(De)constructing national identity in nation branding efforts the relation of Thainess in Amazing Thailand tourism campaigns for Thai diaspora

Nation branding efforts increasingly become important tools for officials in promoting the nation to externals. Considering the effort’s aim to present good images and unique aspects of the nation, tourism industry makes use of the project extensively. However, criticisms of the nation branding projects suggest that they impose a single image of the nation and a fixed national identity for its members. They are seen as tools for soft nationalism where the representations of its members are made homogenous. Based on this argument, this study analyses the relation Thai diaspora in the Netherlands make with the constructed Thainess in Amazing Thailand tourism campaigns. Hence, the main research questions are how do members of Thai diaspora in the Netherlands relate to the construction of the nation in Amazing Thailand tourism campaigns and how do they articulate their own national identity in this process? To answer the research questions, the study used Anderson (1991)’s definition of nation being an ‘imagine community’ as a theoretical framework. Furthermore, the research incorporated different theories such as nation branding, diaspora and transnationalism, as well as Thai nationalism. By applying qualitative methods of visual analysis on tourism campaigns and discourse analysis in interviews with 13 Thai diaspora, findings revealed that critical comments towards the representations of the nation in the campaigns are dominant. Although some consisting images of Thainess are found between the visual analysis and interviews, main findings suggest that Thai diaspora challenged the representations of the nation as well as portrayals of Thai people. In conclusion, the homogeneity that the notion of the nation is promising through nation branding effort is not found, thus, criticisms of the project overlooking members of the nation is proved.