Global tourism industry wooing Indian weddings

The big fat Indian wedding is being lured out of the country by global hotel chains and tourism boards of several countries who are flocking to India in a bid to grab a piece of the lucrative market.

And well-heeled Indian grooms and brides, looking for an exotic location or a once-in-a-lifetime experience to make their wedding memorable, are beginning to succumb.

If these attempts succeed then a small but significant part of the cash-rich Indian wedding market, with a reported turnover of  $20 billion, will probably be moving overseas.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and the Sands Corporation of Las Vegas, which owns plush new hotels in Singapore and Macau, have already started pitching for the lucrative "desi" wedding business.

"Weddings are one of the most profitable niche tourism markets in the world and India with it's famously opulent weddings is on top of everybody's wish list. We are planning a new advertising campaign and will offer special packages and sops to attract Indian couples," Chattan Kunjara Nu Ayudha, director TAT, said.

The recently opened Marina Bay Sands, a multi-billion dollar hotel in Singapore recently organised a special road show in India offering 'Pheras in the Sky' and glitzy casino receptions. The casino nuptials are probably to emphasise that marriage is, after all, a gamble.

While TAT's Ajudha is planning a new advertising campaign to offer special packages and sops to attract Indian couples, the CEO of the Sands Corporation Sheldon Anderson is pitching the seven-star Marina Bay Sands in Singapore as a dream destination.

"Indian weddings are famous worldwide for their opulence and they are definitely part of our target market," Sheldon said.

Word has obviously got around that Indian weddings often last a whole week with several major functions thrown in. And hotel chains are salivating in anticipation.

Since the peak wedding season is only a couple of months away local pandits will soon be matching desi kundlis with foreign locales for an auspicious "lagan" date.

Mumbai-based wedding planner Prashant Thyagarajan, says that the desire to outdo one's contemporaries, lies at the centre of most "razzle dazzle" weddings. Exotic locales are the new 'in thing' he says, and that is great news for hotels like the Venetian Macau which promise you a wedding extravaganza that your neighbours will never forget.

The Venetian has specially employed an Indian chef and promises to customise all kinds of Indian banquets and organise traditional rituals, for it's customers.

"India is now the 5th largest market for high-end hotels and therefore it is an important market for us," said Robert G Goldstein, executive vice-president, Venetian Macau.

Thyagarajan sees a changing trend, "The last trend was to have an opulent traditional wedding like Vikram Chatwal's in Delhi. Now its more romantic weddings in a exotic settings like France. Many of my clients want beach weddings , for example in the Maldives" he says. To that you can add 'Pheras In The Sky' weddings like the Sands and Venetian are now promising you