KATHMANDU: Nepal will play host to a royal wedding with a difference when an openly gay Indian prince marries his partner at a Hindu temple in Kathmandu.

The ceremony is the start of what a Nepalese politician, Sunil Babu Pant, hopes will become a lucrative business for his country, whose tourist industry is still reeling from the effects of a decade-long civil war that ended in 2006.

Manvendra Singh Gohil ... will marry in Kathmandu.

Mr Pant, the first openly gay MP in Nepal, has set up a travel agency catering for gay tourists, who he says face severe discrimination in many Asian countries.

''The choices [for gay tourists] in this region are very limited, and there is really no competition from China or India,'' said Mr Pant, who was selected in May 2008 to represent a small communist party in parliament.