Jaunted

Princess Diana

Morbid Travel: Princess Diana Death Tour So Very Tacky

October 9, 2007 at 9:45 AM | 0 Comments

We admit, we weren't one of those people glued to our televisions in 1997 when Princess Diana was killed suddenly in a Paris car accident, but we understand why some people marked the 10-year anniversary of her passing this past August. But will that anniversary spark a new wave of tourists to the place where she died?

This week at least one bus load of people without intent to rubberneck followed the path of Diana and her then-boyfriend Dodi al-Fayed: They were British jurors sitting on an inquest by al-Fayed's father into whether the royal family had any connection to the accident. Still, paparazzi hounded the jurors to the point that their bus actually hit a post and got a flat tire en route to the Ritz where Diana and Dodi ate their last meal.

Will Britain's $20 million investigation yield new results? Probably not, but that won't stem the tide of the tours that have been going on since 1998. As one French official told a Time Magazine reporter:

People can't get enough of Diana, so they keep coming back to her through the crash... Come see me in another 10 years, and I'll bet something similar to this will still be going on.

Related Stories:
· Diana Inquest Jury Visits Scene of Crash [Guardian]
· Europe Anger at "Diana Tour" [BBC]
· Princess Diana coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Anthony Cinelli and Eric Hamilton]