Sustainable Tourism on Jeju Island

Published 10/06/2022 in Scholar Travel Stipend

Written by Haeeun (Blessing) Jee | 10/06/2022

During my trip to South Korea this past summer, I was able to take a short trip to Jeju Island for a few days. Jeju Island is a volcanic island off the southern tip of Korea. It is known as a popular honeymoon destination – or at least it was, according to my parents who spent their own honeymoon there about 30 years ago. This was the first time they visited the island together since then.

According to my parents, so much had changed on the island. The roads were modernized (apparently mainland Koreans will practice driving on Jeju Island because the roads are better and less chaotic) and there was a lot of real estate development along the coastline. We met with some Korean natives who were vacationing in Jeju Island, and they were telling us about how traveling to Jeju Island is so convenient these days that mainland Koreans will take frequent trips every year. They were on their third Jeju trip that year. My parents were shocked: when they married, Jeju Island was a very special trip that people usually went on for honeymoons.

It’s known that Jeju Island has grown in popularity among tourists coming from neighboring Asian countries. The Korean family we met at Jeju was telling us that there have been plans to make another international airport on Jeju in order to accommodate the many tourists, but that COVID put a pause in those plans. I asked about how the pandemic has changed international travel for Jeju Island. They told me that because so many Asian countries have had strict travel restrictions in place, international tourism has dramatically dipped. This was true just for my own family’s experience on the island. We expected more tourists from Vietnam, China, Thailand, and Japan, but we were struck that we only came across one group of European travelers.

This reminded me of how native Italians, during the worst of the pandemic for Italy, were able to find a silver lining amidst everything that was going on: they were able to enjoy their own “touristy” cities and monuments. On the news, there were images of an empty town square in Florence, a quiet street in Rome, and dolphins swimming in a clear-blue Venetian canal. In a similar way, both mainland and Jeju-native Koreans have been able to enjoy Jeju Island more fully since the pandemic. Mainland Koreans are able to buy cheaper flights to Jeju and explore a part of their own country, while Jeju natives are seeing their island grow itself back.

One of the big complaints that Jeju natives have had, unsurprisingly, has been the environmental toll that tourism inflicts. Lots of trash strewn on the beaches, people plodding through paths that should be left untouched, and native animals losing a lot of their habitat.

When I went to a famous Starbucks coffeeshop that overlooks the ocean, I was confused by a green machine that people were putting their cups in. I asked the worker there, and she told me about Starbucks’ efforts on Jeju to confront trash and waste issues. Since July 2021, Starbucks has stopped serving drinks in non-reusable cups and containers at four of their Jeju locations. This was the debut of a “eco” program called “Happy Habit,” the objective of which was to reduce plastic waste. If you return the cup that you were served with, you can get back $0.85 in cash, Happy Habit app points, or Starbucks credit. Later, the program expanded to some Seoul locations. (Starbucks hopes to eliminate disposable cups in all of its stores in South Korea by 2025.) While I don’t know how much of an impact this will have – and hopefully other cafes will follow suit – I do think that setting this cultural shift will be important. Cafes are a huge part of modern Korean culture, so if all cafes follow, then there could definitely be a significant reduction in the trashing of Jeju’s environment.

While Jeju’s economy has definitely taken a hit because of the overall decline in tourism, there were unique ways that locals were trying to innovate, in order to attract more tourism. We went to an elementary school that had been abandoned – due to lack of attendance and young people – but then bought and converted into a café. It was nice, although a little ironic, to now see young kids running around the hallways, with their parents clutching ice lattes. The surrounding neighborhood of the school has now become a little bit more vibrant and populated because of all the Korean tourists who come to visit the café. The locals we talked to said that mainland Koreans are more and more living on Jeju for temporary but lengthy periods of time like 6 months – especially since a work-from-home lifestyle is more and more possible – and more people retiring or buying land on Jeju. This made me realize that an advantage of domestic tourism is the greater possibility of tourists transitioning into residents, citizens, and neighbors with a more sustainable economy.

We went to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere – at some point our GPS was not working great – next to a farm, that turned out to be a very nice Italian trattoria. We found the place because my older sister found the recommendation on a Korean travel blog. This was another way in which Koreans living on the island were trying to use and integrate space in a different way and cater to younger crowds who are tech-savvy. These sort of local spots were gems on our trip and showed me the sustainability of the local economy. Jeju Koreans were finding creative ways to reinvigorate interest in the island and this was very inspiring.

As the Milken Institute strives to improve people’s health and well-being, and expand people’s economic opportunities, we can take a lesson from Jeju Island and not forget the importance of supporting local economies and understanding how to turn touristic economies into more sustainable and eco-friendly ones. Sometimes it takes a pandemic to make us realize that we need to be not only better tourists, but better residents and neighbors of wherever we find ourselves.