CATS will hold the Tourism Online Forum Series (TOFS) vol.33 on Friday, May 17. Anyone is welcome to attend. We look forward to your participation.

The Role of “Boys Love” Idols in Thai Tourism Campaigns:
Exploring a New Case Study for Contents Tourism Studies

Abstract:
Recent years have seen an explosion of “Boys Love” (BL) media in Thailand, which have developed international appeal due to their handsome male stars. Since 2020, popular idol couples from Thai BL series have been consistently appearing within tourism campaigns directed towards international fans, particularly in Japan. Within this presentation, I explore how both the affective practices central to BL fandom and the practice of utilising BL couples within Thai advertising campaigns – including the use of staged homoeroticism to generate affective attachments to advertised products– have been utilised to promote new forms of popular culture tourism. Significantly, I explore how Thai BL advertising produces new forms of emotional branding which tie fans’ affective responses to homoerotic content and idols’ star personas not only to touristic destinations, but also to Thai traditional culture. I conclude by reflecting on the potential limitations of such advertising campaigns from the perspective of tourism studies.

Hosted by: Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)

Date/Time: Friday 17 May 2024  |  18:00-19:30(JST)

Venue: Online (Zoom Webinar)

Language: English

Capacity: 50 persons

Participation fee: Free to join (pre-registration system)

Speaker: Dr. Thomas Baudinette
Bio:
Dr Thomas Baudinette is Senior Lecturer in Japanese and International Studies at Macquarie University, Australia. A cultural anthropologist, his research explores the role popular culture plays in shaping knowledge about gender and sexuality across East and Southeast Asia. His first book is Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media, and Masculinity in Tokyo (University of Michigan Press, 2021). His second book is Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023). He recently completed the Academy of Korean Studies funded project “Exploring K-pop Fandom as a Space for LGBT Support in the Asia-Pacific During Pandemic Times” (AKS-2022-R033). Thomas is currently working on his third book, tentatively titled Queer Fantasies of Asia: Japanese and Korean Media Fandom in the Philippines. He regularly blogs about his research on his personal website: www.thomasbaudinette.com.

Moderator: Dr. Meng Qu

Registration:
Please register at the URL below. 
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_V7BBn1USRV6vV_AxhcNNkg

Contact:
Hokkaido University, Center for Advanced Tourism Studies (CATS)
online-forum(at)cats.hokudai.ac.jp
※Please replace the (at) part with @.