Macao wedding industry has potential

As Macao elevates its status as a world-class tourism destination and as hotel banqueting services continue to mature, the customer base now comprises more and more overseas clients, according to local wedding operators. They also believe that with the growing professionalism of wedding photography services, Macao’s wedding industry has tremendous potential for further growth.

La Maison de Marriage, founded in 2015, is a local wedding planning company offering one-stop services for couples. Wini Cheong is now Chief Wedding Planner for La Maison de Marriage after having first worked as a banquet sales agent for an international five-star hotel. When she worked for the hotel, Ms Cheong met a number of local wedding planners. So she took an interest in this profession and subsequently enrolled in wedding-related courses in Hong Kong.

After taking the courses, Ms Cheong became more enthusiastic and passionate about this area of the business, so she started her career as a part-time wedding planner. She noticed there was a demand for local services. In 2017, she quit her high paying job and devoted herself completely to La Maison de Marriage.

“The number of customers coming to our company to ask for wedding planning services is growing by 50 percent every year,” she said. “The demand is huge. Twenty percent of my customers are actually coming from different parts of the world to host their weddings here in Macao. That means the market is not limited just to locals. We have customers from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mainland China, Canada, Taiwan and more,” Ms Cheong told Macao Image.

She thinks that a number of local world heritage sites, and the excellent facilities of local hotels are attractive to overseas customers. In addition to this, the Travel Stimulation Programme launched by the Macao Government Tourism Office is another key market promoter.

Wedding photography boom

The post-1990 generation is now entering the marriage age, and a number of international hotels have opened one after another in Macao, offering very nice wedding venues. Outro Travel & Photography is well aware of the growth potential for Macao’s wedding market. The company not only serves local customers, but also costumers from the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Hazel Lei, head of Outro Travel & Photography, said: “Today, the spending patterns of youths have shifted from ‘substance’ to ‘experience’. Consumers are more willing to spend money on discovering, experiencing and enjoying the best life has to offer. Weddings are a once-in-a-lifetime event. Customers have become more willing to spend money on weddings, wedding photography and other related services.”

Established in 2017, the studio that belongs to Outro Travel & Photography is a team characterised by its concept of travel photography, providing services including overseas travel photography programmes, pre-wedding and wedding photography, family photography and more.

Ms Lei explained that the company was the first studio in Macao to arrange photography and travel services for couples carried out by local photographers and personnel of the travel destination. Since this is still a new concept in Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland China, Outro Travel & Photography hopes this service will become more popular.

“One of our primary business operations is to find quality photographers from all over the world, and work with them, as well as introduce them to the Macao market,” Ms Lei said. “Customers who have used this service so far are very appreciative. They think it [this service] is interesting and new. Local photographers have a better understanding of the travel destination and they know places that are fit for photo shooting much better than we do.”

Outro Travel & Photography also notes that the demand for photography services in wedding registration and bridal showers have also grown in recent years.

Speaking of the development of overseas markets, Ms Lei suggested that the Government should consider taking Sanya, Penang and other neighbouring cities as examples, and adopt “tourism and wedding photography” as one of the development models of leisure tourism. That way, Macao can attract couples from abroad to Macao to have fun discovering the city while taking their wedding photos.

M-Power Creation, another local photography company, also provides wedding photography services. Nico Vong, Creative Director and Photographer, said that the local wedding market has really flourished in recent years. Many amateur photographers are also investing in offering these services, resulting in an increasing number of professional studios established to seize these opportunities.

Now that people have more to choose from in Macao, customers prefer to go to independent photography studios like M-Power Creation for a more personalised touch. The company will ask couples how they met each other and recommend taking photos in places where the couples created special memories. Through this way, customers are able to own a series of truly unique photos, which are also fun experiences, and the overall story will be more powerful and impactful.

Macao’s leading wedding venues

Over the past three years, the annual average number of Macao marriage registrations has exceeded 3,000. And at the same time, a number of five-star hotels have opened one after the other in Macao. In the face of fierce market competition, Tan Ieong, Assistant Director of Catering Sales for JW Marriott Hotel Macau and The Ritz-Carlton, Macau, said that wedding business continues to grow. “It is good to see that more and more couples prefer to choose our hotel for their wedding events,” said Mr Ieong.

JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton, located on Cotai, attract customers seeking refined and elegant banquet venues, as well as tailor-made wedding planning services. Both hotels provide event concierge services, that provide meticulous full-service wedding planning and preparations for their customers. Both hotels reward their customers with discounts and gifts after the big day, including complimentary accommodations, discounts, benefits, and exclusive room rates at Marriott International hotels.

Grand Hyatt Macau, also located in the Cotai area, said Macao’s economy has grown well in recent years and the spending power of new couples has risen while their demand for hotel wedding banquet services has also increased. They are now allocating more of their budgets towards using production houses that provide unique decorations, lighting and sound effect settings.

Timothy Bruce, General Manager of Grand Hyatt Macau, said: “We provide different venue setups and themed colour settings for the couples. We have also upgraded our venues and facilities; the recent installation of the LED screens in the ballroom, the new outdoor air conditioned dome-shaped Marquee and the changing of new carpet in the function space are some examples of the enhancement.”

He also said that to attract more new couples to Grand Hyatt, the hotel offers a comprehensive selection of exclusive wedding packages for them to enjoy before and after the wedding. For example, the package includes gym membership or spa treatments before the wedding, or a honeymoon stay at other Hyatt sister properties and an anniversary dinner after the wedding.