Gordon R. Wiatt and Kevin Markwell, Gay Tourism: Culture and Context, Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 2006, 307p.
Abstract
Gay tourism has moved from being invisible, often unthought, and indeed sometimes almost unthinkable, to something that is often noted in academic accounts and whose impact in terms of the pink pound/euro/dollar is quite often courted. Perhaps too many attempts have been made to too easily encapsulate gay tourism and-describe the gay tourist. That some specific destinations promote themselves or are described as "gay meccas" is true, but this often entails picking a key feature of the site and using it to define what gay tourists want. In part, this process acknowledges the diversity of tourist desires, moving from homogenized views to an industry that is catering to more finely differentiated niche markets. However, some of the issues raised by gay tourism are too quickly packaged away, with the recipe for creating a gay mecca being simply to add sexuality and stir. Instead, this book unpacks both the diversity of locations visited by gay tourists as well as what gay tourism might mean. It asks how thinking of gay tourism queers the pitch-troubling the notions of "gayness" and definitions of tourism.
Publication Details
Gordon R. Wiatt and Kevin Markwell, Gay Tourism: Culture and Context, Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 2006, 307p.
Abstract
Gay tourism has moved from being invisible, often unthought, and indeed sometimes almost unthinkable, to something that is often noted in academic accounts and whose impact in terms of the pink pound/euro/dollar is quite often courted. Perhaps too many attempts have been made to too easily encapsulate gay tourism and-describe the gay tourist. That some specific destinations promote themselves or are described as "gay meccas" is true, but this often entails picking a key feature of the site and using it to define what gay tourists want. In part, this process acknowledges the diversity of tourist desires, moving from homogenized views to an industry that is catering to more finely differentiated niche markets. However, some of the issues raised by gay tourism are too quickly packaged away, with the recipe for creating a gay mecca being simply to add sexuality and stir. Instead, this book unpacks both the diversity of locations visited by gay tourists as well as what gay tourism might mean. It asks how thinking of gay tourism queers the pitch-troubling the notions of "gayness" and definitions of tourism.