Express.co.uk readers have strongly stated their opinion on whether Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should be allowed to conduct tours abroad following their decision to step down as senior working members of the Royal Family in 2020.
This comes as Meghan and Harry are set to embark on a four-day trip to Colombia on a so-called ‘faux royal’ tour. They were invited to the South American country by Colombian Vice President Francia Marquez.
An Express.co.uk poll, which ran from 11am on August 13 to 12pm on August 14, asked if ‘Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should be allowed to carry out tours abroad’.
Express.co.uk readers have voted in their thousands with 96 percent of voters stating Harry and Meghan should not be allowed to carry out tours abroad, three percent of voters believing the Duke and Duchess of Sussex should be able to conduct tours, and only one percent of voters stating they were ‘not sure’.
This comes as the couple will soon spend time in the Colombian capital of Bogotá as well as visiting the Caribbean and Pacific regions of Cartagena and Cali.
The Montecito-based duo are expected to have a jam-packed schedule from start to finish which includes meeting thought leaders to discussing concerns with cyberbullying.
After Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s acceptance, Francia Márquez, the vice president of Colombia, said in a statement: “I am pleased to announce that Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have kindly accepted my invitation to visit our beautiful country.”
The couple’s visit comes at a significant time for Colombia which will host a Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Violence Against Children in November.
As the conference aims to unveil a “framework for creating safer physical and digital spaces, tackling issues such as cyberbullying, online exploitation, and the mental health impacts of these threats”, the host nation will hope to seek expertise from Harry and Meghan about this important topic as they just launched their latest project, ‘The Parent Network’, which aims to tackle child safety online.
During their tour, the Duke and Duchess are also expected to further learn about Colombia as a “beacon of culture and innovation” which could involve multiple visits to culture hotspots around the major cities.
The trip will allow Meghan to show off her fluent Spanish which she learned at a private school in LA and perfected during her time as an intern at the US Embassy in Argentina.
Royal podcast host, Kinsey Schofield, thinks Harry and Meghan want to be considered as experts in the social media sphere. She told Express.co.uk: “Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are trying desperately to be taken seriously as thought leaders. They will travel, no matter what the security concerns are, to any country willing to give them a platform, cater to their ego, and pander to the narrative they’re trying to create.”
Meanwhile, their Nigeria tour earlier this year was deemed a success by many, with Meghan Markle herself stating learning more about her Nigerian heritage had been “eye-opening”. In May, Harry and Meghan traveled to the West African country after they were invited to the country by the chief of the defence staff and to promote the Invictus Games.
