Booking the Scene: How Set-Jetting Turns Your Favorite Shows Into Real Trips in 2026

You are halfway through a Sunday night episode when a shot stops you cold. A cliffside village glowing gold at sunset, lemon trees spilling over stone walls, a sea so blue it looks painted. Before the scene even ends, you have already opened a browser tab and started checking flights. If that sounds familiar, you are part of one of the biggest travel movements of 2026.

The plot twist in your travel plans

The industry has a name for this itch, and it is set-jetting. In plain terms it means picking your next holiday based on a film or television show, choosing to walk the same streets, climb the same hills and eat in the same towns that a story made you fall for from the comfort of your couch.

It is not entirely new, but it has exploded in scale. The travel company Expedia first put a name to the trend back in 2022, and what began as a niche pastime for die hard fans has since grown into one of the most powerful forces shaping where ordinary travelers decide to go.

What set-jetting really means

At its core the idea is simple. Instead of flipping through a guidebook, you let the screen do the dreaming for you, and a place that felt like pure fiction suddenly becomes a real destination with a train station, a hotel and a lunch spot you can actually book.

The emotional pull is what makes it so strong. You are not just visiting a pretty town, you are stepping inside a story you loved, and that connection turns an ordinary sightseeing stop into something that feels personal, almost like meeting a character in the flesh.

An eight billion dollar blockbuster

The money involved is no longer a rounding error. According to figures tied to Expedia research, screen tourism is projected to become a potential eight billion dollar industry in the United States alone, a sign of just how much influence a single hit series can now have on real world travel.

The appetite for it keeps climbing, too. Expedia reports that fifty three percent of travelers say their desire to take a set-jetting trip has grown over the past year, evidence that this is a rising tide rather than a passing fad tied to any one show.

Among younger travelers the numbers are startling. A remarkable eighty one percent of Gen Z and millennial travelers now say they plan getaways inspired by what they have watched on screen, making the small screen one of the most persuasive travel agents of the whole decade.

The destinations stealing the scene

Certain places have felt the effect almost overnight. When a hit anthology series set a season on the coast of Sicily, searches for the town of Taormina reportedly jumped by around three hundred percent, and interest in the specific hotel where it filmed soared even higher soon afterward.

Others enjoy a slower, steadier glow. Corners of the English countryside such as Yorkshire and Cornwall have drawn fresh waves of curious visitors after appearing in sweeping period dramas and fantasy epics, while New Zealand remains a lasting pilgrimage for fans of its most famous fictional landscapes.

How to plan your own screen tour

If a show has planted a seed, a little research turns it into a trip. Start by finding out where your favorite scenes were actually filmed, since productions often stitch together several locations, and the dreamy village on screen may in truth be two towns hundreds of miles apart.

Timing is worth a thought as well. The most popular filming spots can grow crowded once a show takes off, so consider visiting outside the busiest months, and look into official tours or trails that many regions now offer to guide fans straight to the best recognizable spots.

Above all, leave space for the real place to surprise you. The magic of set-jetting fades fast if you spend the whole trip staring at your phone comparing angles, so once you have found your scene, put the screen away and let the actual town, its food and its people write the rest of the story.

Roll the credits on your trip

What makes this trend so enduring is that it starts with feeling rather than logistics. A story reaches you first, and the travel follows, which is why a set-jetting trip so often carries an extra layer of meaning that a randomly chosen destination struggles to match.

So the next time a show leaves you staring at the screen long after the credits roll, take that feeling seriously. It may just be the opening scene of your best trip yet, and the finest thing you bring home could be the strange joy of standing somewhere you once only dreamed was real.