Transnational Hospitality as Soft Power: How Thai Massage Therapists Negotiate Cultural Identity in Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

Thai massage is now a well-known image of health treatment around the world. It is also  a way for Thai massage therapists to show their cultural influence. However, there is little information about how Thai masseurs change the ways they work in other countries. This paper looks at the Thai-style hospitality given by Thai massage practitioners in Budapest. It also looks at how they changed their services to meet the Hungarians' expectations. Based on a phenomenological approach, the twenty interview participants (who were interviewed in Thai) were translated and written down. Applied to the framework developed by Braun and Clarke, it resulted in four themes, i.e., cultural embodiment of hospitality, perception of customer expectations, and strategies of adaptation; and a trade-off between authenticity and feasibility. The results show that the practitioners changed their technique and language to fit Hungarian preferences. However, they used cultural norms like greng jai (consideration) and nam jai (kindness) to perform a Thai-style service. These results correlate with both Intercultural Adaptation Model and Social Judgment Theory, in which soft power is used at the micro-level in embodied service. The study also ends with a consideration of  how transnational wellness professionals can be termed as an irregular cultural diplomat and also indicates that further studies should consider a comparative client-based approach; thus, making the study shed more light into the transnational soft power created by wellness tourism.