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This chapter examines aspects of working backpackers in Cairns in Far North Queensland, Australia. Using the push pull model, the study examines both the destination supply and demand sides of the working holiday making backpacker market to determine the degree to which the two are aligned. A qualitative approach, utilizing interviews with hostel managers and focus groups with backpackers, revealed that the working holiday backpacker market to Australia has changed in recent years as the “push” or motivating factors of backpackers have shifted. At the same time the attributes or “pull” factors of Cairns as a destination have not changed sufficiently to meet these changes. The study found that destination communication, product, and services contributed most significantly to the gap between the push and pull elements of the model and recent events appeared to have further exposed these gaps. Strategies to address these issues were explored and the implications for other regional destinations were discussed in light of these gaps. The study also identifies areas for further research including using the results to provide the basis for quantitative studies into the “push” and “pull” factors identified in the research and measuring the impact of the identified gaps on other outlying regional destinations.

In 2013, the television programme Hannibal debuted on television. Taking characters and narrative from three novels by Thomas Harris (Red Dragon (1981), Silence of the Lambs (1989) and Hannibal (1999)) over three seasons, the audience got to spend time with Dr Hannibal Lecter. Appearing 32 years after the first book and 27 years after Hannibal’s first screen appearance, much has changed in Dr Lecter’s world and the most interesting of these changes is the gender of characters.

In Red Dragon, Dr Alan Bloom and Freddy Lounds are men, and in the television series, they are women. This chapter argues that another change in genders occurs as Will Graham replaces Clarice Starling as the person Lecter seduces. It also introduces a female psychiatrist for Dr Lecter. These changes alter the presentation of the specific characters but also that of the overall narrative arc of the television series.

This chapter will identify and evaluate these shifts in gender and consider how these changes impact the viewer experience. The change of the familiar to the unfamiliar is uncanny, and it is this argument that adds to the presentation of Will and Hannibal as figures of horror and increases audience anxiety and fear.