Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call for “Wed in India” initiative can set the stage for a potential domestic influx of `1 lakh crore back to the country, redirecting expenditures incurred on destination weddings abroad.  According to the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), there has been no official survey yet about destination weddings by Indians abroad, but still as per an estimate, about 5,000 to 7,000 destination weddings take place abroad every year with an expenditure estimated to be between `75,0000 crore to `1 lakh crore. 

“The effort is similar to Modi’s Make in India initiative that has now reported inflection growth of estimated `1 trillion similarly even if half of the people decide to hold destination weddings in India instead of abroad then `50,000 crore will add on to the country growing robust economy,” said CAIT Praveen Khadelwal.

Addressing the inaugural session of the Uttarakhand Global Investors Summit at Dehradun last week, Modi said it has become fashionable among millionaire and billionaire business families to go abroad for destination weddings.

Modi said India needs a movement like ‘Wed in India’ on the lines of ‘Made in India’ and asked affluent industrialists to hold at least one destination wedding in their families each year in Uttarakhand saying it will help the hill State emerge as a wedding destination. Modi had given a similar call during his last Mann Ki Baat programme to affluent business families to hold destination weddings in the country instead of going abroad.

Khandelwal said there are more than 2,000 such places in and around about 100 major cities in the country where destination weddings can be held with big fanfare.

“Prominent such cities includes Goa, Lonavala, Mahabaleshwar, Mumbai, Shirdi, Nasik, Nagpur in Maharashtra, Dwarka,Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda in Gujarat, Orchha, Gwalior, Ujjain, Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Jaisalmer, Pushkar in Rajasthan, Mathura, Vrindavan, Agra, Varanasi, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Chennai, Yadgiri Hill, Ooty, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Tirupati, Cochin, Trichy, Coimbatore, Pondicherry in South India beside Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Manesar, Bahadurgarh, Faridabad in NCR and Chandigarh, Mohali, Amritsar and Jammu in Punjab-Haryana,” he said.

A destination wedding takes place in a location away from a couple’s hometown. Couples these days choose to just hit the road, board a plane or a boat to get married away in a foreign land. The total costs can run up to `3-5 crore for a 2-day wedding for 200 guests, but can go up even further depending on the family’s requirements.

Khandelwal said all these places are fully capable of organising destination weddings ranging from medium budget to any big budget.  “Besides, there are a number of companies or groups providing general to special facilities and arrangements for organising weddings. A large network has developed in India over the years and that is why wedding related goods and services have become a big business in the country. Be it a destination wedding in the country or abroad, these companies or groups are the best in getting it done,” he said.

According to Gaurav Lochav, whose firm organises wedding in destination locations, said doing wedding in Thailand and Sri Lanka is not expensive  and it is similar to Goa and other tourist resorts in India.

The big fat Indian wedding ceremonies will be held till December 15 that are expected to generate business worth `4.5 lakh crore during the period. Around 3.5 million weddings are expected to be held across the country during the period

The CAIT study says Delhi alone would witness around 3.5 lakh weddings in these 23 days. The upcoming wedding season is expected to generate business worth nearly `1 lakh crore in the national Capital. The wedding season comes as a boon for the people involved in businesses of arranging tents, food and beverages, jewellery, clothing, furniture, footwear, decoration items, electric and electronic equipment, and hotel industry. The crockery, travel services, cab services, vegetable vendors, videography, DJs, also get benefitted from the marriage ceremonies.

The wedding season brings in employment opportunities for people as they get to work as cooks, waiters, decorators, musicians, tailors, carpenters, photographers, priests, painters, florists and others.