Season 3 of the hit HBO show White Lotus premiered this week, opening on a gnarled branch in a dense jungle, the camera tracking upward before landing on a monkey, perched attentively. The shot establishes nature as a primary theme that continues as we watch this season’s guests arrive, then disperse into villas cascading down a lush Thai hillside, each of them afforded ravishing views over a seemingly pristine island and sea.
In real life, this resort is the Four Seasons Koh Samui, and thanks to both its visual appeal and the popularity of the show, Thailand is anticipating a major tourism boost.
The country has experienced the power of appearing on screens across the globe before. At the dawn of the new millennium, the film The Beach premiered, starring Leonardo DiCaprio at his post-Titanic peak as well as the setting itself — the otherworldly Maya Bay, a nearly enclosed slice of the Andaman Sea on the uninhabited island of Phi Phi Leh, inside a national park. It was a popular snorkeling spot before The Beach, but the film supercharged interest and fans be... Read more
