Chinese wedding planners worry as business slumps
COVID wasn't kind to wedding planners in China, where marriages are traditionally elaborate, expensive affairs, but the industry estimated at almost $500 billion is now facing a bigger threat: a plunge in the number of couples willing to tie the knot. - REUTERS
Transcript
00:00 With the number of Chinese couples getting married in decline, scenes like this are becoming
00:05 a rare sight.
00:07 Less matrimony is a worrying trend for wedding planners in China, an industry estimated at
00:12 almost $500 billion just three years ago.
00:16 Yuan Jialiang ran a full-scale wedding planning business for almost a decade in Shanghai,
00:21 before switching to wedding photography as demand for his services began to fall, and
00:26 he hasn't looked back.
00:29 In the process of switching from wedding planning to wedding photography, I started to realize
00:33 that actually couples' demands for photography and videography will not change.
00:38 No matter how the format of the wedding changes, no matter how the scales of the wedding changes,
00:42 they still have the demand to record this precious time.
00:46 So I found that I've made the right career change.
00:49 China's wedding industry already hit a rough patch during the pandemic, when many couples
00:53 delayed their ceremonies.
00:55 There were 6.8 million marriages across China last year, which is 800,000 fewer than in
01:02 2021 and the lowest since the government began publishing the data in 1986.
01:08 Now a bigger threat looms in couples less willing to spring for an all-out wedding.
01:14 Ceremonies in China are traditionally elaborate, expensive affairs, but wedding planners report
01:19 that couples who do go for it are spending less.
01:22 This drop in marriage registrations will likely exacerbate the decline in births in China,
01:28 already one of the fastest aging societies in the world.
01:31 Many cities deny unmarried mothers child raising or health care subsidies, and having children
01:36 out of wedlock is often frowned upon.
01:39 As the economy weakens and consumer confidence wanes, those in the industry are finding little
01:44 cause for optimism.
01:47 The whole environment has contributed to the fact that the wedding industry is not very
01:51 prosperous now.
01:52 I was probably hopeful for another big industry climax, but now I'm more worried than optimistic
01:57 about the prospects.
01:58 With high jobless rates and low household spending among the young and the middle class,
02:03 Juel Wong, who owns several stores in China selling designer wedding dresses, is staking
02:09 the future of her company on wealthier clients that have weathered the economic downturn.
02:14 COVID caused such a big impact on everybody's lives.
02:20 As a market, we see an absolute downturn in spending.
02:24 So all alongside, our strategy has been niche, niche, niche, niche.
02:29 We don't want to flow with the broader market because we don't think that's a good place
02:34 to go.
02:34 [BLANK_AUDIO]