Resorts help more people to say 'I will'

Author: Bridget Carter
Date: 22/05/2010
Publication: The Australian

RESORTS are turning to the booming wedding business to drive earnings, with many saying the number of ceremonies they are hosting has more than doubled in the past year.

The hype surrounding the occasions, depicted in Hollywood movies such as 27 Dresses and The Wedding Planner, is being driven by couples delaying getting married but spending more on their nuptials.

Some couples spend tens of thousands of dollars on their weddings and, in one case, the occasion cost a reported $250,000.

Liam and Angela Fordham, from Brisbane, were married yesterday at Mantra on Salt Beach at Kingscliff in northern NSW, where the number of weddings has quadrupled in the past year since more facilities were added.

Mrs Fordham, 25, said she knew she wanted to marry her 29-year-old partner at Kingscliff when she saw the location.

"We like the water and Liam used to go on family holidays there," Mrs Fordham said.

The $24,000 it cost to put on the wedding, with 135 guests, had been shared among themselves and their families.

Many resorts targeted the wedding industry after a downturn in the conference market during the global financial crisis.

Hotel analyst Dean Dransfield, from Dransfield Hotels and Resorts, said historically the resort industry had tended not to take bookings for Saturday night weddings to avoid pushing out the conference market.

But things had changed, because people were spending more on weddings, and wedding marketing had become a mainstream business.

"They are no longer the poor cousin in the market," Mr Dransfield said. "Hotels are enabling that fantasy to become a reality."

Patrick Hardy, general manager at the Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast, said his wedding business had lifted 30 per cent in the past year. With Saturdays booked out until December, the hotel was pushing Fridays and Sundays for weddings at a cost of up to $180 a head, or $18,000 for 100 people.