Last month, I had the privilege to present a lecture at Hokkaido University’s Center for Advanced Tourism Studies about my new research project exploring the role of Thai BL in promoting tourism to Thailand.

Here is the 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.

The lecture was recorded and you can watch it on CATS’s official YouTube channel below!