Bangkok,The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) recently staged a familiarisation trip for wedding planners from India, offering them the chance to explore Thailand’s plethora of attractions, facilities and services that make the kingdom a dream wedding destination.
Taking place from 25 to 30 September, 2016, the familiarisation trip was staged for 20 wedding planners from New Delhi, Chandhigar, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore. They were divided into two groups to explore Thailand’s capabilities as a wedding destination. The first group had the chance to experience first-hand the attractions and wedding facilities on the Kanchanaburi-Hua Hin route while the second went on a tour of Phuket-Khao Lak. Both groups converged in Bangkok on the last day for more hotel inspections, followed by a B2B Session and Networking Cocktail.
Dr. Walailak Noypayak, TAT Executive Director for ASEAN, South Asia and South Pacific said, “We’ve carefully put together an itinerary on these two routes to update the Indian wedding planners on how these five destinations including Kanchanaburi, Hua Hin, Phuket, and Khao Lak, as well as Bangkok can accommodate all sizes of wedding events from India, ranging from large-scale ceremonies to small, exclusive-sized nuptials. In addition, the B2B session has been arranged with an aim of promoting Thailand as a preferred wedding destination among Indian high profile families all over India through the influence of wedding planners.”
The B2B Session and Networking Cocktail took place on 29 September, 2016, offering an opportunity for the Indian wedding planners to meet and connect with 60 Thai service providers in the wedding business including hotels, Indian restaurants, entertainment organisers, florist shops, wedding studios, souvenir shops, wine dealers, photographers, and private jet and luxury car providers, as well as the Chao Phraya Cruise company.
Thailand is the most popular wedding destination outside India. From 2011 to 2014, Thailand has consecutively been voted as the Best Wedding Destination by readers of the Travel and Leisure magazine (India and South Asia).
Each year, Thailand recorded more than 200 Indian weddings with the group sizes ranging from 100 to 600 guests. Each Indian wedding is estimated to spend around 5-10 million Baht. Currently, the popular wedding destinations for Indians can be divided into two categories, which are beach destination, including Pattaya, Phuket, Hua Hin, Ko Samui, Krabi and Khao Lak, and city destination, such as, Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Kanchanaburi.
