India’s first-ever wedding destination show, Indian Wedding Travel Mart (IWTM), recently opened at the Peacock Ballroom of the Pullman New Delhi Aerocity, with Mauritius, Monaco and Thailand as the lead country partners. Sri Lanka is also represented by the Vivanta by Taj, Bentota, and one of the island nation’s leading tour operators, Walkers Tours, at the Mart.
An annual, multi-city B2B platform for international wedding destination managers to engage with local wedding planners and designers, the Mart has been organised in response to the growing propensity of both high net-worth and upper middle-class families to host weddings overseas.
The significance of the business is evident from the support extended to the mart by the wedding business community in Delhi-NCR and Jaipur. As many as 35 wedding and event planners and photographers (many of them will participate in a first-of-its-kind fashion show at the gala dinner), apart from dozens of vendors, have registered for what promises to be a highly interactive B2B forum.
A co-production of well-known weddings and lifestyle blogger Arati Thapa (WeddingFables); the founder of Facebook’s largest and most vibrant community of wedding service providers, Ginny Kohli (WedWise); and acclaimed food and drinks journalist and blogger Sourish Bhattacharyya(Indian Restaurant Spy), the Mart in its inaugural year itself has attracted a number of prominent hotels and resorts from around the world.
Bhattacharyya said, “Thailand hosted 400 Indian weddings last year – and the number is set to grow in 2016. This is just one of the many numbers that point to an increasingly visible fact: the destination weddings business has come of age. Two popular wedding destinations in Thailand — Centara Grand Mirage Beach Resort, Pattaya, and Bangkok Lotus Hotel Sukhumvit, via Coco’s Catering — are represented at the Mart.”
The Mart’s hospitality partner, Pullman New Delhi Aerocity, will celebrate its association with the event by rolling out its ‘Pullman Signature Weddings’ concept and unveiling an especially commissioned canvas to underline the importance of art in marriage decor. Tristan Beau De Lomenie, General Manager Delegate, Pullman Novotel New Delhi Aerocity said, “We create the perfect art inspired ambience and décor for you and you’re beloved to celebrate your most important event in life, we celebrate you.”
One of the highlights of the Mart is the two-day B2B seminar focused on two key concerns of the wedding industry: reinventing old destinations as they look for new ones and constantly thinking out of the box as their customers get more demanding.
The seminar features eminent speakers such as Isra Stapanaseth (TAT New Delhi Office); Rajeev Nangia (TRAC); Sanjay Sondhi (OM Tourism); Tristan Beau de Lomenie (Pullman New Delhi Aerocity); Parthip Thyagarajan (WeddingSutra); Divya Gurwara (Bridal Asia); Nupur Mehta Puri(Bazaar Brides); Jai Raj Gupta (Shaadi Online); wedding planners Swati Pandya Sood, Amrish Pershad and Gunjan Bansal; Jagan Lacsher (Bangkok Lotus Hotel Sukhumvit); Chandima Wickremasinghe (Vivanta by Taj, Bentota-Sri Lanka); Chinthaka Weerasinghe (Sri Lankan Airways); Sajeewa Kalambaarachchige (Walkers Tours).
