Abstract

The 2018 Thai soap opera Buppaesanniwas was a genre-breaking historical-fantasy drama and a surprise hit among Thai audiences that resulted in a dramatic rise of domestic tourists to the Ayutthaya World Heritage Site. The television series was lauded as a celebration of Thai culture, and fans often visited the ancient ruins dressed in traditional Thai clothing. This paper explores the case study of the film tourism phenomenon at Ayutthaya and pays particular attention to the idea of national and cultural identity as a tourism motivation using field observations, media research and purposive interviews. Film tourism has typically been driven by the desire to see the landscapes featured in the media, but in this case, we find that the desire to visit Ayutthaya as a destination is also as much about celebrating the idea of ‘Thainess’ which is manifested by the accompanying trend of wearing traditional Thai dress.