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Christina Jelski
Romance is alive and well on the dreamy Macau beach of Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, which now hosts more weddings than any other day of the year.
During a recent visit to the all-inclusive resort, sales manager Wenny Sanchez told me the resort hosts about 385 weddings each year, more than one ceremony each day.
During a three-night stay at the resort, which I visited as part of AMResorts’ Amazing Agent Celebration event in early December, I stumbled upon three different beach weddings. Two of the three took place on the same beach on the same day at slightly less alarming times.
But dreams come a long way when Macau Beach Punta Cana does a brisk wedding business. During a presentation that was part of the Amazing Agent Celebration program, a representative of AMResorts told consultants that sister resort Dreams Onyx Punta Cana is hosting about 400 weddings a year.
Currently, most resorts and travel advisors are working on wedding iterations that may be postponed or postponed due to the pandemic, as well as Covid-era court weddings and many other “next wedding” celebrations. More scaled-down, socially distant affairs.
With that backlog, however, the demand level for destination weddings is off the charts.
During a panel discussion, Kim Goldstein, president of Virginia-based travel, told attendees at the Amazing Agent celebration that the biggest trend today is the fact that it’s “exploding” on the destination wedding front.
“The number of requests for destination weddings is crazy,” Goldstein said. They are giving.
Likewise, wedding and honeymoon expert and owner of Ontario-based Love Planet Vacations, Laurie Keith, told me that when she founded her romantic travel agency in 2004, destination weddings made up about 4 percent of the total wedding market in Canada. . This year, she estimates that share will hover around 20%.
And like the broader all-inclusive sector, destination weddings at all-inclusive resorts are becoming more popular — and more sophisticated.
But while tried-and-true all-inclusive communities in Mexico and the Caribbean remain top picks for many kit wedding clients, more and more couples are looking for an all-inclusive off the beaten path.
“We have wedding couples who want to hit their friends,” Keith said. “They’ve already been invited to their friends’ weddings in Mexico or the Dominican Republic many times. They’re like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to do the same thing,’ so they’re looking for more unique destinations.”
As the Hyatt AMResorts portfolio and other global brands familiar to North American travelers make more trips to Europe, Keith sees an opportunity to bring more destination weddings to markets like Spain and Greece.
AMResorts has a presence in both destinations with a couple properties in Greece and over 40 properties in Spain. In the year In 2024, the company will launch the Portuguese-owned Dreams Madeira Resort Spa & Marina and has also announced its entry into Bulgaria, where it plans to plant five flagships in the next two years.
Does this mean Bulgaria could one day become an all-inclusive, destination wedding destination for North American couples? Perhaps, but many continue to dwell on how easy it is for friends and family to fly on holidays.
“It’s really about how much live air travel there is,” Keith said. “There are many direct flights. [other parts of] Europe, but with Bulgaria, I’m not sure how strong that air travel is. But if we are talking about countries like France, Italy, Greece, Spain, then perfect.
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