Yahoo Lifestyle ‘The White Lotus’ Has Driven Online Searches for Thailand’s Koh Samui Resort up 40%
The White Lotus effect is already hitting Thailand.
Searches for Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, the glamorous setting for The White Lotus season three, have skyrocketed since the HBO show dropped a teaser late last year. According to Hotels.com, the booking site recorded a whopping 40 percent spike in searches for the $1,700-per-night Four Seasons property, which will serve as one of the shooting locations for the upcoming season.
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“We’re waiting for Thailand to go crazy because everyone knows as soon as White Lotus comes out, you won’t be able to get in. We’re starting to see people wanting to go there before,” Misty Belles, a spokeswoman for luxury travel network Virtuoso, explained to Bloomberg back in June. At the time, the company noticed a 38 percent increase in Thailand bookings. It was also reported that the anthology would be filming around Koh Samui, Phuket, and Bangkok.
This isn’t the first time that the award-winning series has caused a tourism frenzy, either. Ahead of the highly anticipated season two, which took place in southern Italy, Hotels.com noted a 300 percent spike in searches for San Domenico Palace in Sicily where the second installment was filmed. In fact, the resort in Taormina was fully booked for six months and reservations didn’t reopen until after the entire season aired.
The show’s impact on tourism is part of a larger travel trend known as “set-jetting” in which travelers strategically plan their vacations around a destination featured in a hit TV show or movie. Hotels.com found that two-thirds of tourists these days admitted to being influenced by what they consume, a 16 percent increase from 2024. And it’s not just travelers; hotels and travel operators are getting in on the trend too, with curated itineraries and experiences that cater to TV and movie settings. For example, Black Tomato now offers packages based on Yellowstone and Ripley. If you want to travel back in time to Regency era London, the Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa in Bath announced last April a Bridgerton-inspired trip to England complete with guided tours of filming locales.
The White Lotus season three is slated to premiere on February 16 with season one alum Natasha Rothwell reprising her role as Belinda Lindsey. She’ll be joined by a super-sized cast of new characters played by Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, and Blackpink’s Lisa Manobal, to name a few.
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