British Royal Wedding

Britain’s Princess Beatrice has accompained her father Prince Andrew on his official visit to Egypt

Andrew is the first senior royal to ever take one of their children with them on a business trip, but is reportedly determined to make sure Beatrice, 19, makes the most of her gap year before starting a textiles course at London’s Goldsmiths College in September.

After arriving in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Friday, Andrew and Beatrice toured Luxor’s Valley of the Kings, before the prince had to attend to some official business as Britain’s Special Representative for International Trade. Later that day, the pair met Egypt’s Prime Minister Dr Ahmed Nazif.

A royal source told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper: “Both meetings were between 45 minutes and an hour long and Beatrice was there as an observer. The prince felt the trip would be educational for Beatrice and also a good way to introduce his daughter to the work that he does in his role for the Department of Trade and Industry.”

The trip comes after several royal bodyguards and security guards complained their skills were being “wasted” on looking after the family’s younger royals, including Beatrice and her 17-year-old sister Eugenie.

The bill for the protection of the British Royal Family will this year cost taxpayers over £30 million, with £250,000 of that going on the protection of Beatrice.

In light of the complaints, Prince Andrew paid for Beatrice’s first class British Airways flights to Cairo himself.

Beatrice is expected to accompany her royal father to the inaugural World Future Energy Summit at Abu Dhabi’s National Exhibitions Centre next week, where he is scheduled to speak during the opening session on January 21. (via Monsters and Critics)

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 2:40 am and is filed under Princess Beatrice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.