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Bloomberg

Call it the White Lotus effect.
Holidaymakers are flocking to the locations of their favourite television shows and films in growing numbers.
Once upon a time tourists would scope out the Friends flat in New York’s West Village; then Dubrovnik became swamped by Game of Thrones fans; now the phenomenon manifests itself in specific hotels being sold out thanks to The White Lotus.
In a new report from American Express, 70 per cent of Gen Z and millennial travellers say they have been inspired to travel to a destination after seeing it on screen. It is almost as high as the impact of social media: 75 per cent of all respondents say they had travelled to places after seeing friends or others post about their trips.

“Travellers are being increasingly inspired by pop culture,” says Audrey Hendley, president of American Express travel.
Some of the rise in popularity of “set-jetting” can be traced to pandemic habits. People who had to eat at home or could not travel binged hours of television, like the smash-hit first seasons of HBO’s The White Lotus or Netflix’s Emily in Paris.
Relive favourite film and TV scenes on location in these Asian destinations
From their sofa, dreaming ahead to when travel restrictions would be lifted, with an unused leisure budget, viewers started planning a trip where they could be the main character.
Now that borders are back open, set-jetting is booming into one of 2023’s biggest travel trends.
There is no better example of this than The White Lotus. The series was a critical and commercial success for HBO, and a dreamy inspiration for travellers. The comedy-drama chronicled the interactions between wealthy guests and hotel staff at a luxury resort that ends with a person dead.

Season one was filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, in the US state of Hawaii, and season two featured the sun-drenched, Aperol-spritz-laden seaside idyll that is the San Domenico Palace in Taormina in Sicily, Italy, another Four Seasons property.
Viewers who binged on the show have been booking out the real properties where the show was filmed, looking for la dolce vita of their own, in a boost for the hotels featured.
“The popular set-jetting trend has markedly increased interest in Maui and Taormina, with both properties experiencing a significant jump in website visits and availability checks, ultimately driving more bookings,” says Marc Speichert, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.

Web traffic to the Four Seasons Maui site increased 425 per cent year over year during season one alone, according to Four Seasons. And all those binge-watchers tuning into HBO on Sunday nights has had a big effect on bookings in Sicily.
“For the coming season in Taormina, the property is sold out over a number of periods and the show has also shone a spotlight on Taormina as an incredible destination,” says Speichert. Prices at the property start at around €1,000 a night (US$1,090).
Rebecca Masri, founder of luxury travel company Little Emperors, says clients – Americans in particular – keep asking about the Four Seasons in Sicily. Demand for Sicily is booming because of the show, she says, but also because it is cheaper than some areas of Italy, such as the Amalfi coast.
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“It’s not just Four Seasons that has benefited,” she points out, saying the show has been a boon to other luxury hotels in the region.
“Rocco Forte and Belmond have hotels in Sicily and they’ve all picked up demand on the back of the series, even though it wasn’t shot there.”
One White Lotus location has been welcoming set-jetters for years. Castello degli Schiavi, about 10 miles (16km) south of the Four Seasons, was an important location in 1972 movie The Godfather.

In one episode of the latest series of The White Lotus, character Bert Di Grasso urges his son and grandson to themselves become set-jetters by paying a visit after having seen the movie on television.
Castello degli Schiavi is a private home but has long been open for public tours.
In Britain, the phenomenon is maturing from a pilgrimage to the busy Kings Cross railway station in London, where Harry Potter fans would visit Platform 9¾, where the fictional boy wizard boarded his train to Hogwarts.

In the early 2010s, hordes of visitors stopped in to see Hampshire’s Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey was filmed. Now Netflix’s Bridgerton is bringing visitors to spend days in the city of Bath.
“We’re seeing a younger audience come to Bath because of the show,” says Patricia Yates, CEO of VisitBritain, the country’s national tourism agency. “It’s great to see that our history and heritage are being displayed in this way where millennials and Gen Z travellers are coming in greater numbers.”
Filming locations like Castle Howard have seen a surge in younger visitors since the show’s debut.

The travel business for American Express recovered to pre-pandemic levels at the end of the fourth quarter last year, Hendley says.
Want to get ahead of the next set-jet crowds? Keep an eye out for the announcement of the next White Lotus filming location. After drawing crowds to Hawaii and Sicily, season three will reportedly be set in Thailand.
Additional reporting by staff reporter


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Tourism

The White Lotus hotels, Bridgerton filming locations: how HBO and Netflix are influencing where we go on holiday

A scene from The White Lotus, filmed at the San Domenico Palace, Taormina, a Four Seasons Hotel. The hotel has seen a sharp rise in popularity as travellers increasingly plan their holidays based on locations seen in television dramas. Photo: @thewhitelotus/Instagram

A still from Emily in Paris. Holidaymakers are flocking to the locations of their favourite television shows. Photo: @FilmUpdates/Twitter

The San Domenico Palace, Taormina. Photo: Four Seasons

Season one of The White Lotus was filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea. Photo: @fourseasons/Instagram

Castello degli Schiavi served as a location in both 1972 movie “The Godfather” and the second series of “The White Lotus”. Photo: Facebook/@Sicilia paesaggi ricette & proverbi

Downton Abbey was filmed at Hampshire’s Highclere Castle in England.

