Jeju National Sports Festival six days away: 30,599 participants; safety and local economic impact key to success

【The Financial News, Jeju = Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 With six days to go before the opening, the National Sports Festival, returning to Jeju for the first time in 12 years, has completed the accreditation and approval process for 74 venues. Given the scale of the event, which will bring 30,599 athletes, officials and others from across the country, the key challenges seen as determining its success are ensuring venue safety, making emergency response systems effective, and generating local spending by athletes and spectators.
According to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) on the 10th, the 107th National Sports Festival will be held mainly in Jeju for seven days, from the 16th to the 22nd. KSOC is organizing the event, with Jeju Province, the Jeju Provincial Office of Education and the Jeju Sports Council jointly hosting it. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO) are sponsoring the festival.
Jeju last hosted the National Sports Festival 12 years ago, with the 95th edition in 2014.
A total of 30,599 people will take part in this year’s festival: 19,576 athletes, 9,468 officials and 1,555 members of overseas Korean sports organizations, among others. They will compete in 50 sports—49 official events and one demonstration event.
The Jeju delegation also held a send-off ceremony at the Jeju Multi-purpose Gymnasium on the 7th, pledging to perform well at the National Sports Festival on home soil for the first time in 12 years.
On the 8th, Jeju Province held a final briefing on preparations, chaired by Jeju Governor Wi Seong-gon, at Tamna Hall in the provincial government building, and reviewed venue facilities, sport-by-sport safety management and emergency response systems.

Officials from relevant provincial departments, the two administrative cities, the Jeju Provincial Office of Education, the Jeju Sports Council and the Jeju Provincial Police Agency attended and reviewed preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as cooperation among the relevant organizations.
All 74 venues for the festival have completed the accreditation and approval process after facility repairs and on-site inspections by the central governing bodies for each sport. Sixty-eight venues are in Jeju and six are outside the province. Some events, including shooting, hockey, water skiing and wakeboarding, track cycling, rowing and canoeing, will be held outside Jeju.
Not all events will take place in Jeju just because the National Sports Festival is being hosted there. Since venues vary according to facility conditions and the operational requirements of each sport, athletes and spectators should check the venue and schedule for each event separately.
Although the official festival period begins on the 16th, some events have already started. KSOC scheduled four sports—badminton, gymnastics, cycling and table tennis—as preliminary events.
Although the venue approval process is complete, preparations for on-site operations are continuing. Jeju Province plans to finish installing essential operational facilities and temporary structures at each venue before the opening, and to recheck spectator routes and the condition of the facilities.
Safety at venues and a coordinated response by relevant organizations in the event of an emergency are especially important for this festival.

Jeju Province has set up a comprehensive situation room at Jeju World Cup Stadium and arranged for four organizations—the province, provincial education office, provincial sports council and provincial police agency—to share venue operations information in real time.
The system is intended to enable a swift response to situations that may arise at venues, including facility accidents, athlete injuries and spectator crowding.
A total of 81 spaces to support festival operations have also been set up at Jeju World Cup Stadium and Gangchanghak Stadium, including situation rooms for KSOC and city and provincial sports councils, a volunteer situation room, an athletics operations headquarters and a records room.
Experience operating the 46th National Para Sports Festival, held in Jeju last September, has also informed preparations for this event. However, because the scale of participation and conditions for using the venues differ, it will be important to ensure that safety management and communication between organizations work smoothly at the actual competition sites.
There are 3,500 volunteers to support festival operations. Jeju Province will assign those who have completed selection and training to venue guidance, the opening and closing ceremonies, and support for the comprehensive situation room, among other duties.
A total of 684 staff will be assigned to one main information center and 74 venue information desks to provide event schedules and help issue digital tickets. Another 4,762 supporters will cheer on competitors, focusing on sports that tend to draw relatively fewer spectators.

The opening ceremony will be held at Jeju World Cup Stadium at 6 p.m. on the 16th. A cultural pre-show will begin at 5:50 p.m., followed by the official program, which includes the athletes’ parade, the declaration of the opening, the raising of the festival flag and the lighting of the flame.
The opening ceremony’s theme is “A Great Breath.” Jeju’s origins and history, as well as the strength of its community, will be reflected in the cultural performances and the lighting of the flame.
The closing ceremony will be held at the same venue on the 22nd under the theme “Memories of the Wind.” Jeju Province is completing work on the stages, lighting, sound and video production for both ceremonies, and has been carrying out installations and rehearsals from the 6th through the day before the opening.
The flame marking the start of the festival has also arrived in Jeju. Lit at Mani-san on Ganghwa Island on the 3rd, it was carried through a relay that included Jeju’s outlying islands before being placed at the Jeju Provincial Government building on the 7th. A special flame will be lit at Jeju Stone Park on the 13th and combined with it on the 14th, after which the flame is scheduled to travel around Jeju until the 16th.
About 900 torchbearers will take part in the relay, covering 115 sections.
Jeju Province also plans to use the National Sports Festival as an opportunity to connect sporting events with local tourism and spending.

Spectators who obtain a digital ticket based on non-fungible token (NFT) technology and verify their attendance at the opening or closing ceremony, or their visit to a venue, will receive 10,000 won in Tamna Jeon, Jeju’s local currency, for each qualifying visit. The maximum payment per person is 20,000 won.
NFTs are a technology that enables records of ownership and authentication for digital information to be distinguished. At this festival, the technology will be used for digital tickets that verify spectators’ visits and provide benefits.
Eligibility is limited to Korean nationals aged 14 or older, in accordance with the usage criteria for the NAVER Pay Wallet. The benefit is provided after verification, so it is not automatically given to everyone who visits a venue.
Digital ticket holders can visit 24 public tourist attractions in Jeju for free or at a discounted price. Jeju Province also plans to operate tourist shuttle buses to support visits by athletes and their families to tourist sites and local businesses.
The plan is to connect attendance at the festival with local spending by enabling people to use Tamna Jeon at restaurants, cafes and traditional markets near the venues.

Jeju Province is also linking the successful hosting of this National Sports Festival to its bid to host the 2028 G20 Summit.
Jeju is competing to host the G20 Summit, citing its experience hosting international conferences and its tourism and accommodation infrastructure. Its strategy is to demonstrate its ability to manage large-scale events and ensure safety through the National Sports Festival.
At the final briefing, Jeju Governor Wi Seong-gon stressed that “safety is the top priority above all,” and urged officials to “carefully check that everything works properly on site, from facilities at venues and event sites to sport-by-sport safety management, emergency response systems and cooperation among relevant organizations.”
He added, “This National Sports Festival is an opportunity to showcase Jeju’s capabilities and warm hospitality,” and said, “Please keep working together until the very end to ensure the festival is a success and make it a positive step toward securing the G20 Summit.”


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