Serving hot cakes and hashtags: how two popular resort towns entice LGBTQ plus tourists with food and drink on social media

As the study of food culture has expanded, researchers have taken to examining the relationality of eating practices and social identities in media contexts. Employing an integrative approach to study social media, this research brings into focus the eating habits of a segment of the world's population that has been studied infrequently: people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (or LGBTQ+). Connecting acts of tourism to social media and queer experience, the following examination illuminates how the eating experiences shown in social media marketing have parallels with earlier acts of politically charged commensalism among LGBTQ+ people. As such, this study speaks to the way that groups, businesses, and individuals have enacted culinary tourism by building upon queer discourses of food in the context of two American resort towns: Provincetown, Massachusetts and Palm Springs, California. Attending to the values created by food-related aesthetics, language, and social spaces, this article shows how social media postings construct and imagine the ideal tourism experiences of queer peoples. Consideration likewise is given to the cultural diversity of LGBTQ+ travelers including how resort towns have been putting forth efforts to create more inclusive culinary environs.1

Automated summary

This research focuses on the relationality between eating practices, social identities, and social media, specifically examining the eating habits of the LGBTQ+ population. It explores the connection between acts of tourism, social media, and queer experience, highlighting the similarities between eating experiences portrayed in social media marketing and politically charged commensalism among LGBTQ+ individuals. The study also discusses the cultural diversity of LGBTQ+ travelers and the efforts made by resort towns to create more inclusive culinary environments.