The price of marriage in Dubai (page 1 of 3)

When Adam Taylor tied the knot with his fiancée Tanya in October last year, he embraced marriage far more wholeheartedly than most grooms.

The couple said "I do" in a picture-postcard event in the grounds of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dubai, the city where they met back in 1996. The day was a great success, but Adam was shocked both by how difficult it had been to organize - and by the meteoric growth he was witnessing in Dubai's nascent wedding industry.

He spotted a niche in the market, ditched his sales and marketing job along with his single life, and launched the Wedding Shop. "I just thought there was an opening," says Taylor. "I've done some market research, and it all points to a phenomenal growth market."

Taylor is not alone. Across Dubai, the wedding industry is one of the fastest growing areas within the emirate's thriving leisure and tourism
sector. The market for UAE national weddings remains stable; it is demand from expats that is soaring. "More and more people are getting married in Dubai," says Amit Arora, director of sales at the Ritz-Carlton Dubai. "It has pretty much grown over the past two to three years. Before that, expats didn't really get married in Dubai; people went home to get married. Today, it's very different."

What's driving this trend? Two explanations crop up time and again. First, the emergence of idyllic, seashore wedding venues. Second, Dubai's expat community is not only growing, it's changing.

As elsewhere in Dubai's tourism sector, the economics of the wedding industry are founded on the concept of supply-led demand. Or, in layman's terms, "build it and they will come." Until the late 1990s, Dubai couldn't offer couples a wedding venue that was truly breathtaking. The city was home to a number of luxury beach hotels, but none had the "wow" factor that made brides fall in love with the idea of getting married there. As such, the vast majority of expats chose to return home, mainly to Europe or India.

All that changed in 2000 with the opening of the Royal Mirage. Suddenly, Dubai had a wedding venue that was genuinely spectacular. The hotel's lavish architecture (it is built in the style of a Moroccan palace) provided a landmark backdrop for ceremonies and receptions. The following year, the neighboring Ritz-Carlton invested heavily in a network of landscaped gardens that quickly established the hotel as a definitive wedding location.

"Look at the fantastic hotels in this city," says Geoffrey Ryan, catering director at the Royal Mirage. "You have the weather, and you have these amazing locations. It's a bride's dream."
Weddings, though, are about much more than bricks and mortar; they are about people. And it is the changing face of Dubai's expat community that is the real driving force behind this emerging trend. "Expats are starting to live here a little bit longer," explains the Wedding Shop's Adam Taylor. "And they are younger when they come out here."

Amit Arora of the Ritz-Carlton agrees that demographics are a significant force. "The expatriate community is a lot less transient than it used to be. Until recently, people used to come for a two-year posting and then move on. Now people are making their home here - so they feel much more comfortable getting married in Dubai."

Furthermore, Dubai is finally becoming a cultural melting pot. The city has always been home to a diverse range of nationalities, but traditionally each community kept itself to itself.