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…
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