Destination weddings look at Goa, Srinagar after foreign trip curb advice
Times of India | 13 May 2026
Kolkata: From royal lakeside weddings in Udaipur to tying the knot in a heritage fort in Jaipur to celebrating the D-day on a beach in Goa to offbeat destinations like Jim Corbett National Park and the backwaters in Alleppey or Kumarakom, families that were planning weddings on foreign shores are evaluating multiple options in India should the war in West Asia lead to curbs on foreign exchange spends abroad. However, weddings that are already lined up abroad this year are expected to go ahead as international destination weddings generally get booked six to nine months in advance.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi only issued an advisory in Hyderabad on Sunday, urging citizens to refrain from destination weddings abroad to help conserve foreign exchange, travel agencies that have clients planning destination marriages later in the year said several of them contacted them on Monday and requested alternative destinations within the country.
In recent years, Phuket and Krabi in Thailand, Phu Quoc in Vietnam, Bali in Indonesia as well as offbeat locations in Greece and Italy emerged as wedding hotspots for Indian weddings.
Wedding planners said several families now prefer to spend on a destination wedding at an exotic location over a lavish ceremony in India. While it is cost-effective abroad as there is no tax payment involved unlike GST that has to be paid in India, organising it abroad also limits the guests to 200-400 instead of three-four times the guest count if the ceremony is held in India. "The average spend per head on three nights at a destination wedding is around Rs 1 lakh," said a planner.
Pramod Lunawat, founder of marriage planning firm Marriageuana, said the PM's advisory on destination weddings has come as a jolt to the business of events, especially weddings and international MICE. "However, given the situation, the event community will do its bit and promote destination like Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Dehradun and Srinagar. Rajasthan is a difficult destination during the summers but will do well in winter. I believe it's an opportunity for star hotels and similar venues across India to lap it up while the dollar crisis is on to book weddings at least until Dec," he said.
Lunawat also felt the demand-supply gap in the domestic market could push up room tariffs. "The average room rate in five-star hotels will go up, especially in places where people can get married. People will have to brace for higher prices, not just the rooms, but even meals as hotels will make the most of the opportunity," he added.
"Those who have already finalised wedding plans will go ahead. But families that are now planning weddings will be wary of travelling abroad because the PM's advisory has sent alarm bells ringing. One family I know is going ahead with a recce in Tuscany, Italy, where Virat Kohli tied the knot with Anushka Sharma. But there are others who are looking at alternatives in India," said TAFI chairman (east) Anil Punjabi.