Set-Jetting: How Films and TV Became an $8 Billion Force in Where We Travel
Set-jetting, planning trips around film and TV locations, is projected to become an 8 billion dollar industry in the US. Some 81 percent of younger travellers now choose destinations they have seen on screen, from The White Lotus in Sicily to Yorkshire.
The itinerary for a modern holiday increasingly begins on the sofa. A growing number of travellers now choose where to go based not on brochures or guidebooks but on the television shows and films they watch, in a trend that has grown into a serious economic force.
A trend with a name
The phenomenon has a label: set-jetting. It describes the practice of planning a trip around destinations featured on screen, chasing the landscapes and locations that a favourite series or movie has brought vividly to life.
It is not entirely new either. The travel company Expedia first identified the trend back in 2022, and in the years since it has moved from a curiosity to a mainstream driver of where people decide to spend their holidays.
An eight billion dollar business
The scale of the trend is now hard to ignore. Travel inspired by television and film is projected to become a potential 8 billion dollar industry in the United States alone, a striking figure for something once dismissed as a passing novelty.
Younger travellers are leading the charge. An estimated 81 per cent of Gen Z and millennial travellers now plan their holidays around locations they have seen in film and television, treating the screen as their primary source of inspiration.
The appetite is spreading more widely too. Nearly 53 per cent of travellers around the world say their desire to take a set-jetting trip has increased over the past year, suggesting the habit is broadening well beyond just the young.
The White Lotus effect
The clearest example of the trend's power came from a single hit series. In 2024, the popularity of The White Lotus turned the small Sicilian coastal town of Taormina into one of Italy's most sought-after destinations almost overnight.
The numbers were remarkable. Local tourism officials reported record hotel occupancy rates, while online searches for the White Lotus hotel spiked by more than 500 per cent as viewers rushed to book their own version of the show.
Where 2026 is sending travellers
This year, a fresh crop of screen locations is shaping summer plans. Among the destinations drawing set-jetters in 2026 are the English county of Yorkshire, the Muskoka region of Canada and the eternal city of Rome.
Yorkshire in particular has felt the effect. Following the release of a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, searches for the county surged by 60 per cent in the first six weeks, and interest for the summer is up 35 per cent year on year.
A double edged trend
For destinations, the appeal is obvious. A well placed production can deliver the kind of global exposure that no marketing budget could ever buy, drawing visitors and revenue to places that might otherwise struggle for attention.
There is a catch, however. A sudden screen driven surge can overwhelm small towns and quiet corners that were never built for crowds, echoing the wider worries about overtourism that many popular destinations already face today.
The story keeps writing itself
For now, the trend shows no sign of slowing down. As long as audiences keep falling in love with the places on their screens, films and television will keep shaping the map of where the world chooses to travel, one blockbuster and box set at a time.
