2k meetings at Travel Wedding Show

Pegged at $40 to $50 billion, the Indian wedding industry is the second largest market in the world after the USA, according to a study revealed at 5^th Travel Wedding Show, held recently in Jaipur.

Kanchan Nath

Pegged at $40 to $50 billion, the Indian wedding industry is the second largest market in the world after the USA, revealed Rajeev Jain, Founder and Director, Rashi Entertainment at the 5^th Travel Wedding Show, held recently at Jaipur Marriott Hotel. The event witnessed over 2000 B2B meetings between exhibitors and buyers spread across two days. Speaking on trends in the wedding industry, Jain said, “The global wedding industry is pegged at $300 billion. As far as international destination weddings are concerned, the most wanted destination initially was Thailand but now people are venturing to Turkey, UAE, Cyprus, Mauritius, Macau, Malta, Sri Lanka, Bali, London, among other new destinations. Destination weddings are paving a new path for the modern Indian couple aspiring to marry in a bigger and better way to make a mark on all their friends and relatives.”

Wedded in holy matrimony

What do wedding planners look for while deciding on a hotel within the country? Jain said that these include the pricing factor, number of rooms in a hotel, the brand that wedding planners are working with and the quality of food. For international destination weddings, planners take into consideration the food, visa formalities, airlines connectivity and the language barrier.

Quoting a survey on how to generate business for weddings, he says, “In India, 50 per cent of the business gets generated through referrals; 20 per cent from social media; 15 per cent through search engine and 15 per cent from other sources. For international markets, social media is 43 per cent, 25 per cent is by search engines. 13 per cent by referrals and rest is by other sources.”

A panel discussion was held on ‘Destination Weddings: An overview, India v/s International.’ Moderated by Jain, the session’s panelists included H Deniz Ersoz, Culture & Tourism Counsellor, Turkish Embassy, New Delhi; Hemant Mediratta, Senior Vice President – Sales, Oberoi Hotels & Resorts; Saurabh Bhargava, AVP Sales, Indian Hotels Company; Shampa Dhali, Area Director, National Sales – India, Marriott International and Abinash Manghani, Area Manager and Head Travel, ITC Hotels. A knowledge journal titled ‘An insight on Weddings in India & abroad’ was also released on the occasion.

Quote Unquote

• H Deniz Ersoz, Culture & Tourism Counsellor, Turkish Embassy

“Turkey knows how to meet the demands of Indians. Even though Antalya, Istanbul, Cappadocia and Bodrum are popular wedding destinations, many more are yet to be discovered”

• Sarika Bambhani Rawal, Vice President, DDP Exhibitions

“As the buyers were senior level buyers with CEOs and MDs in attendance, exhibitors were able to do good business. We now look forward to introduce Travel Education Show”

• Punam Singh, Associate, Travel Show

“With a slight change in format this year, we conducted the inaugural ceremony and the knowledge session before we started the business meetings”