Prince Harry could be set to become an “even angrier young man” after recent move, according to one royal expert. The 40-year-old jetted all the way to Shanghai to be at a global travel and tourism conference.
During his appearance, the Duke gave gave a keynote speech urging the travel industry to support sustainable travel and tourism and shared climate goals. The royal is also known to be the co-founder of Travalyst, which promotes sustainable travel.
Harry’s visit has since been questioned, with the royal making the trip as King Charles and Queen Camilla were arriving in Canada for a historic visit.
Speaking to the Mirror, former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond said: “Fortunately it seems not to have overshadowed Charles and Camilla’s trip to Canada.
“In fact, it seems to have made very little news at all. If the idea was to garner as much publicity for the cause as possible, it would seem to have fallen rather short.”
She said that the timing of the visit was likely not down to Harry – adding it was likely simply “coincidental”. She added: “There was no advance information about it and not much of a splash when he was there. But he is clearly employed by Travalyst to make keynote speeches like this, and I’m sure he made a good job of it.
“The timing of the conference would have been coincidental to the King’s trip to Canada, certainly not deliberate.”
She added: “However, the irony of flying across the world to promote sustainable, environmentally friendly travel is hard to ignore. Surely a video speech would have been more ethical? The same criticism could be lobbed at William flying around the world to host the Earthshot Awards but sometimes it just raises the profile in a way nothing else could. I’m not sure that Harry’s presence did the same.”
Explaining further, she added: “Personally, I think this commercial route opens him up to all sorts of accusations of trading on his royal status which would make him an even angrier young man than at present.
“I think Harry is still trying to figure out where he goes from here. By normal standards, he’s a very rich man, but life in Montecito doesn’t come cheap, especially with all the security costs he deems necessary.”