Set-jetting Takes Off

Prestige TV and blockbuster films set in far-flung destinations are driving bookings like never before.

- Christopher Cameron

‘AS SEEN ON TV’ may have lowbrow connotations, but the recent glut of award-winning shows and films set in alluring locations is causing an unprecedented run on the world’s best hotels. Call it set-jetting: planning your vacation around a destination featured in a popular series or movie. And while romantic suites and beloved characters have gotten people on planes since the golden age of film, what has changed is how central beautiful venues have become to plots.

“The way that The White Lotus used the destination to tell the story was unique,” says Misty Belles, an executive at the global travel-adviser network Virtuoso. It also made its settings— the Four Seasons resorts in Maui and Taormina, Sicily—nigh unbookable. And it’s hardly the only example, “Paris wasn’t hurting for eyes, but Emily in Paris showed the city in a more playful way,” Belles notes. “And people weren’t flocking to Richmond before Ted Lasso.”