The gay tourism industry—a progressive social force or a pull towards an oppressive status quo?
The pink tourism dollar is now recognized as a highly profitable niche of the tourism market. Gay Tourism: Culture and Context critically investigates the emergence of a commercial gay tourism industry for male clients, the way it is organized, and how the tourism industry promotes cities, resorts, and nations as ’gay’ destinations. This careful examination critically questions the social, political, and cultural implications regarding relationships between gay tourism, Western gay male culture, the erotic, sexual politics, and sexual diversity.
Gay Tourism: Culture and Context begins by detailing how travel often enabled the expression of Western same-sex male desire in the nineteenth century and then charts the
emergence of a Western gay tourism industry in the late twentieth century. A critical analysis is given of gay guidebooks and erotic videos that help to establish and maintain destinations as seemingly gay utopias, including Hawaii and the Greek island Mykonos. Carefull consideration
as to debates about how the gay tourism industry operates in the context of questions regarding the globalization of sexuality, sexual citizenship and place-marketing of (homo)sexualised cities. The text includes an extensive bibliography plus several photographs, charts, and figures to
clearly present concepts and ideas.
Topics in Gay Tourism: Culture and Context include:
- the history of gay travel and tourism
- the effect of HIV/AIDS on gay tourist destinations
- gay travel writing sustaining same-sex fantasies about popular gay tourist destinations
- analysis of the socio-political ramifications of gay tourism
- the sexual politics of a heterosexual nation
- gay tourists as an “invading force” of corruption
- the economic rationale for the (homo)sexualized city
- the concept of “gay villages”
- the role of special events and festivals in gay tourism
- and many more!
- Foreword (Mike Crang)
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1. Mapping the Terrain of Gay Tourism
- Introduction
- Gay Tourism in the Age of Mobility
- Establishing Our Theoretical Framework
- Approaching the Topic—Becoming Personal
- The Structure of the Book
- Chapter 2. Charting the Emergence of Gay Tourism
- Introduction
- Scripting and Circulating Ideas About Homosexual Destinations in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- The Emergence of City and Resort Destinations, 1920-1969
- Out and About: Bringing Gay Tourism Out of the Closet, 1969 to Present
- Conclusion
- Chapter 3. Selling Gay Paradise: Spatial and Social Discourse of Gay Tourism Travelogues
- Travel, Texts, and Representations of Gay Paradise
- Clarification on Method
- Mapping Gay Destinations and Scripting Sexuality
- Paradise of Australia: Imagining Australia As “Macho-opolis”
- Paradise of the Russian Federation and Central Europe: Imagining Russia and Central Europe As “Twink-opolis”
- Paradise of Hawai’i: Imagining Hawai’i As a Place of “True” Romantic Homosexual Love
- Paradise of Gay Myknonos: Imagining Myknonos As “Euro-Gay Cluboplois”
- Gay Sexual Utopias and Cultures of Gay Travel
- Chapter 4. Touring the Heterosexual Nation
- Introducing Gay Tourism and “National Closets”: Nationalism, Citizenship, and Sexuality
- Nations and Nationalism: Performing an Imagined Heteronormative Community
- Marketing Nations As Gay-Friendly Tourism Destinations: Reestablishing or Challenging the Imagined Heterosexual Family Nation?
- Arabian State Encounters with Gay Tourism
- Caribbean Encounters with Gay Tourism
- Gay Tourism and Closeting of the Nation
- Chapter 5. Touring the Sexualized City
- Selling, Mapping, and Touring the City As “Gay Villages”
- Selling “Gay-Friendly” Cities Through Inventing Bounded “Gay Villages”
- Selling Sexualized City Spaces: “Gay Villages” As Spaces of Constructed Visibility
- Nongay Narratives of Resistance to Pitching, Bounding, and Mapping City Spaces As “Gay”
- Cities Through the Body: (Re)Sexualizing the Body Through Gay City Spaces
- Queer Narrative of Resistance to Bounding Gay City Space: Marking Out the Gay Unwanted
- Selling Gay to Nongay Tourists: The Straight Eye for Bent Attractions
- Implications of Nongay Tourists in the Gay Village
- Conclusion
- Chapter 6. Special Events and Festivals
- Celebration!—Come On, Let’s Celebrate
- Sexuality and the City—Relax, When You Want to Come: Gay Place Making Through Event Tourism
- Where’s the Party?—Spin Me Right Round, Round, Round
- Why Party?—Make Me Feel Mighty Real: The Significance of Special Events for Gay Tourism and Gay Cultures
- Embodying Pride Through Marching—I Am What I Am
- Playing the Field—What’s the Name of the Game?
- A Gay Day Out—Just a Perfect Day
- Dancing the Circuit—Get Into the Groove
- Conclusion—Everybody Needs Time to Celebrate
- Chapter 7. Conclusions
- Gay Tourism and the Constitution of “Modern” Gay Identities
- Evolutionary Narratives of Gay Tourism
- Internationalization of Gay Identities
- Intersections with Social Difference
- Gay Tourist Destinations Through the Body
- Return to Oz
- Bibliography
- Publications
- Videography
- Index
- Reference Notes Included
Biography
Kevin Markwell, Gordon Waitt
