With the season 7 premier of the hit television show "Game
of Thrones" here, Hotels.com has found a large uptick in searches to
filming locations featured on the show.
Iceland, host of the show's "Beyond the Wall," has
seen a 285% surge in searches since 2014. Iceland searches are up 30% versus
2016.
"Game of Thrones" premiered in 2011 and has been
steadily gaining in popularity since then, but an episode in 2014 became the
first to overcome the finale of "The Sopranos" as the most-watched
HBO episode. Hotels.com says that this is the year "when the show mania
truly began to take the world by storm."
There also has been a surge in searches for destinations in
Croatia. The city of Split has seen a 120% increase in searches. Split is home
to Diocletian's Palace, or the site of Daenerys Targaryen's throne room. Croatia's
Sibenik, site of the city Braavos, has seen a 60% increase in hotel searches.
Searches of Seville in Spain are up 145%, Hotels.com said;
scenes set in Dorne were filmed there.
Belfast searches are up 120%. Belfast has been featured in
multiple seasons of Game of Thrones, and it "is rumored to become the
jewel in the latest season's crown," Hotels.com said.
The seventh season of the HBO show premiers July 16.