The White Lotus, whose third season featured the islands of Samui and Phuket, is attracting vacationers from the US and Europe, but Thailand needs more than a TV show to stop Asian tourists - who would see The White Lotus’s setting as far less exotic - from heading elsewhere. - Bloomberg
BANGKOK: Thailand’s tourism outlook in such doldrums that even the so-called The White Lotus effect - a temporary boost in Western visitors inspired by the latest Koh Samui-set season of HBO’s hit show - hasn’t been enough to offset a slump in arrivals from neighbouring countries.
Foreign arrivals to Thailand dropped for the fourth straight month in May, slipping 14 per cent to 2.6 million, government data show. That’s the country’s longest streak of declines since 2021, when the Covid pandemic closed international borders.
