Put a ‘White Lotus’ on your beach

In the last great success of HBO, the series The White Lotus, the location is as important to the story as the drama that takes place within its walls. The first season was shot at the Four Seasons Resort Maui in Wailea, Hawaii, while the second, which finished airing on December 11, moved to the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Sicily. White Lotus is a fictional chain of resorts that serve as the perfect setting to show the whims, contradictions and ridiculousness of the upper classes that a week’s vacation can be paid for in such a place. But the fact that it is a cruel parody has not prevented a race to be the venue for the third season.

Quebec City, in Canada, is the destination that, for the moment, is campaigning with the highest visibility to attract the attention of HBO, although after the first two seasons were located in the Pacific and the Mediterranean, the series creator Mike White hinted that for the third they could look at Asia. Even so, the platform has not yet given official information about the argument or about the possible locations.

Does a shoot benefit the city where it is located? For Pedro Bravoauthor of Excess baggage. Why tourism is a great invention until it stops being one (Debate, 2018), this is not clear. Bravo explains: “For hotels, the benefit of doing business with HBO is evident.” For territories this can also be beneficial in some cases. Bravo cites the examples of tourism that the series attracted doctor matthew towards Lastres (Asturias) or also Game of Thrones in various towns in Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. But he thinks that the problem is that this phenomenon is seen only from the perspective of the tourism industry and that, in general, the money that arrives “does not go to the local, but to the big international capitals. Promoting tourism with audiovisual content is a success, but from the point of view of the territories it is not necessarily better. You have to think about the social and environmental costs, and the kind of jobs that are generated.”

At the moment there is no news about any Spanish hotel that has been offered as a possible scenario. For the general manager of the Santo Mauro hotel in Madrid, Fernando Núñez, hosting a filming has benefits that go beyond economics, such as “making the brand known”, but it must be taken into account that in the face of these requests “the hotel has to be closed exclusively because a shoot is not compatible with the accommodation of external clients”. The Santo Mauro fits the profile of a hotel that could lend itself to a production the size of The White Lotus. This 19th-century palace located in Madrid’s Chamberí district is one of the most exclusive hotels in the Spanish capital, and one of the most iconic in the country. Tell that to David Beckhamwho made it his home during his time of galactic at Real Madrid.

In Santo Mauro they believe that being the venue for a shoot like the one in the series The White Lotus “It is always valuable if the image is in line with the hotel’s standards, as well as with the quality of the service,” according to Fernando Núñez by email.