Marriages Made in India

Steve and Julie are not alone. As more and more couples from around the world look for unique ways to wed at exotic destinations, wedding tourism has become a multi-billion dollar global industry. Wedding tourism as a legitimate and upcoming part of the tourism industry is a phenomenon that has taken off worldwide in the past three-four years, with Britain, US, Australia and Japan sending out the largest number of couples worldwide to romantic cities for destination weddings, be it South Africa, Scotland, Thailand, Switzerland, the Caribbean, UAE or Sri Lanka.

Increasingly, India has been figuring on the agenda for this increasing tribe of adventure romantics. 8220;India represents colour, culture and exoticism and all this is very appealing to couples on the lookout for exciting new wedding destinations,8221; says Jairaj Gupta, CEO, Shaadionline.

Take Anne Hawking and Robert Martin, graphic designers from Australia, who had an elaborate Indian wedding at a fort in Rajasthan, complete with Anne assuming the name of Chandni and arriving on a palki and Robert as Shergill lugging a prince8217;s armour. While their style was more exotic, for Sophie Kjeldsen and Luke Ormes, copywriters from UK, nothing less than a completely sanctimonious Hindu wedding with a pandit and mandap at a temple in Benaras and of course a Benarsi sari, would do.

The Ministry of Tourism has taken the cue and though it shares no official figures on inbound wedding tourism, it is considered the market for the future. Says Amitabh Kant, joint secretary, Ministry of Tourism: 8220;We are taking wedding tourism very seriously and promoting it in all our foreign offices abroad and also looking at more initiatives to sell India as a top wedding destination.8221;

The Ministry is trying to market India8217;s festive spirit as its USP. 8220;India has the best of food, culture and festivities and there8217;s a huge sense of drama, which is what international tourists love. People are coming in with chartered planes for the complete Indian experience of heritage hotels, elephants and camels. Bollywood has also helped a lot in generating interest in Indian weddings and getting tourist inflow,8221; Kant adds.

Most international couples making their way to India are looking out for two types of Indian weddings: the Maharaja Wedding and the Brahminical Wedding. The Maharaja Wedding experience is replete with riches, exoticism and palaces while the Brahminical wedding is all about spirituality, mysticism and Vedic rites. Needless to say, the much-speculated wedding extravaganza of Liz Hurley and Arun Nayar in February would fall in the Maharaja Wedding category, with the groom all set to arrive on a white horse, flanked by camels and elephants at the majestic Devi Garh Palace at Udaipur.

Even the hotel industry, typically oriented towards conventions, corporate meetings and sporting events, has realised the benefits of joining the wedding party. Says Vasudha Sondhi, VP Sales, HRH Group of Hotels, Rajasthan, which has hosted several such international weddings in Udaipur: 8220;The wedding industry constitutes a fairly large segment of our total revenues. We have a lot of domestic and international traffic at peak wedding season. We8217;re offering regal wedding venues and we like to give our clients customised packages. People come to our hotels for not only weddings, but also sometimes to retake their vows8221;

Indeed, the Hurley-Nayar celebrity wedding is expected to do for Rajasthan what Madonna8217;s wedding did for Scotland, set off a beeline for I-dos-in-India from across the world. Almost a third of all weddings that take place in Scotland now are tourist weddings with the tourism board stepping in to change legislation making it possible for couples to conduct their nuptials at castles, boats, even golf courses.

Wedding planners says India could well be a hot international wedding destination, but a little tailoring would be necessary. 8220;Wedding tourism may be a low-volume market in terms of the numbers of tourists coming in but it is definitely a high value market, because the spends are so big. Weddings are the time for spending and all related sectors, including catering, deacute;cor, entertainment and transport benefit from it,8221; says Gupta of Shaadionline.

On an average, 5,000 international weddings take place every year, each wedding typically bringing in about 30 to 50 guests to the host country, who stay for about two weeks and spend big bucks, resulting in a win-win situation for all. Wedding planners say that with couples coming to India; Rajasthan, Goa, Kerala, Agra and Varanasi are the most popular wedding destinations.

And, not to forget the honeymoon. 8220;What India offers is completely unique with combination wedding-honeymoon trips8230;A couple getting married in Varanasi can head to Goa for a completely different experience for their honeymoon,8221; says wedding planner Mehar Sarid.

Though wedding tourism is becoming a high-value bracket, wedding industry insiders are of the consensus that unlike other countries which actively market themselves as wedding destinations, the tourism board in India has not been able to cash in on this market.

8220;India offers everything, from beautiful resorts to beaches and palaces. Yet, it does not figure on the list of top wedding destinations. What would be ideal is for the tourism ministry to tie up with wedding planners and hotels and properties to target mid-budget weddings,8221; says Parthip Thyagarajan, director, Wedding Sutra.

The one major deterrent has been an archaic law, according to which foreigners who want to get married in India must stay in the country for 30 days. 8220;We get so many interested enquiries from all over the world, but those people are put off when they learn about the 30-day mandatory stay. It8217;s a law which needs to be changed,8221; says Gupta of Shaadionline, who organised a wedding party for Cathy and Horace of Germany. When the couple planned their great Indian wedding, they could only take out 10 days so they first got their marriage registered in their home country and then came to India with a bunch of friends for a gala Indian wedding party, the highlight being a red bejewelled odhni.

While Kant says 8220;it8217;s a good idea if tourists stay for a month, because India requires people to spend that kind of time,8221; he adds that because of the rise in wedding tourism, 8220;We8217;re looking at the possibility of modifying this law.8221;

Meanwhile, there8217;s the big fat foreign wedding8230;

When Lakshmi Mittal got his daughter married in a star-studded lavish ceremony in France, the world was left gasping. Now, Indians who take their weddings more seriously than anybody else in the world are heading offshore to destinations like Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, Mauritius, Thailand and Sri Lanka, all in a bid to try something off-the-beaten-track. The trend has caught on so much that various international tourism boards are promoting themselves as wedding destinations in India.

Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board began promoting wedding tourism in India somewhere in 2004, where it tied up with airlines and hotels and offered people economical packages and customised Indian weddings. Says Manoharan P, director India, 8220;We realised that weddings are really big in India. We are trying to tell people that if they are planning a destination wedding,they can come to Malaysia and spend as much money as they would at a destination wedding in India8230;We are encashing on the Indian sentiment of trying to outdo each other when it comes to hosting the perfect wedding.8221;

Says Kenneth Lim, area director, Singapore Tourism Board: 8220;We do see a trend here. For now, we are pushing Singapore as a honeymoon destination, but we may start looking at the weddings market soon.8221;

TOP EXOTIC DEMANDS

8226; Elephants, camels and horses

8226; Palkis

8226; Swords and shields

8226; Folk singers, dancers

8226; Exotic shahi cuisine from across India

8226; Priests from Benaras and Sanskrit shlokas