Thailand to boost global market share for wedding businesses

BANGKOK, May 2 (TNA) - The state-run Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has eyed to boost the country's market share for global wedding businesses through strengthening connections with international wedding planners to draw more couples to the Thai Kingdom. Jutaporn Roengronasa, TAT Deputy Governor for Marketing in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and America, told journalists on Friday that she attended the Destination Wedding Planner Congress held in Athens, Greece's capital, in late April 2014, aimed to expand the Thai wedding market by attracting global couples to organize their wedding fairs or wedding anniversary celebrations, or to have their honeymoon periods in Thailand. Jutaporn said, at the congress, she focused on holding talks with over 90 global wedding planners to encourage them to promote the Thai wedding market to their clients. According to the TAT deputy govenor, statistics presented at the congress showed that the value of overseas wedding celebrations by global couples totaled over 2.7 trillion baht last year, as around 24 per cent of couples across the world opted to have their weddings abroad. The TAT deputy governor acknowledged that the Thai wedding market alone earned about 34 billion baht from wedding and honeymoon couples in 2013, the lion share of which, or 70.9 per cent, were from honeymoon celebrations. In 2015, the deputy govenor revealed, TAT plans to stimulate the Thai wedding market's growth by at least 10 per cent, targeting to bring in more Indian couples to the country, as an Indian wedding fair usually has more than 200 guests with a wedding budget of no less than 10 million baht. Besides, TAT plans to draw more European couples to the Thai wedding market, as, despite their smaller number of guests of around 50-100, European couples usually have high spending potential. (TNA)