Thailand gets Indian wedding boost

Thailand remains a popular tourist destination for Indian weddings and events, it has been revealed, despite the recent troubles in the country.

According to the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s (TAT) New Delhi office, at least four large wedding groups with more than 1,500 guests have either already visited or confirmed their trips to Thailand between May and September 2014.

The Gulf coast resort town of Hua Hin hosted a wedding with 400 Indian guests in May, and this week a party with 120 guests will be held in Phuket. Two further events comprising 400 and 600 guests will be held in Hua Hin and Bangkok respectively later this summer.

These events add to the three large Indian incentive groups with 1,600 delegates that visited/plan to visit Thailand in May-September 2014. These include approximately 250 representatives of CNBC, who will be travelling from India for the company’s network meeting in Bangkok this month, and 1,200 members of the Travel Agent Federation in India (TAFI), who will be coming to Bangkok for their annual conference in September.

“Large groups such as these bring in revenue and enhance Thailand’s status as a MICE and wedding destination,” said Runjuan Tongrut, director of the TAT’s New Delhi Office. “Incentive groups, weddings and honeymoons have become one of the most popular niche tourist segments of Thailand’s tourism in recent years, and the Indian market makes up a large percentage of this in terms of numbers of visitors and money spent.”

In March this year, the TAT invited Indian wedding planners and event organisers to Thailand’s top tourist destinations to learn of tourism products on offer in the country. And Ms Runjuan said subsequent bookings prove that the promotions “have really paid off”.

In 2013, 1.05 million Indian visitors to Thailand, up 3.6% compared to 2012. The TAT said it is now expecting 1.07m Indian visitors in 2014.