As Indian tourists help revive Thai tourism, will attitudes towards them change?
- Indian visitors have become the unexpected saviours of a sector wracked by the absence of Chinese travellers
- They may help challenge lingering prejudices among some Thais towards South Asians, who first arrived in the kingdom centuries ago but continue to feel like they ‘don’t belong’
Even the Thai gardeners know the intricacies of Indian wedding rituals at the Royal Cliff Beach Hotel in Pattaya, says Nilesh Kosti, who sells the costly dream of nuptials on private stretches of sand under the Gulf of Thailand’s pink-blushed sunsets.
The Indian wedding season is just a few months away and the hotel’s genial sales manager Kosti says his group is already block booked with two- or three-day ceremonies on Thailand’s eastern seaboard. But the perfect setting comes at a price.
The cheapest package is US$140,000 and prices can reach as high as US$700,000 to accommodate up to 1,000 guests in need of feeding five times a day, as well as pool parties and transport to each ceremony.
“There is a dream of an Indian wedding … and that dream nearly always includes a sea view,” Kosti told This Week in Asia. “Thailand provides that.”
Despite the hefty bill, it is often better value for Indians – or members of the diaspora based in the United States and Britain – to fly their guests to Thailand rather than going big at home.
“In India, Goa or Rajasthan are very popular but expensive – and other areas are less developed or have limited capacity,” Kosti said.