There is a new kind of soft power reshaping the global consumer conversation, impacting how we interact with brands and influencing the places we want to visit and book in 2026.

Whilst K Pop continues to move into the mainstream, we’re now seeing the incredible rise of T Influencer, actors and actresses from Thailand with powerful fandoms backing them online.  And no where is this more evident than the community of Thai GL (Girls’ Love) actresses who over the past three years have cultivated something that most brands spend fortunes trying to create: a deeply loyal, globally dispersed and emotionally invested audience.

Brands across multiple industries; Fashion, Food, Beauty are all knocking on their doors, seeking their endorsement and harnessing their voices to great effect online.

When a Thai GL actress posts a sunset in Chiang Mai, flight searches spike.  When they tag a café in Seoul, their followers want to be exactly where they are.  And their home recognises this, with many being used proudly as national ambassadors and going as far as appointing Faye Peraya as “Trusted Thailand” Ambassador which aims to reinforce global confidence in Thailand, promoting Thai culture, gastronomy, and hospitality.

The clearest proof of this new power could be seen at Paris Fashion Week 2026 when Lingling Kwong (Lingling Sirilak) and Orm Kornnaphat, known fondly as LingOrm took their front-row seats at Dior’s AW26 womenswear show in Paris.

Building on the momentum from two previous visits, Dior named the duo, as a pair, brand ambassadors. Together, LingOrm accumulated over $36 million of Dior’s $88million in Earned Media Value (EMV) from the single show attendance alone.  Individually, Lingling topped the celebrity Share of Voice ranking for the entire Paris Fashion Week at 31.8% of all celebrity mentions, with Orm following closely at 24.6%, meaning the couple accounted for more than half of all celebrity conversation at the event.  Dior, meanwhile, recorded a staggering 56.05% share of voice for the week with LingOrm widely credited as the force behind that dominance.

The implications for travel extend well beyond fashion capital.  When GL couples like LingOrm travel, their audiences don’t just engage, they research and book. For Thailand, soft power through celebrity content is one of its most potent tools.  But the influence is bidirectional: Thai fans also follow their favourites abroad.  Paris, Tokyo and other destinations visited by beloved Thai actresses see measurable upticks in Thai traveller interest.

What makes the GL influencer effect distinct is the nature of the fandom itself.  These audiences are not passive, they are active amplifiers.  They create compelling content, translate across multiple languages create travel itineraries for those visiting new cities and most importantly, coordinate hashtag campaigns with a precision that most marketing agencies would envy.  When LingOrm arrived at Dior in Paris, it wasn’t just their 20 million combined followers who noticed, it was an entire network of international fans acting as an unpaid motivated media army.

For tourism boards, travel brands, hotels and destination marketers, the lesson is clear: the Thai GL sphere isn’t a niche content category.  It is one of the most potent influence ecosystems in the world, and it’s only growing.

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