Yaoi Media Consumption and Travel Motivation: Evidence From Filipino Viewers of Thai Boys' Love Series

Abstract

The Thai yaoi culture is getting a lot of attention in several parts of the world. Numerous Thai boy's love (BL) series are a huge hit in Thailand and other countries. Despite the notable success of Thai yaoi and BL culture, there is less attention given to this topic in past studies and literature. Moreover, no study has investigated how yaoi culture may affect travel motivation. Hence, the present study examines the effect of yaoi media consumption on travel motivation of Filipino viewers of Thai boys' love series. A prediction approach was employed, and partial least squares (PLS) path modelling was used to measure the hypothesized relationships. The study reveals that all dimensions of cultural proximity significantly affect Thai yaoi media consumption, and Thai yaoi media consumption was found to have an influence on emotional involvement and travel motivation. Emotional involvement was also found to significantly affect travel motivation, and, at the same time, act as a mediator between Thai yaoi media consumption and travel motivation. The current research offers novel theoretical insights about media consumption and its relation to travel motivation in the context of Thai pop-cultural boys' love series.