By N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC
Marriages are made in heaven is an old saying. But at present the most preferred marriage destination in India is Udaipur . A recent survey conducted ahead of the 5th Travel Wedding Show indicated that Udaipur with a clear 25 percent is the most preferred destination in India, followed by Goa with 24 percent, Kerala 21 percent, Jaipur 15 percent and lastly Himachal with 15 percent share. What does these figures indicate? It is clear that Indians still prefer “royal heritage cities” for hosting their marriages. Udaipur and Jaipur alone bag approximately 40 percent of the destination wedding business in India. Now let us throw some light on the expenditure of these destination weddings. The survey has brought out that a whopping 53 percent spend up to Rs. 1 crore for a wedding. Yes, you heard me right. About 27 percent spend from Rs. 1 to 2 crore, 17 percent of the newly-weds spend anything between Rs. 2 crore - Rs. 3 crore and a small minuscule 3 percent spend above Rs. 3 crore. When the same weddings are held in international venues, the expenditure shoots up and it has been brought out in the report that a whopping 49 percent spend between Rs.3 crore and 5 crore for international venue weddings. Why is that the rich gentry prefer these cities? It is not enough if one has just a good hotel for making the marriage function successful. All the infrastructure required like air connectivity, roads, hotels, transport, tents, catering, top class crockery, glasses, cutlery, manpower, florist, lighting etc., have to be set up in the city to ensure that top end marriages take place in the city. Over years, the cities of Udaipur and Jaipur have developed all the above infrastructure.
