Wedding expo expands online

China Wedding Expo, the world's largest wedding exposition in terms of scale and revenue, is expanding its online presence.

In March, when the expo held its first show in Tianjin, the event launched a subsidy of up to 10,000 yuan ($1,584) for buyers at the show who become app-registered members.

Members can get a subsidy of up to 3-10 percent off their entire bill if they can't come to the show and only appear on the app site.

The online subsidy will soon be available at later sessions of the expo in Wuhan, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing and Hangzhou, beginning the third week in March, said Xiao Changhong, deputy secretary-general of the expo's organizing committee.

The annual revenue of the overall expo - which has exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Wuhan - totals 10 billion yuan.

The online service is expected to account for 5 percent of the expo's revenue this year and to double next year, Xiao said.

In one way, this might seem like a bad time to get involved in the wedding business, as China is witnessing a downward trend in the number of marriages.

Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs indicated that 10.59 million couples were married in 2017, down 9.44 percent year-on-year.

Of those who do seek marriage, however, the pursuit of a high-quality wedding is on an upward trajectory.

Chinese spending on weddings differs from region to region, but overall, spending on weddings and associated travel is seeing sustained growth.

In Beijing, for example, a new couple's spending, excluding apartment and car, averages from 230,000 yuan to 250,000 yuan, according to data from the expo.

In Tianjin, the price drops to 155,000 yuan to 170,000 yuan, but in Shanghai, the figure rises to 270,000-280,000 yuan, research indicates.

At wedding expos in Paris and Toronto, Xiao said, much of the promotional activity centers around travel, but in China, the wedding dress, banquet and other products - including cars - has traditionally accounted for the bulk of spending.

The expo now looks to make a foray into the overseas travel wedding sector as demand for wedding-related tourism is rising fast in cities including Beijing and Shanghai.