Tamarind Global’s VP Weddings and Events, Kunal Rai Speaks on Recent Expansion in Delhi and Dubai

by  Madiha Khan Weddings | April 3, 2018 | News

Tamarind Global

Working in the diverse event and wedding space since over 10 years, Tamarind Global has made a mark in the industry by flawlessly executing Weddings, MICE, and Corporate events nationally and internationally. The company has also recently spread wings across Delhi and United Arab Emirates, Dubai by setting up offices in the two cities. To know more about future plans, we spoke to Kunal Rai, Vice President, Weddings and Events, Tamarind Global on how the company is planning its expansion and keeping an eye on the market trends. 

As Tamarind Global has recently expanded to Delhi and Dubai, please elaborate on the potential of these markets and why these two cities were chosen for expansion?

The Weddings and Events division of Tamarind Global with its head office in Mumbai has seen exponential growth in the last couple of years and the next natural move was to expand to the Delhi market where Tamarind already has a strong foothold with its DMC operations. Delhi NCR is a prominent market for weddings and events and cross-leveraging the strengths of the existing Tours and MICE business, our partnerships with all the leading hotel chains and the existing client base of Tamarind in Delhi gives us an added advantage. With the size and scale of the wedding business, having a strong presence in Delhi was quite necessary and an inevitable progression.

Dubai is a global hub, a confluence of many large communities and gatherings, be it for weddings, social or corporate events. Tamarind already has a stronghold in Dubai for its Tours vertical and has been one of the pioneers in the GCC markets for over a decade, enjoying a majority of the market share within the B2B sector. 

We aim to lead the market by providing an all-inclusive bouquet of services to make each event unique, glamorous, and memorable. With the progressive growth of the Middle East as a popular destination and source market, Dubai is the best choice to set up a regional HQ. It will act as a start point that will drive maximum output to penetrate the Middle East market. There is an abundant availability of resources to successfully execute the events. 

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The competition in Delhi with already established players is considerable. How does Tamarind intend to find its niche in this landscape?

Over the past few years, Tamarind’s brand equity has been well established in the industry which will definitely hold us in good stead. Leveraging our existing presence in Delhi combined with our over 35-year-old rich heritage in the hospitality business adds to our strength and gives us an edge over the competition. Our experience with megascale HNI weddings in all parts of the world, our specialised product team that comes equipped with a vast database of wedding-friendly hotels and destinations, our strong partnerships with leading hotel chains and our combination of passion and processes is something that will definitely help us with our foray into this market. We have already put in place a hospitality and logistics team to support turnkey wedding and event solutions for Delhi and other North markets and have also executed our first wedding before the official launch. The aim is to increase the team size to handle multiple weddings and pitch for new weddings in the region.

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Tamarind has recently executed many weddings in Dubai and the Middle East, serviced from the Head Office. Why was the need felt for a local office in Dubai? What advantages will it serve?

Dubai has now become a preferred wedding destination and is also a huge source market for Indian weddings and events. And not just Dubai but also the neighbouring Middle East destinations like Bahrain, Ras Al Khaimah, Doha, and Abu Dhabi. This move will give us a chance to tap into newer resources and also build on the existing relationships with our vendors, hotels, and logistics. Having a dedicated team to service weddings coming out of and into Dubai was the need of the hour for us. In addition, Dubai Tourism’s support towards like-minded event planners to have a fully-fledged SME also played a crucial role in settling on this choice. Dubai is expected to generate revenue and clientele from a broader spectrum, which will add a substantial year-over-year growth and also increase the brand profile globally.

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Are there any future/further expansion plans by Tamarind? 

Yes, we have a roadmap of expansion plans lined up with respect to all 4 of our verticals – Tours, Weddings, Events, and Corporate Services. Delhi and Dubai were the inevitable starting points, however, we are looking at larger plans to continue new market development such as London as well as product expansion.

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Where is the wedding / Social Events industry heading? What are the growth potentials, in your opinion?

By now everyone has realised that these industries, specifically the wedding industry is a recession-proof business. There is an entire infrastructure that built around weddings and social events and it looks like the sky is the limit with the numbers of newer companies and platforms entering the market. The ways of working have also become more structured and professional. The growth potential is recognised by all and has led to international brands as well opening up shop in India to cater their services to potential brides and grooms. We are quite optimistic about where this industry is headed and it is an exciting time to be a part of it.

As interesting as the wedding industry is right now, we definitely agree with Mr. Rai’s responses and wish him and Tamarind Global good luck on their growth and expansion plans.