India’s billionaire population is rising. So is anxiety among even educated young Indians who don’t see a dependable route from degrees and competitive examinations to decent jobs. Between these two Indias, a striking commercial story is unfolding: Southeast Asia is learning how to tap into the extraordinary growth of Indian wealth, the spending power of India’s still-tiny uber-rich, and is adapting its resorts, infrastructure, and bureaucracy.
This December, 1,400 Indian guests are expected on Vietnam’s Hon Tre Island in Nha Trang for a four-day wedding estimated to cost around $5 million. Guests will arrive by charter flights. Local authorities will review preparations and work to ensure the wedding runs smoothly, a provincial tourism official said. On the agenda—a special welcome ceremony for the families of the bride and groom at the airport. “Indian chefs will travel to Nha Trang to oversee catering for the event,” Tuổi Trẻ News, the English-language edition of Vietnam’s Tuổi Trẻ newspaper, reported.
In Indian destination mega weddings, the Indian side typically brings much of the wedding with it: planners, décor, chefs, performers, priests, and ritual specialists. The destination supplies what cannot travel so easily—rooms, kitchens, labour, transport, permissions, customs clearance, and the physical infrastructure to hold the whole operation together. Southeast Asia is studying wealthy Indian tourists as a high-value client class and changing the machinery of hospitality around their demands.
That is the business proposition.
Thailand recognised this opportunity early. More than 1,200 Indian couples chose Thailand for weddings in 2023–24, spending between $280,000 and $560,000 per wedding, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT). Last September, TAT hosted an event which brought together 20 top Indian wedding planners and organisers to explore Thailand's wedding destinations.
Vietnam, where Cartier sits comfortably alongside symbols and memorabilia of communism, is the newest bidder for India’s mega destination weddings. It is developing and operating resorts that can handle 1,000+ guests for weddings, MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions / Events) and full-resort buyouts. Last December, an Indian industrial family booked an entire luxury resort in Phu Quoc in southern Vietnam for seven days for more than 1,000 guests. This February, a $3 million wedding in Quảng Ninh province, famous for Hạ Long Bay, mobilised around 600 service staff. Many culinary ingredients were brought directly from India. Da Nang has formalised a 2026 wedding-tourism programme with incentives tied to guest numbers and hotel nights, including airport welcomes and assisted customs clearance for wedding goods.
“Vietnam gives Indian families stunning beachfront venues, full vegetarian and custom catering, and multi-day celebration support—at a fraction of the cost of traditional destinations. We are seeing growing demand from families who want privacy, exclusivity, and a destination that truly surprises their guests,” a representative of Absolute Asia Travel, a well-known Hanoi-based destination management company, told me.
These details matter because they show what is changing. An overseas destination is modifying its operating model to make an Indian mega event easy to execute.
India is projected to have 25,217 ultra-high net worth individuals and 313 billionaires by 2031, up from 207 in 2026, spurred by wealth creation across technology, manufacturing, and capital markets, according to global property consultancy Knight Frank.
The opportunity for Southeast Asia is immense. Middle- and upper-middle-class Indians are also travelling abroad in growing numbers, and Southeast Asia has become a major beneficiary because it often offers value for money, convenience, clean public spaces, and a seductive tourism experience.
At the top end, the sums involved are vastly larger, but the commercial lesson is the same: India is exporting a growing amount of consumer spending, and Southeast Asian destinations have become increasingly adept at capturing it with custom-made offerings.
Behind the buzz generated by India’s mega destination weddings, however, there are larger questions: why is the traffic so one-sided? Indians across the income spectrum are travelling to Southeast Asia. Far fewer Southeast Asians appear to see India as an equally compelling holiday destination.
India’s luxury hotels and resorts probably generate substantially more overall revenue than Vietnam’s because of sheer domestic volume. But Vietnam is beginning to cut into the uber high-end niche of mega-events. India offers extraordinary beauty and diversity. But costs matter, and so do bureaucracy and the surroundings: clean public spaces, safety, and ease of movement are part of what affluent travellers seek, over and above luxury. India has what it takes. But it needs to clean up and build a commercial proposition that can seduce not only its own but also Southeast Asia’s classes and masses.
Southeast Asian tourism boards are cultivating local destination management companies and Indian wedding planners—resorts adapt kitchens and accommodation, and governments facilitate customs and immigration. Incentives are designed around guest numbers and hotel nights. The destination does not need to become Indian; it needs to understand the Indian customer well enough to remove every obstacle between customers and their spending.
Almost a decade ago, Crazy Rich Asians, a romantic comedy about Singapore’s ultra-rich, filmed partly at the iconic Blue Mansion (Cheong Fatt Tze) in George Town, Penang, introduced global audiences to the extravagant world of Southeast Asian wealth.
Today, Southeast Asia is discovering another phenomenon: India’s destination mega-wedding. It knows what India wants. India is yet to make the reciprocal calculation.
Patralekha Chatterjee is a writer and columnist who spends her time in South and Southeast Asia, and looks at modern-day connects between the two adjacent regions. X: @Patralekha2011
