Set-Jetting: How Film and TV Tourism Is Reshaping Travel

The relationship between screen storytelling and physical travel is not new. Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001 to 2003) is often cited as the catalyst for modern film tourism; Tourism New Zealand reported a 50 percent increase in visitors citing the films as a primary motivation between 2001 and 2005. What has changed in the 2020s is scale, speed, and the mechanism of the effect. A prestige streaming series can now produce a location spike within weeks of its release, and the spike can be severe enough to strain destination management systems designed for a completely different volume of visitors. This guide examines the economics and sociology of set-jetting through four case studies, the data that quantifies its impact, and what it means for the destinations caught in its path.

The Economic Data Behind Film Tourism

VisitBritain's 2023 research found that 54 percent of international visitors to the UK were influenced by film or TV content in their choice of destination, up from 37 percent in 2019. The Screen Tourism impact study commissioned by the British Film Institute in 2022 estimated that film and TV productions generated £322 million in screen tourism revenue for the UK in 2022, with the multiplier effect (accommodation, food, local transport) bringing the total contribution to approximately £1.2 billion. A 2023 survey by Expedia found that 39 percent of global travelers had taken or were planning to take a trip inspired by a film or TV show, with Gen Z respondents (aged 18 to 26) reporting this motivation at 50 percent.

The World Tourism Organization (now UN Tourism) noted in its 2024 Trends Report that film and television-driven tourism had become one of the fastest-growing segments of leisure travel, growing at an estimated 17 percent year-on-year between 2022 and 2024, outpacing general leisure travel growth of 9 percent over the same period. The primary driver is streaming: Netflix, HBO Max, Apple TV+, and Amazon Prime have dramatically expanded the international reach of English-language and subtitled content, creating simultaneous global audiences for location-specific shows in a way that theatrical release windows never could.

Case Study 1: Outlander in Scotland

The Starz/Sony production Outlander, based on Diana Gabaldon's novel series, premiered in August 2014. Set primarily in eighteenth-century Scotland, it used numerous real locations including Doune Castle (as Castle Leoch), Blackness Castle (Fort William/Wentworth Prison), Falkland town center (standing in for Inverness), Craigh na Dun hill (the fictional time-travel site, based on a composite of several Highland locations), and Lallybroch (Midhope Castle near Linlithgow).

VisitScotland tracked visitor data at Outlander filming locations from 2014 onwards. Doune Castle, a Historic Environment Scotland property that previously attracted around 7,500 visitors per year, saw visits exceed 24,000 in 2015, the year after the series launched: an increase of 220 percent. By 2019 visits had stabilized at approximately 20,000 per year, still nearly tripling the pre-show baseline. VisitScotland's 2019 Outlander Impact Report estimated that the series contributed over £30 million in additional tourism spend to Scotland between 2014 and 2019, with the greatest concentration in Stirlingshire and the Lothians.

The Scottish Government invested £150,000 in dedicated Outlander signage and experience development at filming locations, generating what Visit Scotland calculated as a 10:1 return on that investment through increased visitor spend. The show's dedicated tourism infrastructure, including official "Outlander experience" packages marketed jointly by VisitScotland and Sony, is a template that several other destinations have attempted to replicate.

Case Study 2: The White Lotus in Sicily and Thailand

The White Lotus (HBO, creator Mike White) aired its first season set at a Hawaiian resort in July 2021. The second season, set at the San Domenico Palace hotel in Taormina, Sicily, aired from October to December 2022. Within three months of the Sicily season's conclusion, The Travel Corporation reported a 35 percent increase in Sicily bookings from US customers year-on-year; Airbnb data showed Taormina searches from US users up 160 percent in January 2023 compared to January 2022. The San Domenico Palace (now a Four Seasons property) reported that its 2023 room rate, already high at €1,200 to €3,500 per night, sold out its summer inventory within weeks of the season's finale airing.

The third season, set at the Koh Samui Anantara resort in Thailand, aired in February to April 2025. TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) reported a 40 percent increase in Koh Samui search traffic from North America and Europe in March 2025 compared to March 2024. The Anantara Samui property sold its villa category (starting at $2,800 per night) through advance reservations for the 2025-2026 season within six weeks of the season premiere. Tourism economists at Chiang Mai University published an analysis in April 2025 projecting an additional $180 million in tourism revenue for Koh Samui and the Samui Archipelago attributable to the show through the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

Case Study 3: Emily in Paris and the Paris Effect

Netflix's Emily in Paris, which premiered in October 2020, offers a case study in amplifying rather than creating demand for a well-established destination. Paris already attracted 38 million international visitors annually before the show launched. What changed was the specific locations. The Palais Royal gardens saw social-media-driven queues form for the bench where Emily's character sits in the opening episode. The Café de Flore in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, already one of the most visited cafés in Paris, reported a 25 percent increase in reservation requests citing the show in 2021.

The Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau issued a formal "Emily in Paris" location guide in January 2021, identifying 18 specific filming locations and noting that seven of them were recording measurable increases in visitor volume and social media check-ins. The more interesting finding came from the show's demographic data: Netflix reported that Emily in Paris disproportionately reached viewers aged 18 to 34 in markets with historically low Paris visit rates (South Korea, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico), suggesting that the show was generating first-time visitor interest from demographics not previously in Paris's core market.

A 2022 University of Paris Cité study (Université Paris Cité, IREST tourism research center) tracked 400 international visitors at Emily in Paris filming locations and found that 28 percent identified the show as a primary or decisive factor in their Paris visit decision, and that this group spent on average 18 percent more per day than the general visitor average, concentrated in restaurant and fashion retail categories.

Case Study 4: Game of Thrones and the Dubrovnik Overtourism Crisis

Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011 to 2019) used Dubrovnik's Old City as a primary filming location for King's Landing from season 2 onwards. The effect on visitor numbers was dramatic and ultimately counterproductive. Dubrovnik received 1.2 million visitors in 2012 (one year after filming began). By 2018, at the height of the show's global popularity, visitor numbers had reached 1.5 million, with daily peaks of 10,000 people inside the Old City walls, a space designed for a population of approximately 1,500 people. UNESCO issued a formal warning to Croatia in 2018 that Dubrovnik's World Heritage status was at risk from visitor pressure.

The city's response became a widely cited case study in destination management. Dubrovnik introduced daily visitor caps inside the walls (4,000 people maximum), time-limited cruise ship docking (a maximum of two ships simultaneously, with passengers not exceeding 4,000 per day), real-time visitor counting cameras at each city gate, and a reservation system for the most congested sections of the wall walk. The measures reduced daily peak visitor counts by approximately 35 percent and have been cited by the European Tourism Association (ETOA) as a model for managing screen-tourism pressure at UNESCO sites.

Iceland experienced a parallel effect from the show's use of its lava fields and waterfalls for the scenes "beyond the Wall." Tourism Iceland reported a 169 percent increase in international arrivals between 2010 and 2018, from 489,000 to 2.34 million annual visitors. The Game of Thrones connection was one of multiple drivers (cheap flights, digital media coverage), but the Iceland Film Commission estimated in 2017 that Game of Thrones was directly attributable to approximately 7 to 8 percent of total visitor growth, equivalent to approximately 130,000 additional annual visitors at its peak. The economic value of film-location certification was a key factor in Iceland's decision to establish one of Europe's most generous film production incentive programs: a 25 percent rebate on qualifying production spend in Iceland.

How Destinations Manage the Surge

Tourism management experts have identified three broad approaches destinations use when facing screen-tourism spikes:

Active Promotion (Lean In)

Tourism New Zealand, VisitScotland, and Tourism Northern Ireland (Game of Thrones used multiple Northern Ireland locations including the Dark Hedges, a beech tree avenue on the B62 road that became one of the most photographed locations in the UK after appearing in season 2) have all taken an active approach: issuing official location guides, developing experiences at filming sites, and negotiating with production companies for marketing partnership rights. Tourism Northern Ireland licensed Game of Thrones imagery for a Doors of Thrones campaign that installed 10 carved oak doors at filming locations across Northern Ireland in 2017, each door representing an episode of the final season. The campaign generated an estimated €1.4 million in additional tourism revenue in its first year.

Managed Dispersal

Some destinations use screen tourism as an opportunity to distribute visitors beyond overcrowded centers. The French Government's "Bienvenue en France" initiative, expanded in 2022, includes a specific set-jetting component that promotes lesser-known filming locations alongside Parisian ones, with the explicit goal of moving visitor spending into less-saturated regions.

Capacity Controls

Dubrovnik's approach (see above) represents the most interventionist model. Similar measures have been discussed in Matera, Italy (used in the 2021 Bond film No Time to Die) and at the Matmata hotel in Tunisia (used in the original Star Wars in 1977, still drawing film pilgrims nearly 50 years later).

Planning a Set-Jetting Trip

For travelers planning visits to filming locations, practical considerations include:

• Many filming locations are private properties accessible only on organized tours. Midhope Castle (Lallybroch from Outlander) is on the Hopetoun Estate and open only during scheduled events.
• Popular filming locations implement crowd management; the Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland now restricts parking and requires timed entry slots during peak season.
• The gap between screen appearance and real landscape can be significant. Production design, lighting, and CGI extensions mean that locations often look less dramatic in person than on screen. Managing expectations is essential.
• Official tourism boards publish free location guides for most major productions; these are more accurate than fan-compiled lists and include practical access information.

Related: Scotland Travel Guide: Highlands, Castles, and Islands | Sicily and Southern Italy: The Amalfi Coast and Beyond