Buzz
The next day, Stevens and Gower merged into the crowd of about 400 wedding guests. “As I stepped in, a thought rushed in, ‘Wow, just like in the movies’. It was so professional, I've never attended any event like this before,” she said.
Chauhan and Stevens kept in touch after the wedding. “We both enjoyed this experience. I didn't feel like I invited someone completely unfamiliar,” Chauhan explained.
The wedding tourism industry
Stevens and Gower learned about Chauhan's wedding through a start-up project called Join My Wedding, co-founded by Orsi Parkanyi. Guests and the bride and groom briefly introduced themselves, their jobs, and discussed what would happen at the wedding like what they should wear.
Join My Wedding operates as follows: Couples will detail their wedding on the website, international tourists can buy tickets to any wedding they want to attend. Most of the money guests pay will be transferred to the couples, with the start-up taking a small commission.
“Just think about it, there's nothing more culturally rich than a wedding because you'll interact with locals, enjoy local cuisine, wear traditional attire… It's where everything converges,” Parkanyi shared.
The co-founder of this start-up explained that the idea came from her personal experience of missing out on her friends' weddings. She decided to focus on Indian weddings because they are world-renowned and foreigners often don't have the opportunity to attend unless they're acquainted.
To date, Parkanyi's customers have attended over 100 Indian weddings through this start-up project. “Experiencing the vibrant cultural hues simultaneously and deeply connecting with the local people in India is a major driving force for tourists. This activity is also safe. You participate in an event with hundreds of people, you're a prominent guest and receive special attention from everyone,” she remarked.
Seizing this burgeoning trend, many travel companies are starting to create tour packages for international guests to attend wedding ceremonies while exploring India.
Weddings in this country are famous for their grandeur, rituals, and traditions performed over several days. Millions tie the knot here every year, where the middle class and affluent population are on the rise. Many experts believe the wedding industry helps combat recession, with a value of around $40 billion USD and a growth rate of 20% annually.
“As long as the Indian wedding market remains of interest, it will grow every year,” according to Ashish Boobna, a representative of a company organizing weddings for India's elite class. He believes that nearly every profession can profit from the wedding market, especially sectors like decoration, entertainment, cuisine, customer service, and more…
The allure of Indian weddings
According to Boobna, the wedding tourism industry is a rising trend in the wedding market, similar to medical tourism in the healthcare sector. For some Indian couples, the idea of inviting international guests to their wedding is a way to make their wedding ceremony more special and have the vibe of a showbiz event. Meanwhile, other couples want guests to their wedding to be able to explore the culture and solemn rituals.
“Foreign guests are keen on learning about Indian culture from every intimate aspect,” he added.
Celebrations with music and dance performances, along with iconic and elaborate rituals – these are what make Indian weddings impressive and attract international tourists, according to guide Sahajanand Sharma.
“Western weddings are beautiful, with solemn rituals in the church before the feast begins. But everything is formal there, while here someone is always starting to dance everywhere, endless colors, abundant food, and countless rituals,” Sharma said.
Sharma has recently tied the knot and invited about 15 to 20 guests who were former clients from the US and Europe to attend. “I traveled with each of them… we can say we're quite close,” he recounted.
Not stopping there, Sharma revealed that a colleague of his even expressed interest in inviting more guests to the wedding: “I said 'why not'. We have 70 people, we can definitely accommodate more guests.
According to Sharma, at weddings, tourists can meet more Indians, rather than just hotel staff, guides, and drivers as on regular tours. “Indians are generally curious… such opportunities for interaction are precious to tourists,” he said.
According to Pham Huyen/Vnexpress
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Reference: Travel guide Mytour
MytourOctober 19, 2018
