White Lotus fans already have Thailand, backdrop to season 3, in their sights

Now that the fictional guests of season three of The White Lotus have officially checked out of their sumptuous Thai resort, the country is gearing up for the real tourists to arrive. The series recently wrapped filming at several resorts and locations in Thailand, and although the show probably will not air until next year, hotels and tour operators are readying for their own White Lotus bump. The first two seasons of the show, a satirical look at the lives of the employees of the eponymous luxury hotel chain and of its wealthy guests, were filmed at Four Seasons properties in Maui, Hawaii and the Sicilian town of Taormina. Fans turned those real-life resorts and cities into bucket-list destinations, spurring an avalanche of visitors. Some tourists are getting in before the next season’s airing. “You still can’t get into the Four Seasons in Taormina – it’s completely chock-a-block,” says Misty Belles, spokeswoman for Virtuoso, a global network for some 20,000 luxury advisers. “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.” Virtuoso’s bookings to Thailand this year have increased by 38 per cent from 2023, and most of that growth is coming from American travellers. For Black Tomato, a luxury travel agency that specialises in “set-jetting” holidays designed around popular films, that phenomenon has already arrived: it reported a 44 per cent spike in sales to Thailand in the first four months of this year compared with the same period last year. Prices have also crept up by about 15 per cent from last year, it said. Guests are specifically requesting to book at the properties that were first reported as being featured in season three: Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, where an ocean-view villa can cost about US$1,700 a night, and the Anantara Mai Khao, where pool villas will set you back about US$400. Availability at both properties has started to tighten, says Black Tomato co-founder Tom Marchant, noting that his clients tend to book a year or more ahead. Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui has seen a 39 per cent increase in bookings from Virtuoso clients. Leading Hotels of the World, a global collection of independent, high-end hotels, has also been tracking a spike in interest. The brand says it saw customer searches for its six properties in Thailand jump 25 per cent the month after it was confirmed that the show was being shot in Thailand – although none of those hotels were connected to the production. Chompu Marusachot, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s New York office, says consumer interest has picked up particularly in and around Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, based on feedback from partner hotels and the increased media coverage. “Appearing in The White Lotus season three allows us to reach a truly global audience,” she says. All this portends a good year ahead for Thailand, which, so far in 2024, has seen foreign visitor arrivals jump about 37 per cent to 15.5 million. Not all of that is attributable to The White Lotus effect. Asia, generally, has experienced a slow post-pandemic recovery – but appetite for Thailand and its similarly tourism-dependent neighbours has started to accelerate this year as Western travellers shift their focus beyond Europe. Thailand expects to more than double its total foreign arrivals to nearly 36 million this calendar year from 2023, but that rebound will still fall short of 2019’s tally of nearly 40 million tourists. Although HBO, the network behind The White Lotus, has kept details of the exact Thailand locales under wraps, the Tourism Authority of Thailand announced that the shoots featured Bangkok, Phuket and Samui. The Four Seasons and Anantara hotel chains have both declined to comment on their involvement. According to sources on Samui with knowledge of the production, scenes on the island were also shot at the remote Taling Ngam Beach – its white sands sit on the edge of a tropical jungle bordered by palm trees, purportedly offering the best sunset views on the island. Scenes were also shot at Fisherman’s Village, a favourite tourist spot known for its lively night market, where walkways are lined with wooden shophouses and rustic buildings. A slow drip of social media posts featuring the show’s actors have offered some hints about filming locations in Bangkok and Phuket. British-American actor Sam Nivola’s Instagram shows castmates Patrick Schwarzenegger and Iris Apatow on a yacht, as well as posing on a beach with karst cliffs. Google’s reverse image search identifies it as Maya Bay, on Phi Phi island. Likewise, a recent post by Schwarzenegger’s fiancée, Abby Champion, shows the couple posing on what appears to be Banana Beach, in Phuket; it already serves as the kind of soft marketing that Thailand’s tourism board will benefit from. Black Tomato’s Marchant says that after The White Lotus season two aired, its sales to Sicily tripled in 2023. The company offers 10-day tours of the Italian island that start at US$10,000 per person. Demand for visits to Taormina, Noto and Palermo have increased since the Sicilian cities were featured in the show, he says. The company is waiting for details of season three and its memorable moments to hit the screens to consider a Thailand itinerary. Marchant says The White Lotus’ influence has an intangible aspect as well. “We see film and TV having more of a subliminal influence on destinations, where you may not even be aware you’re being influenced and drawn in,” he explains. Thailand’s tourism ministry understood that power when it announced last year that it would increase a cash rebate for foreign film productions to 20 per cent from the start of 2024. That incentive helped draw HBO’s production crew, which could save up to US$4.1 million – the maximum rebate amount – as a result of the policy. With a four-year drop in tourism, Thailand – and Koh Samui in particular – have some work to do before welcoming the Jennifer Coolidge wannabes (Coolidge was a star of the first two series whose character was killed off in Sicily). The island has 150,000 tonnes of waste that has been piling up because its incinerator is not working properly, and it faces a water shortage, forcing some hotels to buy water from private companies while residents go without. On an April visit, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pledged to help Koh Samui cope with at least some of those issues as it braced for a surge in tourism, says Ratchaporn Poolsawadee, president of the Tourism Association of Koh Samui. Ratchaporn is urging leaders to get Koh Samui ready for the surge. “We have to expand roads, improve our waterworks and deal with waste,” Ratchaporn explains. “We want to give the guests a good experience of Thailand. We have to get ready for them to come.”

White Lotus fans already have Thailand, backdrop to season 3, in their sights

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Season three of The White Lotus has wrapped filming in Thailand; luxury hotels and tour operators are seeing a rise inquiries before it airs

Season three of The White Lotus has wrapped filming in Thailand; luxury hotels and tour operators are seeing a rise inquiries before it airs