Thailand receives boost of interest following ‘The White Lotus’

Following the premiere of the third season of the hit HBO series The White Lotus on February 16th, Thailand has seen a surge in search interest.

Since the anthology series premiered in 2021, The White Lotus has become one of HBO’s most well-loved shows. Each season follows a new hotel in a new location with the previous two incarnations of the show taking place in Hawaii and Sicily. For the third season, Thailand is home, which is expected to cause an uptick in tourism for the country.

As a result of the success of the first series, the Four Seasons Resort Maui in Wailea, Hawaii saw an increase in website visits by 425 per cent after it was featured on The White Lotus. Similarly, the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Taormina, Sicily, was booked out for six months upon reopening following the conclusion of the second season filming.

Now, since the premiere of the first episode, Google Trends reveals that search interest in the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui has increased by 1250 per cent in the United States since before the episode aired.

Additionally, search interest on Google for Anantara Lawana, another Thai hotel featured in The White Lotus, rose to 100 on February 18th out of a possible 100 from zero on February 16th.

Meanwhile, general searches for Thailand have more than doubled according to Google Trends since The White Lotus premiered. Furthermore, searches for “Thailand vacations” has shot up from 37 out of 100 on February 14th to 100 on February 18th, marking a rise of 270 per cent.

The latest series of The White Lotus features an ensemble cast that includes Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, Lalisa Manobal, Michelle Monaghan, and Sam Nivola.

In a recap of the first episode, Far Out wrote: “The season is already full of uneasy trios. Lochlan is torn between his older siblings, one of whom wants him to ‘get pussy’ and the other of whom wants to visit the monastery down the road. Mook (Lalisa Manobal), a therapist at the hotel, is caught in a burgeoning love triangle between a hunky bodyguard with a gun (ooh la la) and her friend who works as a hotel parking attendant. And Monaghan, Coon, and Bibb are definitely not the blissful childhood soulmates that they perform.”