Destination-wedding services flourish in Dail
A couple holds a destination wedding near Erhai Lake. [People's Daily/Photo]
“By exchanging our vows of love in front of the Cangshan mountain and the Erhai lake, we will walk hand in hand into our future life journey.” On the beautiful lakeside of Erhai in Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, southwest China’s Yunnan province, a couple held hands, under the witness of their closest friends and family, completing a romantic “destination wedding.”
“I would give this wedding full marks! It has fulfilled all my romantic imaginings and left us and our loved ones with beautiful memories. Thanks a lot for the professional planning,” said the bride, Liu Siqi.
Such scenes happen almost every day on the banks of Erhai. What is a “destination wedding”? “Simply put, it is when a couple chooses a favorite travel destination to host a wedding that is uniquely tailored to them. It is a new form of tourism that has emerged in recent years,” explained Yang Libin, the head of a wedding planning studio in Dali. He said that last year, the studio handled over 400 weddings for couples from all over the country, and bookings for this year have already filled up until September.
A destination wedding requires at least two months of planning, from the initial preparations to the ceremony itself. The wedding planner’s job is to create a custom wedding according to the couple’s needs.
“At the beginning, we will send out a survey questionnaire to the couple to understand their preferences, delve into their love story, and then identify their needs to determine the theme for the wedding day,” Yang said.
Unlike traditional weddings, destination weddings are light on ceremony and have a limited number of guests, focusing on a sense of lightness and relaxation. Liu Siqi’s wedding had only a total of 10 people in attendance, including the couple and their families. “After the ceremony, we still have time to stroll around Dali and take our wedding photos. It was a win-win for our wedding and travel,” said Liu.
Zhao Canhui, the president of the Destination Wedding Branch of the Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Tourism Industry Association, introduced that the industry has been developing rapidly. In 2023, Dali hosted over 4,400 destination weddings, with nine out of ten customers coming from outside the province.
The booming industry has caught the attention of industry insiders and has also driven the deep integration of the wedding industry with the cultural and tourism industry.
“Destination weddings not only attract crowds of travelers but also promote the development of related industries in the upstream and downstream industry chain,” said Zhao.
Industry statistics show that there are currently over 100 mature wedding operators in Dali. These have led to the development of over 120 related business entities, such as wedding hosts, photographers, makeup artists, and exhibition setups, as well as nearly a hundred guesthouses and hotels. Each year, the industry directly employs over 3,000 people.
The rise of Dali’s destination wedding industry benefits from the area’s unique natural scenery. Zhao introduced that Dali’s Cangshan and Erhai, along with its “four seasons of wind, flowers, snow, and moon,” have unique connotations in Chinese culture. As ecological governance continues to advance, the picturesque Dali has become a dream wedding destination for many young couples.
Source: People’s Daily; trans-editing by Guo Yao