Adapting Geo-tourism in Jeju Island

‘Honjeoopseoyea’. For Koreans this word would be familiar. It means welcome in Jeju’s local accent. Nevertheless, except for those few famous words, their original accent is so different from Korean standard langue, it is hard to understand for even Koreans. Likewise, not only languages, Jeju-island has something special on their own. This uniqueness is attracting a lot of tourists. It seems like tourists are helping jeju’s economy, but they are actually ruining it. However, adapting the concept of geo-tourism could be the key for enhancing Jeju’s economy. Specifically, the possible effect can be creating more jobs and developing various local-based industries.

One possible effect of putting geo-tourism in Jeju is that it could generate jobs for local people. Geo-tourism’s basic idea is based on their locals and workers for geo-tourism must understand locals well. On the other side, Jeju-island can satisfy those needs. Just like other cities, Jeju is also suffering youth unemployment issues. Majority of young people are leaving island for getting jobs. Combining these two, we not only can solve problems but also create econmic profit. Using sufficient human resources, geo-tourism will operate well, and if it operates well it would definitely bring incomes to island.

Another positive aspect of geo-tourism is that they could balance development of industries in Jeju-island. While traditional tourism prosper, only certain industries can be developed. For example, a lot of tourist from traditional tourism used to stay at guesthouse. Since then opening guesthouse became one of trends in jeju, this industries have grown explosively in short time. As a result, guesthouse is now suffering over-supplying problems, while other important local industries that represents Jeju are missing. This inequalities among industries is messing up economic eco-system of Jeju. However, by geo-tourism we can revitalize local industries. For instance, developing Jeju’s own local based tour program such as ‘Experiencing Haenyeo’, the industry of Haenyeo could get chance to start again.

We have rights to experience exotic and peaceful atmospheres of Jeju island but we also have duty to protect them. If we do nothing for them the economic ecosystem of Jeju will be destroyed and without sound economic environment Jeju would not survive by enormously large amount of tourists. Applying the concept of geo-tourism could require long time and a lot of efforts, but once applied adequately it would certainly bring positive effects. At this point, our task is to study and develop more detailed, customized geo-tourism model for Jeju.