From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, February twenty Australia's ability to produce steel. That's what's at stake in the South Australian government's decision to force a huge steel works at Wyala into administration. That's the claim from Premier pioml Aauskus. That story, plus all the implications and the fallout, is live now at the Australian dot com. Dou Death plus Paradise equals tourist Bonanza.
That's the formula of the glittering HBO global blockbuster The Whiteloaders, which has already transformed the economies of Sicily and Hawaii and is now zeroing in on Thailand. Today, we explore a cultural phenomenon with huge economic implications and meet a generation of travelers unashamedly embracing a new kind of luxury. What happens and Thailand stays and Thailand. One of our regulars was just asking me about you.
Really, he has a lovely girlfriend, but he seems interested in you. I think we call the police.
We are not calling the police. The White Lotus is back, featuring a murder, a luxury resort and some Knochio's socks off scenery. That means the setting, the Thai island of Kosamui is about to become the world's hottest destination. We know this because it's already happened to Sicily and Hawaii. The settings for season one and two.
Boha, happy to be here, run our honeymoon is such valued gifts. Welcome to the White Lotus.
Whenever I stay at a White Lotus, I always have a memorable time lois Welcome to the White Lotus.
In Cecily, The White.
Lotus is filmed in a four seasons hotel and it has been great for business. There was a four hundred and twenty five percent optic in website visits to their Maui resort after the first season aired, and the same thing happened again in Sicily after season two. The San Domenico Palace was booked up for six months when it reopened after filming, and the effect spread well beyond the original resorts.
They call it set jetting.
It's where people really want to relive their experiences of watching TV, their favorite shows, their favorite characters, and seeing it in real life.
The White Lotus is not the first piece of silver screen magic to attract real life audiences. The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio in the year two thousand, so much.
Here to inspire. We're not going to jump, we get jam.
Sent millions of travelers to copp In Thailand for its azure waters and ivory beaches. Yes, yes, the deli from Harry met Sally, I'll have what she's having, the cupcake shop in Sex and the City I.
Have a crush. Yeah.
But the age of streaming has taken this to a whole new level. Just ask the residents of Paris, who are now seeing new hordes of gen Z travelers discovering its charming squares and cobbled streets thanks to Netflix's ultra poised, dressed up take on the American abroad in Emily in Paris.
Oh my god. If you're like Nicole Kidman and La Roche, you've got all of Paris fet.
So, given the travel inspired by cinematic fantasy is not new, what's different about the way it's happening now?
I think that's a couple of things. One.
I think it's the power of streaming services. Everyone is watching the same show at the same time around the world, which never really happened before. And then there's also social media, so people talk about what they've watched and then kind of exchange memes and ideas and whatever.
It all takes off culturally.
And also the White Lotus came out during lockdown, so I think people were really enamored with just getting somewhere else that was not their laund room. And it was at the same time as Emily in Paris and Bridgington, so Bridgington was a bit obviously staged, but it's the same principle, and I just think people really love going to see where their favorite characters have been.
Milanderraut is the Australian's Deputy editor of Travel and Luxury, and part of it is a generation who were very keen to spend some time in an ultra luxury hotel, wearing an amazing wardrobe and sipping cocktails by the pool, Whereas in Mayan Milander's generation exploring the world in the early two thousands, it was all about trying to be
as authentic and low fire as possible. I mean, we were unbear staying in stinking backpacker hostels in the most grungey destinations we could find because we were showing off to each other about how cool we were.
They want to properly live out the full television experience. They don't want to just walk past the hotel or even take a picture out the front of the hotel. They want to stay there. And I think, again, it's back to social media and people seeing things that they never would have normally seen before. And I guess people just deciding that they really want to save their money and go somewhere, maybe for a short period of time, but you know, really go somewhere really.
Nice coming up. Apart from the White Lotus character who inevitably dies each season, what's the downside of this avalanche of aspiration that's after the break? Every season of The White Lotus somebody dies an awful death in that usually happens in the first few minutes. But there's also a
potential downside for these destinations. Can you talk to me a little bit about that and how they balance the excitement of being in a global phenomenon like this with the reality of what it's actually going to be like.
Yeah, it's interesting you should say that I've been getting press releases from the hotels that are featured in The White Lotus for months now. Since it was kind of leaked or announced last year that these hotels would be part of it. They are really making a big deal of it, so they're very much embracing it.
One of the themes of The White Lotus is the disparity between the real lives of the people who work in these resorts and the curated reality they provide for their guests. You know, it's quite gritty too, isn't it. The poverty of the staff in their actual lives juxtaposed with the extreme wealth of the guests. How do you think luxury is nowadays? Are thinking about that where maybe once they were just racked with guilt.
I don't know whether they, but I think it's extraordinary.
These shows don't portray these guests in a particularly positive light. You don't like any of them, but obviously we want their lives and the life cells they're living, and we want to visit the places they're going to.
What do you think is ahead for Kosamui and how do they manage the kind of volume of tourists who they're going to get.
It's definitely something that they have seen before Thailand because they had a huge problem with this after Leonardo DiCaprio's movie The Beach, and they actually had to close Maya Bay for a number of years thanks to over tourism. And I remember the before and after pictures of the before this beautiful, pristine water and stunning surroundings, and then afterwards rubbish and boats everywhere.
So I suppose the.
Question is how is Thailand now prepared to manage it and the influx of tourists and the costs and benefits of that. I'm not exactly sure. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Yeah, do you think it's overall a good thing? Should Australia be campaigning to be in The White Loadus?
Oh? Absolutely, I think that.
I can imagine every country in the world is campaigning to be in The White Lotus.
In fact, they probably did with the last series.
And tourism campaigns are now built around filming locations. Governments are now helping fund productions they can film in their locations. They make such a big impact on people when they have such a reach in terms of culture, whether it be like the White Lotus or even like the Bear in Chicago.
People are visiting there now to.
Experience the restaurants and the cafes and just be on the streets where their characters were.
The land About is The Australian's Deputy editor of Travel and Luxury. That's every Saturday in the Weekend Australian and it's live all the time at the Australian dot com dot u slash Travel