“I recently had a new client couple come to me and say, ‘We heard White Lotus is set in Thailand next season. Can you book us at the same resort before it gets too popular?’” says Rabia Malik, an adviser at the company. “I planned their entire trip around the Four Seasons Koh Samui, and they’re so excited to be heading there in a few weeks.”
But more than the featured hotels seeing a boost, the country as a whole is, too. In January, Fora’s Thailand bookings increased 312% compared with the same month in 2024. That number is in keeping with the bursts registered by previous White Lotus locales; in 2024 luxury operator Black Tomato told Bloomberg its Sicily sales tripled after the finale of season two.
Even if tourism director Chompu’s expectations are more modest, the 20% bump she hopes for would be enough to get Thailand back to its pre-pandemic visitation levels. An estimated 35.5 million tourists visited the country in 2024, up from 28.2 million in 2023, according to provisional data from the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports, but that’s still below the 2019 level of nearly 40 million arrivals. Most of that growth would come from the American market – the primary audience for the Emmy-winning social satire – despite the lack of any direct flights from the US to Thailand.
Like the other seasons of the Mike White comedy series, the eight episodes making up season three will follow the adventures and exploits of moneyed guests who stretch five-star resort staffers to their limits. It will star Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Jason Isaacs, Lalisa Manobal and Natasha Rothwell.
While staff at different classic Thai hotels have divulged their properties’ involvement in the show – including the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok and Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas – the Toronto-based Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is the company that’s struck an exclusive marketing partnership with HBO, securing the rights to promote itself as the real-life version of the fictional White Lotus brand.
Still, employees of Mandarin Oriental and Anantara – who spoke to Bloomberg anonymously due to nondisclosure agreements with HBO – have said they hope they too will benefit from the show’s reach, even if they are contractually not allowed to openly discuss their roles as film locales. Thai luxury resort brand Anantara in particular sees the dramedy as a key form of exposure to the American market at a time when the brand is growing, with nine new locations in Europe opening in the past year. In the trailer for the third season, the lobby entrance of Anantara’s Mai Khao resort visibly stands in for the White Lotus spa; the staffer adds three of the company’s Koh Samui hotels were also used as White Lotus locales. Anantara is expecting a 20% boost to business, in step with the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s predictions.
Chompu has additional hopes for domestic and regional travelers. She says she expects a specific cast member in the third season to drive that business: K-pop star Lalisa “Lisa” Manobal, a member of the hugely popular South Korean girl group Blackpink.
“Her connection to Thailand has further heightened interest in the series,” says Chompu. “The buzz around White Lotus in Thailand is very real because of Lisa.”
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