Most tourists at Waimanalo Bay were clad in bathing suits last Sunday, but Chinese travelers Ting Ting Hong and Jinbo Xu opted to take in the breathtaking vistas in their wedding finery.
Hong wore a Western white gown instead of the traditional embroidered red "qipao," and Xu donned a tuxedo in lieu of a robe or Zhongshan suit. There wasn’t a tea service in sight.
"More and more Chinese couples are falling in love with Hawaii and want to get married here," said CJ Chen, managing director of BCM International, a consulting firm that handles China and Korea marketing for many of Hawaii’s largest visitor industry players.
Chen made his first foray into the China wedding market in September 2011 and has seen business grow to one or two weddings a month. While Chen’s numbers might not seem large, they mimic the development of the Chinese tourism market in Hawaii’s visitor industry, which has seen small actual arrivals with high growth rates. The numbers also reflect the burgeoning trend in China of adding Western-style customs, even Christian-based ones, to Chinese ceremonies. Sometimes Chinese brides are even replacing customs like the tea ceremony altogether or following celebrities in planning destination weddings in far-off locales, like Hawaii.
"I’ve seen the wedding numbers grow as Hawaii has become more popular and more accessible," Chen said. "This market is following the Korea and Japan markets. Eventually, I think it will surpass them."
That’s entirely possible, said Jennie Ma, editor of the top-rated wedding planning site, TheKnot.com, which entered the China market about three years ago and estimates the industry’s value at $62 billion.
"The wedding industry in China is developing very quickly," Ma said, adding that there are about five times as many couples in China getting married each year as in the U.S.
What’s behind the new trend? Ma thinks that it’s partly because of China’s middle-class boom, increased globalization and the country’s population policies.
Earlier this year, CNN Money reported that the average disposable income of urban Chinese households quadrupled over the past decade. According to the report, the average per capita income in 2010 in China was $3,000, meaning that the typical family of three earns about $9,000 a year. CNN Money reported in rural areas the average disposable income was $1,000 per person, but in China’s largest cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, it rose to around $12,000 a year per person. Of course, some Chinese workers earned significantly more.
The corresponding growth of U.S. and European fashion in China is driving demand for Western-style gowns, Ma said.
"It was a natural progression," she said. "Of course, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t having a traditional Chinese wedding, too. Some brides will make three changes. They’ll come out in a red dress, then change into the white gown and finally into cocktail wear. They pick and choose certain trends that they like and make them their own."
Beyond wealth, another factor influencing wedding spending in China is that the children of China’s one-child policy, a family-planning measure introduced in the late 1970s, are now in their early 20s and 30s.
Two sets of parents and four sets of grandparents are all focused on that one wedding, Ma said.
As a result, many Chinese families and couples will spend significant amounts on weddings, she said.
"In a recent survey, Chinese couples said they would be willing to spend up to 90 percent of their savings on their wedding," Ma said. "That’s huge."
Ijie.com, TheKnot’s Chinese site, has seen significant growth as these young, aspiring Chinese couples embrace Western traditions as a sign of affluence and education, Ma said. In fact, 80 percent of Chinese couples surveyed said that they planned to incorporate Western wedding traditions, she said.
"They don’t have to come from a Western educational background or from big cities like Beijing or Shanghai. Everywhere in China, our brides are incorporating some Western traditions," Ma said.
Chen said an interesting novelty seen in Hawaii is that many of the Chinese wedding couples have adopted Christian customs regardless of their own beliefs.
"I haven’t had a Christian couple, but some want a Christian-style wedding and even go as far as having a church wedding," Chen said. "They think it looks very beautiful, and they like the format."
Typically, Chinese isle weddings aren’t large or high-budget, he said.
"They want a simple but memorable Western-style wedding. Sometimes it’s just two people," Chen said, adding that costs here usually range from $1,500 to $4,000.
Some couples like Hong and Xu may be planning a bigger wedding at home where they can display pictures of Hawaii, he said. However, all of them want the services of a wedding coordinator, a hair and makeup stylist, and a photographer to capture every moment of their pilgrimage around Oahu, Chen said. Higher spenders also will opt for a videographer to make a DVD that they can show in China, he said.
"Chinese couples represent a real opportunity for wedding service providers," Chen said. "Our numbers are only going to grow, and with that, demand for services will, too."
Hawaii also could benefit from another Chinese wedding trend: the growth of destination weddings, Ma said.
"Many celebrities are having weddings in beach and tropical locations, and many Chinese brides are picking up on it," she said. "We recently asked Chinese brides which destinations most appealed to them, and Hawaii was in the top five. Brides liked that it was closer to them than other destinations and that it had beautiful surf and beaches."
Growth in Chinese weddings along with other international markets helped bolster Hawaii’s romance market in 2012, said David Uchiyama, vice president of brand management for the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
As many as 34 percent more international visitors than domestic visitors came to Hawaii for a honeymoon during the first 10 months of this year, and 25 percent more foreigners came to wed, according to HTA statistics.
International visitors coming to Hawaii to marry through October rose to 59,934, a 2.5 percent gain from the prior year. International honeymooners also grew to 271,805, a 20.8 percent gain from the first 10 months of 2011.
HTA has not calculated China’s Hawaii weddings and honeymoon traffic in 2012. However, of the 81,738 Chinese visitors who came to the isles in 2011, 2,988 came for a honeymoon and 323 came to get married.
"When you look at developing markets like Korea and China, the connection to romance is automatic and is one of the fastest-growing segments," Uchiyama said. "We saw similar things happen when the Japan market was developing years ago."
Ma said there’s no doubt that demand for Hawaii is present among Chinese couples, and the market will grow when visa requirements are eased, costs come down and more flights are added.
"We are seeing many brides who want a destination wedding in Hawaii, but the challenge is the visa for the couple and their wedding party and guests," she said. "It’s more a matter of getting approval and convenient flights than financial difficulties."
HTA is working to ease entry into Hawaii for Chinese and to increase direct air service between the destinations, Uchiyama said.
"Ease of getting to that romance experience is critical," he said.
Hong and Xu partly chose Hawaii because they could take a direct flight from Shanghai, Chen said.
"The funny thing is that the couple told me on the flight that they saw a lot of honeymooners," he said. "They can see themselves in the trend."
This month China Eastern will increase its twice-weekly service between Honolulu and Shanghai to three times, and HTA is lobbying for even more frequency, Uchiyama said.
"They’ll be adding daily service during the Chinese New Year holiday," he said.
HTA continues to talk with carriers about adding service between Beijing and Honolulu, Hainan and Honolulu and other routes, Uchiyama said.
Continued improvements to China’s economy also could open more doors to the market, Ma said.
"A few years ago there weren’t any star wedding planners in China, but now it’s picking up quickly. All the big players are coming out," she said. "It’s refreshing to see this market take off."
