When the third season of the hit HBO series “The White Lotus” debuts on Sunday, viewers will be transported to the tropical island of Koh Samui, 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, centers on a group of wealthy tourists, their interpersonal dramas and the inevitable tension with staff and locals, all against a backdrop of paradise skewed.
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 didn’t 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, is a Thai member of the K-pop band Blackpink who 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
Bookings at the $2,000-a-night Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, where a large part of Season 3 was shot, have already jumped 40 percent. And once the new season begins streaming, Marc Speichert, the executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, said he expected demand to increase “exponentially.”
“We saw a 10x 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 percent spike in sales to Sicily after Season 2.
For visitors to Koh Samui who want a taste of the sweet “White Lotus” life but don’t 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, or about $150, said Jasjit Assi, the resort’s general manager.
Other businesses, local as well as global, are also banking on a boom. American Express is offering a White Lotus Thailand Experience package to certain card members. It includes three days at the Four Seasons resort and a full-moon party.
Even about 200 miles west on the popular island of Phuket, where some parts of the Season 3 were shot, hotels are trying to cash in on “The White Lotus.” The Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas, for example, boasts that it offers a level of luxury similar to that of the Four Seasons, and unlike Koh Samui, Phuket is home to a Michelin-starred restaurant, Pru.
Phuket, Bangkok and Koh Samui are all stops on the seven-night White Lotus Thailand trip offered by Unforgettable Travel Company, a luxury tour operator, for just under $8,000 per 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 Michael Brasier, the owner-manager of Nahm, a casual, airy fusion restaurant perched over the water near Koh Samui’s airport. Mr. Brasier 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, he said, and he had the photos to prove it.
‘Gorgeous, layered, complex’
But the trend has taken off in recent years, with events like “Bridgerton”-style balls and “Emily in Paris”-inspired girls’ trips to the French Riviera. In 2023, the high-end travel provider Black Tomato began offering experiences like James Bond-themed private tours, including a speedboat race on the River Thames, for $18,500 and up.
But in the past, set-jetters mostly visited places they had already seen in their favorite movies or shows. With Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” they’re not waiting.
The British actor Jason Isaacs, one of the stars of the new season, said he was surprised to hear that set-jetters were already traveling to Koh Samui.
“I didn’t realize that was a thing already,” he said.
Mr. 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 weren’t covered with expat-owned villas and the roads weren’t lined with shops selling marijuana, which was decriminalized in Thailand in 2022.
But at the same time, Tey, who learned English working for a British developer building those same villas, was pragmatic about the changes.
Those tourists and expats bring money to the island, he said, expressing a sentiment that wouldn’t be out of place in a “White Lotus” episode: “They can do what they want.”
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