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

  • Thailand is keen to help Indian couples frustrated by years of Covid delays finally achieve wedded bliss, according to one tourism representative
  • Venues on the eastern seaboard are already booked up for the coming season, with packages ranging from US$140,000 to US$700,000

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The groom on a horse during an Indian wedding ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Shutterstock

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.

One recent South China Morning Post headline is unequivocal: “No, Indian tourists can’t replace Southeast Asia’s absent Chinese visitors.”

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.”

Mark Footer joined the Post in 1999, having been the magazine and book buyer for Tower Records in Hong Kong. He started on the business desk before moving, in 2006, to Post Magazine, of which he was editor until 2019. He took on a secondary role as travel editor in 2009.
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