Christine Hitt
Set-jetting, the trend where people choose a travel destination based on the filming locations of TV shows and movies, is a big deal. In Hawaii, it led to $1 billion in visitor spending in 2022. That's according to a February report released by the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism.
Many memorable movies and TV shows have been shot in Hawaii, including "Jurassic Park," "50 First Dates," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," "Lost," "Hunger Games" and "The White Lotus." Visitors want to see Kualoa Ranch's famous valley, where dinosaurs roamed; kiss on the beach featured in "From Here to Eternity;" and they want to stay in the "Pineapple Suite" at the Four Seasons Resort Maui, where "White Lotus" newlyweds stayed.
By percentage, Japanese visitors were the most motivated to travel to Hawaii due to film locations, followed by Koreans and Chinese. But because there were a greater number of visitors from the U.S. West and East markets, the U.S. actually had the largest number of visitors who identified filming locations as a reason for their visit. The report also found that visitors to Oahu were most likely to participate in a movie or TV location tour.
"Approximately 12.7% of all visitors were motivated at least in part to visit Hawaii due to television programs and movies filmed in Hawaii or participated in a television program and movie filming location tour," the report said. That equated to a total of 4.5 million visitor days in 2022, and thus, $1 billion in visitor spending.
The results "support the importance of the film industry in promoting Hawaii as a tourist destination," it stated.