Set-jetting—the practice of traveling to film and series shooting locations—has evolved from a mere pastime into a significant force driving the tourism industry. According to Expedia, as early as 2023, 44% of travelers cited streaming series and films as their primary inspiration for trips, dramatically outranking social media, which only influenced 15%. In the UK, a notable 46% of respondents admitted they had considered a trip after watching a show, with 36% having already booked such tours.
This phenomenon has led to genuine tourism booms in specific locales. Taormina, Sicily, for instance, saw an influx of fans flocking to the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace after it served as a backdrop for the second season of HBO's hit "The White Lotus." Similarly, "Bridgerton" ignited interest in historic English residences, including King Henry VIII's Hampton Court Palace.
Korean dramas are also proving to be powerful drivers of tourist traffic, particularly from Asia. Following "Love Alarm," Swiss destinations like Interlaken, Grindelwald, and Iseltwald were inundated with visitors, while "Queen of Tears" spurred significant interest in Berlin and Potsdam.
However, this growing popularity carries a considerable downside: overtourism. Austria's Hallstatt, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was compelled to impose daily limits on bus and car entry due to an explosive surge in visitor numbers. Dubrovnik, famously transformed into "King's Landing" for "Game of Thrones," now tops rankings of overstressed destinations, having welcomed nearly 1.5 million tourists—roughly 36 visitors for every resident—despite a local population of only about 41,000.
Social media amplifies this effect exponentially, quickly turning obscure spots into pilgrimage sites. A short video captioned "this is where that scene was filmed" can, within a week, transform a quiet Lisbon square or an abandoned Irish lighthouse into a major attraction. Consequently, tourist offices are increasingly designing itineraries around filming locations, and guides now frequently include not just historical facts but also engaging anecdotes from the set in their tours.
Europe is now closely monitoring France, as the fourth season of "The White Lotus," anticipated in late 2026 or early 2027, is slated for filming there. Likely locations include Paris, Megève, and the French Riviera. Already, Montmartre residents are voicing concerns about the "Disneyfication" of their neighborhood, while Cannes has proactively halved the number of large cruise ships and capped daily passenger traffic at six thousand people.
Residents in several other popular locations are also complaining about noise, litter, and rising housing prices. In response, several municipalities in southern France and Greece have already introduced daily visitor limits for particularly vulnerable sites.
Despite these challenges, France is proactively preparing for the anticipated influx, allocating 1.9 billion euros to sustainable tourism under its Destination France program. Only time will tell if this investment will be sufficient to manage the impact of the upcoming wave of series-inspired tourism.
Booking a vacation based not on a traditional travel guide but on the end credits of a favorite film is no longer merely an eccentricity but a firmly established trend. Indeed, according to the European Travel Commission, interest in "set-jetting" has surged by almost a third over the past two years, and even doubled in some specific regions.
