In June
2007, United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) included Jeju's dormant volcano Mount Halla, and 182 meter high
coastal crater Seongsan Ilchulbong(Sunrise Reak) as World natural Heritage
sites. Kim Tae-hwan, Jeju’s governor envisioned the increase in tourism, reflecting
the effect the Halong Bay in Vietnam had when it was enlisted in the UNESCO just as
Jeju; the number of tourists in Vietnam jumped from 236,000 to 850,000 just within two years.
As expected, Jeju’s tourism rate dramatically increased and broke its mark of
1,000,000 within a year. As explained earlier, Jeju is well known for its
natural sites and cultural values, and they are well preserved. Geotourism,
which means to let environment coexist with tourism and further advance the
area, is a well-suited term to explain the current status quo of Jeju’s
tourism. Some may claim the word to be only an idealistic term in reality, but
it is happening. The three
main ways that tourism positively affected Jeju Island were helping Jeju
sustain the culture, activating the local economy, and protecting the
environment.
Furthermore,
Jeju’s tourism activated the local economy. As more tourists fluctuated into
the Jeju Island to view the natural sites, the finance started to fluctuate by
the effects of increase in the demand, the consumption, and the relocation. The
local residents were able to sell more specialty and indigenous productions
like black pork, Hanrabong(Jeju's orange), and Dol hareubang (magical stone) accessories, by
the increase in demand. Duty free and Shopping centers show amazing retail
sales rate, which in comparison three times higher than national average 3.6 in
2016 (Chosunilbo, 2016). Also, due to the tourist’s use of vehicles, oil sales
have risen by 16.9 percent recently. Its natural beauty and sight became a huge
motivation to people to relocate into Jeju, amounting the continual population
growth. Even major companies’ headquarters are moved into Jeju, mostly game or
IT businesses like NXC or Kakao. As a result, Jeju is thriving with its
productivity and wealth. If natural beauty has not been known to people, then such blessings could have been falling on other areas of the world.
Lastly,
the environment in Jeju was able to be protected by the tourism. As mentioned
earlier, Jeju earned its environmental renown through being listed in UNESCO.
As much as this became the main factor of global visits, Jeju had to start
protecting the area. The places like Sulbong has an astonishing beauty,
created by the nature. It is about 77 meters high, and it formed from ground,
water, and magma’s mingling which is estimated to have happened 18,000 years
ago. People who have visited the area exclaimed that they felt as if they saw
the minimized version of Grand Canyon. It has been said that sunset at the
Sulbong is the most beautiful site of all Jeju tour places, as the colors of
the rock sentimentary rock changes by weather and time. In order to preserve
the places like Sulbong, Jeju Self-Governing Province declared to strengthen
the environments by tightening the environmental law. Jeju also promulgated in
2014 that they will set a fine dust monitoring and an air quality control
strategy to strengthen its environmental standards. As much as Jeju is known
for its natural beauty, the government body has been motivated to protect the
area to sustain its value.
To
conclude, the tourism advanced the area by sustaining the culture, activating
the local economy, and protecting the environment. The enlistment in the
UNESCO’s cultural heritage became an effective catalyst for its renown and it
must be kept in such pace for the further glorious future.
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