ibis Styles enters destination wedding segment in India

New Delhi: Global hospitality group Accor’s ‘ibis Styles’ brand is entering the destination wedding segment in India targetting mid-scale young consumers, a senior company official said.

The ‘ibis Styles Vagator’ property in Goa will be the first to offer full-fledged destination wedding services from the upcoming season and will consider extending it to other properties after learning from the initial experience, ibis & ibis Styles India Head of Commercials, Animesh Kumar told media.

In India, top luxury hotels by and large have been catering to destination weddings where the average spend could range anything between Rs40 lakh and Rs5 crore with the number of guests ranging from 100 to 200. In value terms, 70 to 75 per cent of the destination wedding have been catered by luxury and upscale hotels, he said. “There is that mid-scale segment and there is a demand in that segment.

Not everyone has the ability to spend a few crores of rupees... based on our assessment, I think there is opportunity to cater to this demand,” Kumar said on the idea behind ibis Styles looking at the destination wedding segment. There are young, modern, smart, fun millennials who want a special, but smaller setup and they are more value driven, he said, adding, “that is the segment which is underserved, right now”. Within the ibis network, while ‘ibis’ is well positioned primarily for business travel, ‘ibis Styles’ has more of design element and is more leisurely and it fits well for destination weddings, he noted.