INDIA’S FIRST TRAVEL WEDDING SHOW 2016
The first edition of Travel Wedding Show 2016, hosted around 1,200 meetings between buyers and suppliers over two days at Le Meridien, Gurgaon
At the first of its kind show, where ‘ destinations’ and ‘ weddings’ mingled, around 30 suppliers and an equal number of buyers came together. The participants comprised wedding planners, corporates and tour operators. With pre- scheduled meetings between handpicked buyers and sellers, the event took place at Le Meridien, Gurgaon. The participants saw opportunities in the immensely popular ‘ destination weddings’ segment. Explaining the concept behind this one of its kind show, Punam Singh, Director, Travel Wedding Show, said, “We left no stone unturned to make the Travel Wedding Show a return- oninvestment event, promoting knowledge- sharing, networking opportunities and ensuring visibility to participants. It was a conscious decision to keep it open exclusively for wedding planning buyers on the first day. The tour operators met on the second day, thus enabling suppliers to speak at ease with each of them.”
Sarika Bhambani Rawal, General Manager, Travel Wedding Show, said, “We consciously streamlined both the days with different agendas to enable the suppliers understand the unique needs of the wedding buyers and tour operators separately. We were tapping prominent corporate buyers for the past six months and so we wanted to offer them the best of opportunities.” To inform the audience about the increasing potential of the industry, a speaker session was held on the inaugural day with speakers like
Shaji Thomas, Director - Destination Tourism Development, Ras Al Khaimah and Guldeep
Singh Sahni, President - OTOAI. Key note speaker Rajeev Jain, the Managing Director of Rashi Entertainment enlightened the gathering about developments in the sector. “The wedding industry is flourishing at a growth rate of 15 per cent p. a. and is pegged at an estimated ` 250,000 crore or $ 40 billion,” he said. Jain added that with Indians spending 80 per cent of their wealth on weddings, the sector has proven to be a great contributor to the GDP.
With Indians spending 80 per cent of their wealth on weddings, the sector has proven to be a great contributor to the GDP
About eight per cent of Indians opt for destination weddings from which connectivity and accessibility is the chief factor while choosing locations. Additionally, Thailand hosted 780 Indian weddings last year where the average expenditure on each wedding was four crore, Jain revealed. According to Thomas realising the potential of the multi- billion dollar Indian wedding industry, the country is keen to grab a piece of the pie. “We are just 45 minutes away from Dubai; and India is home to fantastic, luxurious hotels capable of hosting larger- than- life weddings in Ras Al Khaimah. We encourage you to host weddings here as it caters to all sorts of client genres, thanks to the infrastructure and tourism products like beaches.” The Travel Wedding Show is an exclusive professional B2B event dedicated to the top luxury and wedding services in India and abroad. As destination weddings have gained popularity, travel and weddings have developed an interdependent relationship. This exclusively crafted B2B show brought together the organisers' rich experience in the travel and tourism industry and international exposure to offer a unique platform to the travel and wedding industry. The Travel Wedding Show provided the business environment for both these industries to join hands and do serious business in a convenient place and manner.