Destinations Known | Indian weddings in Thailand help offset missing Chinese tourist dollars, and can be had for a relative bargain, too

As substitute markets go, the Indian wedding industry is not a bad one for tourism boards trying to put Covid-19 behind them – especially those with plenty of beaches to rely on.

With the Chinese still out of action, several recent newspaper reports have attempted to quantify the effects at newly reopened Asian destinations of the continued absence of the world’s top spenders, and work out to what extent Indian visitors are able to plug the gap.

The article focuses on Singapore, a city that, in 2019 – before Covid-19 turned the world on its head – received 3.6 million Chinese visitors and 1.4 million Indians. The latter are returning – 219,000 in the first half of 2022 – but the Chinese, not so much (17,000).

It might seem an obvious fix: just tempt in more Indians. And the Lion City’s “Enjoy Your Family Times Now in Singapore” campaign has India’s 1.3 billion-plus would-be punters in its crosshairs. But it’s not that simple.

“A key challenge is the spending capacity of these visitors,” a politically correct industry insider is quoted as saying in the Post article. Another chips in with, “Some of the lower echelons may not find Singapore attractive because of affordability.”