The Great Bath at the Roman Baths, with Bath Abbey behind, in England. Netflix’s Bridgerton is filmed in the city of Bath. Photo: Neale Clark/Robert Harding

Orlando beyond its Disney and Universal Studios theme parks: food, history and culture in the city in Florida

Winter Park, Orlando. Photo: Visit Orlando

The Lake Nona Wave Hotel in Orlando, Florida, has a sculpture garden featuring, among other artworks,  one of Arturo Di Modica’s four bronze Charging Bulls, the most famous of which can be found on New York’s Wall Street. Photo: Tamara Hinson

Drinks at the Ivanhoe Park Brewing Company. Photo: Tamara Hinson

Shipping containers double as stages, restaurants and bars in Boxi Park. Photo: Tamara Hinson

The Lake Nona Wave Hotel’s sculpture garden. Photo: Tamara Hinson

The entrance to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Photo: TNS

Steinmetz Hall is a venue designed to achieve an N1 sound rating – the lowest level at which humans can hear. Photo: Visit Orlando

Winter Park is popular for its green spaces, leafy boulevards and arts scene. Photo: Visit Orlando

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art has the world’s largest collection of Tiffany glass. Photo: Visit Orlando

Winter Park’s interconnected lakes are best experienced on a small motorised vessel belonging to Winter Park Scenic Boat Tours. Photo: Visit Orlando

Art at Rollins College, a prestigious liberal arts college.

6 predictions for a decade of change in Bali, from the rise of medical tourism to the end of cheap stays and the bulldozing of Kuta

It’s all change for the beautiful Bali island, post-Covid. Credit: Dave Smith

A street in Canggu, a tourist resort town on Bali’s west coast. The Indonesian island could change significantly over the next decade. Photo: Dave Smith

A street in Kuta, a traditional tourist hub in Bali, uncharacteristically quiet during the pandemic. Photo: EPA-EFE

Tourists have returned to Bali and with them the island’s infamous traffic. Photo: Dave Smith

Gridlock on a narrow street in Bali. Photo: Dave Smith

Batu Bolong Beach on Bali’s west coast. Photo: Dave Smith

A section of coast in Tabanan, where Donald Trump said he would build a resort and golf course. Photo: AFP

Balinese rice terraces are under threat from rapid urban development on the island. Photo: Dave Smith

A beach on the west coast of Bali. Photo: Dave Smith

A poolside villa at ZIN Berawa Villas & Bungalows, Canggu. Photo: ZIN Hotels

The prices at ZIN Berawa Villas & Bungalows, as with other accommodation in Bali, have increased significantly since the end of the pandemic. Photo: ZIN Hotels

Inside Bali’s BIMC Hospital Nusa Dua. Private hospitals like this offer high-quality services for a fraction of what it would cost in places like Singapore.

An unusually quiet street in Kuta, Bali, during the pandemic. In normal times, the area is Bali’s poster boy for overtourism. Photo: EPA-EFE

The backstreets of Kuta. Every year in the rainy season, sewage floods streets in the area. Photo: Dave Smith

Hotel loyalty programmes explained, and how to choose the best one for you

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There are prime opportunities to leverage points to stay in one-of-a-kind properties around the world, like an overwater villa at Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi (using Hilton Honors points). Photo: Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi

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Logos of four hotel loyalty points programmes. Photo: SCMP

Park Hyatt Niseko, in Japan. Photo: Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono

8 locations from Netflix’s You season 4 in London and surrounding areas that you can visit – from the city’s oldest church to a street ‘straight out of a Hugh Grant movie’

Penn Badgley as Joe Goldberg walks in South Kensington, in London, in season four of Netflix’s You. Photo: Netflix

Penn Badgley as Joe, in his bedroom at Hampsie (real-life Knebworth House), in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Badgley at St Pancras International station, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Aidan Cheng as Simon Soo, at his art exhibition in Old Billingsgate, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Badgley outside Old Billingsgate, with Tower Bridge in the background, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Badgley (right) with Ed Speleers as Rhys, at Lady Phoebe’s apartment at the Four Seasons at Ten Trinity Square, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Eve Austin as Emma, at Seething Lane Garden, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Badgley inside St Bartholomew’s church, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Tilly Keeper as Lady Phoebe, and Charlotte Ritchie as Kate, at Knebworth House, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Badgley (left) and Ed Speleers in the Library at Knebworth House, in a still from You. Photo: Netflix

Lifestyle

Travel & Leisure

Entertainment

Want to stay in the hotels shown in The White Lotus? You are not the only one. More and more people are seeking out places in their favourite TV shows and films
The rise in ‘set-jetting’ can partly be traced to the amount of media consumed during the pandemic, say insiders, when people could only travel vicariously


Tourists are increasingly travelling to locations they see on television shows, from the dreamy hotels in The White Lotus to the streets of the French capital pictured in Emily in Paris. Here’s why.
