But Peace said that in her view it is really none of their business.

She added: If people went to Calcutta, I am sure they would expect to find out about Mother Teresa and where she lived and worked. Diana was a similar figure on the world stage. Pearce said she would give 10 percent of receipts from the tours to a children's charity but did not specify which one. (AFP)