Above: Dominica (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A change to Dominica’s Marriage Act has the country looking to capitalize on the multibillion-dollar wedding and honeymoon market.

One of the major aspects to the change in the law is to the nonresidency requirement, which will allow couples to obtain a marriage licence in Dominica within 24 hours.

The Ministry of Social Services will adopt the new process beginning March 1.

“With a view of competing with leading wedding and honeymoon destinations such as St. Lucia and Barbados, DDA will undertake a short term plan of action,” said Colin Piper, CEO at the Discover Dominica Authority. “This will include participation in wedding specialized tradeshows, updates on the wedding and honeymoon page on the website, engaging of travel writers and publications of ads in leading wedding magazines.”

Tourism Minister Ian Douglas said Dominica could benefit “significantly” from the market.

“If only we can position ourselves to profit from just a small percentage of this market, our destination will certainly benefit — consider the following statistic: the destination markets in the world accounts for $16 billion US dollars in annual spending, which means the recession has not affected this market,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what is happening with the economies of the world, people will fall in love and will want to get married and we have to be prepared for that.”