Jamie Biesiada
Travel advisors who focus on planning destination weddings and honeymoons had an uneven year in 2025, according to the Destination Weddings & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA).
DWHSA executive director John Hawks said while about half of members reported an increase in their destination wedding business in 2025 compared to the year prior, roughly 30% reported a decrease.
What should advisors reporting a decline do? Unless an advisor has made the decision to move away from destination weddings, Hawks advises an increase in marketing.
Hawks said some members possibly got used to the post-pandemic pent-up demand of 2023 and 2024 and are relying solely on referrals for new clients. He said, "Now's the time to double down on your marketing, because you can grow your prospect base if you do that."
Wedding shows can be a particularly fruitful form of marketing, especially if other advisors are starting to drop out, he said.
He also encouraged advisors to make it very clear on the homepage of their website that they are destination wedding specialists.
"So many of our members still have general travel sites," he said. He recommends that advisors selling weddings at least have a sub-brand site. For instance, ABCtravel.com could operate ABCromancetravel.com, too. That will help direct search traffic to an advisor's website if someone is searching for destination weddings.
When a particular segment is slow, Hawks said, that is the time to double down on marketing.
Hawks also recommended marketing to past wedding clients, "looking at the lifetime value of these couples."
"There are babymoons and familymoons and anniversary trips every year," he said.
For anniversaries, advisors can lean into the consumer trend of spending money on experiences over merchandise.
Also, they can analyze their databases and identify who might be the right fit for other travel products. Supplier partners can help with identifying ideal clients, too.