Thai resorts ride on the White Lotus effect

Hit series shows how popular TV culture is increasingly driving tourism flows

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Tourists relax on Chaweng Beach, on Koh Samui's eastern coast, on March 2024. The Thai island is expecting a tourism bump from the popular TV series "The White Lotus," which was filmed there. © Getty Images

TOM VATER

KOH SAMUI, Thailand -- "'The White Lotus' will put Thailand, and particularly Koh Samui, back on the map," says Jasjit Assi, general manager of the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, a hotel in the Thai island resort that served as the main location for the third season of the hugely successful TV series, launched in February.

The first two seasons of the hit series being streamed on Max (formerly known as HBO Max), which depicts the idyllic but sometimes problematic lives of affluent tourists staying in luxury hotels, were filmed at Four Seasons resorts on Maui in Hawaii and Taormina on the Italian island of Sicily. Both had a significant effect on the popularity of the Four Seasons chain, prompting a 386% rise in availability checks by potential travelers to Maui (mostly Americans), according to National Geographic magazine.

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