LONDON, June 26 — Looking for some vacation inspiration? To find their latest destination, some people turn to their favourite TV shows and movies — a trend known as "set-jetting.”

It’s no secret that shows like Wednesday, Game of Thrones or Emily in Paris have boosted tourism in the cities or countries in which they were filmed. The success of certain dramas has put some destinations firmly in the spotlight. And this can represent a real business opportunity for these locations, which are keen to facilitate filming, as is the case in Singapore.

TV and movie fans jetting around the world to visit real-world sets seen onscreen is a trend that’s known as "set-jetting.”

Past shows such as Friends, Sex and the City and Gossip Girl were already inspiring their fans around the world to visit New York, the city where these cult series were filmed. The same goes for the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, which respectively inspired trips to London — more precisely to King’s Cross Station to find platform 9¾ — and to New Zealand.

And this trend is far from over, given the massive production output from streaming sites. According to a study from Morning Consult*, 11 per cent of Americans surveyed revealed that they found out about the destination of a leisure trip taken last year from a TV series or movie.

Millennials are most into "set-jetting”

The study points out that people who have watched popular shows featuring certain destinations are significantly more likely to want to visit those places than those who haven’t. The study** uses the example of the hit Netflix series starring Lily Collins, Emily in Paris.

While 29 per cent of those surveyed who had not watched the series expressed a keen interest in visiting Paris, where the main action takes place, this percentage rose to 53 per cent among Americans surveyed who had watched the show.

The same trend can be seen with Seattle, thanks to season 4 of Love Is Blind (16 per cent vs 39 per cent), but also for London, thanks to Ted Lasso (31 per cent vs 49 per cent) and Sicily, thanks to the success of The White Lotus (28 per cent vs 41 per cent).

The keenest "set-jetters” seem to be Millennials. Some 21 per cent of them said they had already been inspired by a show or movie when choosing a destination, compared to 10 per cent of Generation Z, 7 per cent of Generation X and 5 per cent of Baby Boomers.

According to research from Expedia, "in the US, more than two-thirds (68 per cent) of travellers considered visiting a destination after seeing it in a show or movie on a streaming platform, and a whopping 61 per cent booked a trip.” — ETX Studio

*Survey conducted May 17-19, 2023 among a sample of 1,635 US adults who have taken a leisure trip in the past year, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.

**Survey conducted May 17-19, 2023 among a representative sample of 2,203 US adults, with an unweighted margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.