Real in the sense that if they can get it out of you they will.
In terms of caring about it as a real aspect of their culture and not just a way to grub some free cash? Not really.
From what I’ve seen of people I know who were asked for it, many parents will happily ignore more common cultural traditions of weddings if you pay up the dowry (like a traditional Thai wedding ceremony in favor of a western one) so you can see where a lot of these people sit in terms of actually caring about tradition.
At any rate, unless the girl is a virgin, fairly young, is supporting the family and will stop supporting the family after marriage, it’s not even in line with tradition.
I’ve seen parents ask for sinsod for 30 something daughters with multiple kids who were also expected to perpetually help them out financially
I’m not saying it’s a good idea, just pointing out why they’re doing it and that it has nothing to do with “racism”.
The Thai government seems to think the rest of the world will gladly pay pre Covid prices for hotels, probably because airline fares are back to pre Covid and even higher in some cases and people are still traveling in record numbers.
So maybe they’re right, I don’t know.
But yeah, I think it would be better to keep hotel prices set by hotel owners and if they’re discounted then that helps attract more western tourists which Thailand desperate needs as they spend more per head.
Chasing after low revenue tourists and trying to make up for it in large volume has been awful.
They want to dual price so they can keep discounted rates for Thais and put back normal pre Covid prices for everyone else.
It’s not the best idea but it’s based on some logic.
Thais on average are poorer than most of the tourists that come to Thailand and they need a sizable domestic tourism base to make up for some of the shortfall in international tourism.
Also makes sense to deter low budget tourists who contribute little to nothing while taking up infrastructure resources and adding to pollution.
This fits in line with Thailand’s desire for quality over quantity.
They’re not very good based on what a Kuwaiti friend of mine told me. He flew them many times because it was free for him. He said all the other major middle eastern carriers were better.
I’ve flown with Qatar, Etihad and Emirates and I’d say for business class they’re all more or less on par.
For coach I think Emirates and Qatar were a bit better.
But I wouldn’t fly any of them now. Maybe business class if I had no other choice but forget economy or premium economy.
The quality of the passengers is much worse than it was 15 years ago. You’re rolling the dice being sat next to a train wreck for 8+ hours.
Also their hub airports aren’t very nice compared to say Incheon or Singapore or even many European airports.
The best thing to do is find a few lawyers who deal with immigration law, ask them how much it will cost to look into the case and what can be done to resolve it.
The ban is 5 years but it’s still up to the immigration officer she is dealing with when applying for a visa.
They can just say no for any reason really.
But if she can get a court to rule that she is free to enter Thailand again and show that document she should be fine.
I would estimate it would cost around 30k baht for something like that.
