Marriages could now be celebrated in exotic locations depending on how deep one’s pocket runs.
The travel and tour operators, realising Indian weddings being a lavish affair, are probing the opportunity to help the to-be grooms and brides and their folks to celebrate the ceremony in overseas locations.
The operators believe marriages in luxury hotels in India have now become common and people are willing to scout for newer and different options.
Gurinder Bawa, business head (Punjab), International Travel House Limited, maintained they were planning to scout for opportunities in marriage tourism this year.
International Travel House Limited offers a range of services which include corporate travel, world class holidays, incentive group travel and conference management.
“We are planning to promote countries like Thailand, and Dubai where the nuptial knots could be tied between the couples.” Bawa added, “For promoting marriage tourism they were planning to engage in promotional activities whereby we would be guiding people about this”. The reason for selecting locations like Thailand and Dubai primarily is because these are economical destinations where marriage could be conducted at nominal costs.
Gurinder Bawa maintained, to begin with they were looking to take a pack of at least 80-100 people. The marriage tourism package would comprise of airfare, free transfer to hotel, hotel cost and other activities. The location and other services could be customised depending on the budget.
Ashish Kishore, business head, Leisure Services Yatra.Com maintained there are basically two categories in marriage tourism. In the first category, people prefer celebrating marriage in the destinations located within the country.
In the second category, the trend is emerging fast where people prefer overseas location.
Destinations like Malaysia and Thailand are fast emerging among the people mainly because they are reasonably priced. The package is priced between Rs 25,000- Rs 30,000 per person depending on the location chosen.
