The White Lotus 3 sparks tourist boom in Thailand

KOH SAMUI – When the third season of the hit series The White Lotus debuted on Feb 16, viewers were transported to the tropical island of Koh Samui in Thailand. And if previous seasons are any indication, many of them will soon be booking vacations there too.

The show, which takes place at a different fictional White Lotus luxury resort each season, centres on a group of wealthy tourists, their interpersonal dramas and the inevitable tension with staff and locals, all against a backdrop of paradise skewed.

The travel industry has been anticipating the new season almost as much as fans have.

Partly thanks to the so-called White Lotus effect, Koh Samui and Thailand have already emerged as top destinations. Koh Samui is one of The New York Times’ 52 Places To Go In 2025, and Thailand is New York City-based magazine Travel+Leisure’s destination of the year.

With a wave of tourists set to wash ashore, the roughly 68,000 residents of Koh Samui are about to get a lot more familiar with the White Lotus effect.

On the pristine white sand of Chaweng Beach one recent evening, Tey, 46, a local carpenter who declined to give his last name, said he did not really know much about the series. But then came a flash of recognition.

“Yes, yes. Lisa’s show was filmed here,” he said. Lisa, or Lalisa Manobal, the Thai member of the K-pop girl group Blackpink,

makes her acting debut in this season of The White Lotus.

Had he heard anything else about it? Tey shook his head.

Selling a taste of luxury

Koh Samui, a 22,791ha gem in the Gulf of Thailand about 756km south of Bangkok, has long charmed visitors with its beaches, tranquil waters, jungle-covered hills, restaurants and nightlife.

Bookings at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui – where prices can be US$2,000 (S$2,660) a night – and where a large part of Season 3 was shot, have already jumped 40 per cent. Mr Marc Speichert, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, expects demand to increase exponentially once the season airs.

“We saw a 10-time increase in the properties in Maui and Taormina,” Mr Speichert said, referring to the Four Seasons resorts in Hawaii and Sicily, where much of Seasons 1 and 2 were shot. The high-end travel network Virtuoso said its data showed a 424 per cent spike in sales to Sicily after Season 2.

For visitors to Koh Samui who want a taste of the sweet White Lotus life, but do not have the bank balances to match, the Four Seasons offers day passes allowing use of the beach, and access to restaurants and bars, if you spend at least 5,000 baht (S$200), said the resort’s general manager Jasjit Assi.

Three Anantara locations – Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort, Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas and Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort – which featured in the series, have come together to offer a four-night The Lotus Awakening Escape package. This includes experiences at all three resorts, such as themed dinners and cocktails, spa treatments and city tours. The package starts at 23,000++ baht.

Digital travel platform Agoda reported a 12 per cent increase in accommodation searches in Koh Samui, with interest from the US growing by 65 per cent from January to February.

Other businesses, local as well as global, are also banking on a boom. American Express is offering a White Lotus Thailand Experience package to select card members that includes three days at the Four Seasons resort and a full-moon party.

Phuket, Bangkok and Koh Samui are all stops on the seven-night White Lotus Thailand trip offered by Unforgettable Travel Co, a luxury tour operator, for just under US$8,000 a person. It includes private tours of Bangkok and sunset cruises in Bangkok and Koh Samui.

“I think it is going to be huge for Samui,” said Mr Michael Brasier, owner-manager of Nahm, a casual, airy fusion restaurant perched over the water near Koh Samui’s airport.

He has already benefited from a White Lotus boon of his own: A group of actors including Walton Goggins, who plays one of the resort guests, visited Nahm several times a week while filming, Mr Brasier said.

Gorgeous, layered, complex

The idea of “set-jetting”, or visiting the filming sites of favourite shows and movies, stretches back at least as far as the early 2000s, when The Lord Of The Rings film franchise (2001 to 2003) flooded New Zealand with J.R.R. Tolkien-obsessed visitors.

But the trend has taken off in recent years, with events such as Bridgerton-style balls and Emily In Paris-inspired girls’ trips to the French Riviera.

In 2023, high-end travel provider Black Tomato began offering experiences like James Bond-themed private tours, including a speedboat race on the River Thames, from US$18,500.

But in the past, set-jetters mostly visited places they had seen in their favourite movies or shows. With Season 3 of The White Lotus, they are not waiting.

British actor Jason Isaacs, one of the stars of the new season, was surprised to hear that set-jetters were already travelling to Koh Samui. “I didn’t realise that was a thing already,” he said.

Isaacs, who spoke by phone as he was en route to the season premiere in Los Angeles, said he managed to do a little exploration of his own during the more than two months he was on Koh Samui for filming.

He cited temple visits, waterfall hikes, massages and training in Thai boxing as some of the highlights. “Samui is a gorgeous, layered, complex place, full of incredible beauty,” he said.

But he cautioned that the expected influx of visitors and the accompanying development will have downsides too, echoing the haves-and-have-nots theme woven into the show. Despite the beautiful setting, there is “poverty and deprivation”, he said. “Visitors will see a lot if they are curious and keep their eyes open.”

Tey, the carpenter from Chaweng Beach, knows all too well what change has brought to the island. He remembers when he was a child, the sight of a foreigner was a big event. Back then, the hills were not covered with expatriate-owned villas and the roads were not lined with shops selling marijuana, which was decriminalised in Thailand in 2022.

But at the same time, Tey, who learnt English working for a British developer building those same villas, was pragmatic about the changes.

Those tourists and expatriates bring money to the island, he said, expressing a sentiment that would not be out of place in a White Lotus episode: “They can do what they want.” NYTIMES