Real-life White Lotus billionaires race to capitalise on show shot in Koh Samui
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
HBO’s hit series The White Lotus has showcased the Thai island of Koh Samui to on average 15 million viewers this season.
PHOTO: UNSPLASH
Follow topic:
BANGKOK – HBO’s hit series The White Lotus could have picked any tropical backdrop for its third season.
That it chose the island of Koh Samui, population of about 68,000, to showcase to on average 15 million viewers this season has Thailand bracing for a tourism boom.
And few stand to benefit more than two local ultra-rich tycoons, who believe tourists will keep coming, and that the visitors will remember its lush jungles and stunning beaches rather than the dark plot of the season, which concluded on April 6.
Mr Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, the chief executive officer of Bangkok Airways, and his family’s wealth are closely intertwined with Samui, dating back to the 1980s when his father bet on an airport to seize on the island’s tourism potential.
The clan has a fortune of about US$3.5 billion (S$4.6 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
HBO selecting the local Four Seasons hotel as its main set proved a boon to William “Bill” Heinecke, the American-born Thai businessman who founded Minor International, which owns the property.
His personal fortune is estimated at US$1.2 billion, according to the index, which is valuing his net worth for the first time.
But with the attention from the series, which is expected to help Thailand reach a record 40 million visitors in 2025, up from 35.5 million in 2024, may be fleeting.
The White Lotus, a show that dives into the dramas of the holidaying ultra-rich in luxury resorts, has moved on to a new location each season – previous series were shot in Sicily and Hawaii – underscoring the urgency to capitalise on what could be a short-lived boom.
The businessmen are happy to attach their companies’ brands to the confronting plot that exposes the dark side of most characters – including a father who is travelling with his family and is constantly thinking of committing suicide, and another guest who was planning the murder the resort owner.
In addition to the challenging plot, a deadly March 28 earthquake in neighbouring Myanmar
“Our plans and projections remain intact,” Mr Heinecke said on April 1. His Bangkok-listed Minor International is set for a record net profit in 2025 largely due to the surge in demand by tourists seeking to mimic the show, according to the company’s founder.
Bangkok Airways’ chief executive told reporters in a press conference on March 28, the same day the earthquake was felt in the Thai capital, that the expected short-term impact on tourism is minimal, and that the carrier’s projections for the year are unchanged.
Airport expansion
Mr Prasarttong-Osoth’s airline is ordering as many as 30 new planes and will start expanding the local airport in the second half, anticipating a record 2.7 million tourists to land in 2025 on the island, which is about four times the size of Manhattan and is the second largest island in Thailand.
His Bangkok Airways provided about 1,000 free tickets to the production’s crew and cast, mostly to reach Samui.
Samui routes, which already generated close to 60 per cent of the carrier’s revenue in 2024, will now become even more important.
Flight capacity to the island is expected to rise to 73 from about 50 return flights per day as demand surges, the chief executive said.
The carrier’s ownership of the island’s only airport gives it a virtual monopoly on flights – while ferries to the coastal city of Surat Thani can take from 30 minutes to as much as four hours.
Mr Heinecke is also moving quickly as The White Lotus reels in those who had never thought of vacationing in Thailand before, particularly from Europe and the US, he said.
His luxury hotel brand Anantara – launched in 2001 and inspired by Thai traditional elements – is planning to open its first hotel in the US early in 2026.
Minor’s four hotels that were used as primary filming locations to portray the fictional resort in Thailand were fully rented out for the filming for six weeks at a time.
Beyond the island
Even before The White Lotus came to Thailand, both the Prasarttong-Osoth family and Mr Heinecke were building their empires far beyond Koh Samui.
Mr Puttipong’s father Mr Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, a 92-year-old doctor, founded Bangkok Dusit Medical Services in 1969, Thailand’s largest private sector health care provider by market value which runs more than 50 hospitals across Thailand and Cambodia. His daughter, Ms Poramaporn Prasarttong-Osoth, is the company’s president.
The elder Prasarttong-Osoth started betting on the aviation industry in the 1960s, and opened an airport on Samui in 1989.
Back then, it was hard to convince bankers to fund the project amid doubts the destination would ever become popular, Mr Puttipong said.
Meanwhile, Mr Heinecke moved to Thailand with his parents as a teenager, turning down a chance to go to university in the US at age 17 because he already had a business selling advertisements in a local paper. In a nod to his youth, he called his fledgling business Minor.
His hospitality ventures started in 1978 with a beach-front resort in the coastal city of Pattaya, 144km south-east of Bangkok, and have grown into one of Asia’s largest hospitality groups with 560 hotels in more than 50 countries. Minor took a major step in its global expansion after it bought Spain’s NH Hotel Group SA in 2018.
The billionaire’s favorite character in the show is the employee played by Thai celebrity Lalisa Manobal
She’s “opening up a new sort of a younger generation of luxury seekers because she has a huge following globally”, Mr Heinecke said. “That’s really propelling a lot of the series, and the hype.” BLOOMBERG
