Be a Manager

Wedding & Travel Fair 2009

I have recently attended the very first bridal fair in 2009. The Wedding & Travel Fair took place from 3rd to 5th January in Suntec City Convention and Exhibition Centre, Level 3, from 12 noon to 10pm. This event was organised by Lian He Wan Bao and Wedding & Travel and it is managed by Fullhouse Communications. There were more than 20 top local and overseas bridal boutiques offering attractive wedding and travel packages.

The fair aims to attract more business despite of the current economic recession by offering bundle wedding packages. Today, almost everyone is watching their expenses. However, with such packages, couples can now afford their dream honeymoon. These travel packages mostly cover Asian countries as it is really expensive to have a vacation in European countries or any place further.

The fair had pretty overwhelming responses as the place was really very crowded. As reported by the Chinese newspaper, there were about 3000 people who dropped by the 3-day fair each day.As i walked through the rows of bridal stalls, i could see that most stalls were seated with customers as their staffs explain the promotional packages.

I would say that the fair was definitely targeting at couples who are planning to get married in the near future and is at the same time on a tight budget. It is said that you only get married once in your life and who doesn't want a wedding of a lifetime? But then again, there are the financial issues. Wedding & Travel therefore brought together all these bridal boutiques and travel agencies to bring forward the best and value-for-money promotions for couples.

The event was published in the Chinese newspaper - Lian He Wan Bao and there were articles about it in the W&t (Wedding and travel) magazine. Information about the event can also be found on the internet. For instance, under the 'Events Calendar' of http://www.suntecsingapore.com/ and 'Exhibitions' of http://www.wedding-travel.com/. When taking a stroll in the Suntec City Mall, people can also see the upcoming events to be held in Suntec City Mall or Suntec City Convention and Exhibition Centre as there are televisions in various locations of the mall which screens information about upcoming events.

The event had lucky draws and competitions. This might be one of the factors that attracted the crowd besides the promotion packages. The competition was a rather interesting one as it aims to find "The Singapore Couple 2009". Most articles in the newspaper covered the story mostly in the angle of the competition. Stories of loving couples, unique love stories between couples who attended the fair and winning entries of the competition and so on were published.

In my personal opinion, the fair was a success. The reponses were good and there were interesting newsworthy love stories which came out of it. However, i feel that the fair was a little too small in terms of the size. It was not held inside the convention halls as I expected, but outside of it. The stage which other events like lucky draws, announcements, celebrity appearances and performancs was placed at the far end of the entire fair. Some times, people may not notice it.

If I were to take charge, I will try and book the convention hall and organise a bridal gown fashion show. Instead of only displaying the beautiful wedding gowns on mannequins like the fair did, i would hire appropriate girls (hieight and facial features) to put them on and have a fashion show. Afterwards, the girls can parade around the convention hall. This will further interest some people, like females, to get married as soon as possible. Having the girls to walk around, they can also effectively promote their respective vendors as people might approach them as ask about the gown, the girls can then promote the brand and etc. Seeing such a scene, some ladies might choose just purchase a photoshoot packages even if they are not getting married at the moment. This can also bring in sales for the respectives vendors.


Below is a picture of the fair that I have taken with my camera from the 4th of the the Convention Centre.




Here are some scanned brochures that i manage to get when i was walking through the fair. There are really well designed and beautiful pictures that might really interest a patron into purchasing their product or services.

*Click on pictures to enlarge.