An examination of Chinese gay tourists: motivation, identity, and space

Abstract

Prior studies on gay tourism have focused primarily on Western cultures, and research on geographically and culturally distant Chinese gay tourism is limited. Using social identity theory and identity-based motivation theory as a framework, this study bridges an observed ‘Chinese gay’ gap by exploring the roles of motivation, identity, and space in the travel experiences of Mainland Chinese gay tourists in Thailand. A netnographic approach was employed to collect textual data from 27 travel postings, generating a total of 143,000 characters for analysis. The results produced an integration matrix model of travel motivations and gay identity comprising four quadrants. Identified travel motivations include gay space, atmosphere, knowledge, prostitution, socialization and belongingness, culture and sightseeing, local tourism attributes and activities, escapism and relaxation, and sexual encounters. The results also show that tourists’ gay identity directs their travel motivations, and travel experiences, in turn, reinforce their gay identity. In addition, tourists’ gay identity can be validated and contextualized within the gay space. By interlinking the concepts of motivation, identity, and space, the present research contributes to the understanding of queer tourism geographies in a Chinese context.