Big fat destination weddings: Exotic travel for everyone!
- Tourism, like any other industry, is evolving in many directions in order to survive. While most of us are familiar with “anti-tourism,” eco-tourism, voluntourism, and medical tourism, a growing market is emerging for wedding tourism.
With people marrying older than they did 10 and 20 years ago, destination wedding tourism is the newest wave of big bucks to hit the industry. One in ten US weddings now fits the “destination wedding” category, as people branch away from the local church and search for something more exotic. Far away weddings carry colossal price tags and have a reputation for irking the guests who foot the bill, but tying the knot away from home is a hot new niche that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere!
Tourism authorities are actually pouring millions of campaign dollars into encouraging this big wedding business. Take Kasu Rajagopal Reddy as an example, who spent half a million US dollars on a double wedding and reception for his daughter in Phuket, Thailand this February. Interviewed recently in CNNGO, he states that “Thailand was chosen as a venue for the wedding as we felt that it is a ‘kingdom of dreams.'” That half a million dollars covered airfare, hotels, transportation for about 250 guests, and then the three day wedding ceremony itself. And what wedding is complete without private yachts and a flown-in DJ? While most destination wedding invitees aren’t as lucky as those attending the Reddy wedding, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) hopes that more couples will follow their lead. The TAT has been encouraging Indians to wed in Thailand for several years now, and their eyes are now set on China to boost the wedding market share. A TAT representative explains: “Last year, we had around 500 to 600 couples from China. But we will get the numbers slowly coming up.” Here’s to hoping the “kingdom of dreams” continues to lure happy couples from all over the world. I certainly wouldn’t mind tying the knot over here!
photo from zazzle
Thailand isn’t the only country hungry for a slice of the destination wedding cake. Sites like marrycarribean, gettingmarriedinitaly, destinationweddingmag, weddingsincostarica are just a few which compete to tap into the big business of saying “I do.”
So, single Vagabonders, how many of you are going to cross borders for your big day?
May 1st, 2012 at 11:11 pm
Thailand mmm worth the trip just for the food!
May 7th, 2012 at 1:34 am
I’d agree that travel (or exploring places removed from ones familiar zone) can heighten attraction. However, personally, I’m not the extravagant wedding/party type. That said, I was set to wed in another country (different from my native birth, and for that of my partner also) some years ago. The whole experience opened my eyes to how easy, and less stressful, the event could happen no matter where it was “set”. It wasn’t Thailand–though that sounds appealing.