Gay Tourism: Culture and Context

Description

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,... Read more

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!

Gay Tourism: Culture and Context is enlightening reading for tourism policymakers, tourism planners, tourism managers, and teachers and students in the fields of tourism studies, gay studies, social and cultural geography, and sociology. Read less

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

Author(s)

Biography

Kevin Markwell, Gordon Waitt

Gay Tourism Culture and Context

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

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