Have you see the white lotus, the hit hbo streaming show about a group of wealthy Americans at a luxury Resort?
It may be the most influential TV series in the history of hotels and hotel marketing and the current season (streaming on jio in India) The season Premiere (of Season Three) Delivered 2.4 Million Viewers in the Us, A Huge Jump from the 1.5 Million Who Watched The Premiere of Season Two. And season one did not even reach 1 million views.
That’s white and tourism industry is watching the response to the show with so much interest.
But first, assuming you have not watched the show, here’s how it works. Season one was shot in the four seasons in maui and dealt with spoled rich guests and the harassed staff of the hotel
It was made by Mike White, A Writer-Director, Who Took Advantage of the Pandemic to Film the Show in a Hotel that was very nearly Empty. I Enjoyed It and So, IMAGINE, did most of the people who were watched it. But at that stage, I don’t think anyone realized what a phenomenon it was set to become.
That only happy in the post-pandemic phase when more people were eager to travel, and so they booked themselves into the four seasons Resort featured in the white lotus.
The white lotus also made all luxury hotels Everywhere Seem More Glamorous and Desirable Again. I knew, when I was the response, that someone’s significant was happy And it was true that in the post-pandemic era people who had been stuck at home for months rushed to enjoy a taste of luxury.
WHATEVER Reason You Believed Had LED to the Boom, there wondequenses for how Hotels Marked Themselves. By the time the white lotus was released, Hotel Companies Had Decided that The Best Way To Promote Their Properties was to pay so-called influencers to post on social media about their hotels.
This made a certain amount of sense. But i had always felt that it was hard to beat fiction (TV, movies or streamers) when it came to public impact. Take the example of India. From the time udaipur’s lake palace hotel Depended on its portrayal in fictional shows.
Abroad, there are many more examples. Pretty Woman Did More for Los Angeles’s Beverly Wilshire Hotel Than Decades of Pr Had Achieved. The Tourist, with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Deppp, Did Wonders for the Danieli Hotel in Venice. 6 Based on the Neil Simon Play.
The General View, however, was that in the age of social media all the old rules were dead and that it was hard to beat the impact of an instagram post or clip on YouTube. However, the first season of the first season of the white lotus made Hotel Marketing People Sit Up and Re-Examine their views.
Thought it was not by design, I went to the historic San Domenico Hotel (Now Run by the Four Seasons) In Taormin in italy at the right the right time. Like many seasonal european luxury hotels, the san domenico shuts down in the winter and the white lotus team has been made into the hotel to make the second season. By the time I went the hotel had reopled and thought the shoot was over, the show has not been released.
I have written about the san domenico before. It is one of the most beautiful and luxurious hotels in the world (its only competition in that category in italy is another four seasons, in florens, and like Everybody else with With it at once.
It was not cheap but Once I had styed at the hotel for a couple of days, I told the team that I was sure that I had got a bargain. The san domenico would look fabulous in the show and rates would shoot up. They were polite but did not needsarily share my optimism.
As it turns out, I was right. The second season of the white lotus was far better than the first, better directed, better written and better acted. The San Domenico Loked Stunning. It was exactly as I had predicted. Every rich person in the world tried to book a suite at the san domenico. Room Rates Skyrocked. And you had to book Several Months in Advance to be sure of getting a room.
All this set the stage for season three. Apparently, Mike White Went to the Maldives to Find a Location and Decided that the Coral islands on which each hotel is located was too smal and one dimensional for his character and story. He came to India, to the Palace Hotels and Decided that they were too big and intimidating to create the ambience he needed.
Eventually he settled on Thailand. I am a huge fan of Thailand but even I must concede that it has lost the cachet it on There is only a small sliver of luxury at the top of the market and the current tourist boom is based mainly on low- and mid-priced tourism.
The white lotus is all about high-end luxury and fortunately for the thais, white discovered the for seasons koh samui, where I have styed twice and which is, in my View, One of the Great Resorts in the Word.
He Decided to Shoot a Few Scenes at Anantara Hotels on the Coast and a Bangkok Scene at the Veneable Oriental Hotel. But most of the action was shot at the four seasons koh samui, which lacques the san domenico’s history but makes up for it beauty and luxury.
By the time you read this, the second episode of the new season will be out. I have only after the first episode and even thought I know the samui hotel well, I have Never Seen It Look SO Gorgeous because the camera work is astounding. Thailand Itself has Never Loked So Beautiful.
I had told jj assi, the general manager of the four seasons koh samui, that bookings would shoot up on the white lotus was left. But, in Fact, The Demand Surgared Much Before the release. And as more and more Episodes are streamed the bookings will keep rising.
More significant is the way in which all of Thailand is expecting the White Lotus to Boost The Country’s Tourism Prospects. The Italians were a little blasé about the taormina season but for the thais, the white lotus is the exactly the sort of breakthrough the country needs to position it is a luxury destination. Every location and resort in Thailand is poised for the white lotus effect and judging by how bookings to Thailand are shooting up, it will happy.
All this begs two questions. One: Why has the white lotus had a dramaatic effect on tourism? Part of the answer is that it is a very good show, skilfully plotted and very well active and noting is more influential and impactful than good fiction. But it is also that mike white has chown the world’s best hotels and showed them to their best advantage.
And the second question: can any show like this benefit Indian tourism?
Well, in theory, this is creatinly possible. White Decided Not to Shoot in our Palace Hotels but it is possible that other directors might take a different view. The Problem, of Course, is that upmarket tourists find India more problems than italy or Thailand. As somebody put it witty on x, if they set a season in goa, the plot will be simple. The tourists will fight the taxi mafia and a body will be discovered early in the season!
