Jeju expands eco-friendly tourism from group tours to individual travelers, offering rewards to 300 people

【Financial News, Jeju = Reporter Jeong Yong-bok】 Jeju Province is expanding its eco-friendly travel support, previously focused on group tours, to individual travelers.
According to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province on the 27th, it will run the “Jeju Green Road Challenge” with the Jeju Tourism Organization through November 30 for individual travelers. The program links walking the Olle Trail with resource-circulation activities and is designed so participants can spend their rewards at local businesses.
Participants must complete and verify at least two of four environmental action tasks. These include picking up litter while walking with the Jeju Plogging app; visiting stores participating in the single-use cup deposit system or offering discounts for personal cups; visiting resource-circulation facilities; and taking part in upcycling activities.
Those who meet the participation requirements can choose either a 20,000-won Olle Pay voucher, usable at affiliated businesses such as restaurants and shops near the Jeju Olle Trail, or an eco-friendly souvenir. Olle Pay is a payment method linked to Jeju Olle’s official app, Olle Pass, and can be used at affiliated local small-business merchants.
The initiative is significant because it broadens participation in eco-friendly tourism. In 2024, Jeju Province launched a pilot resource-circulation travel project involving around 40 people, including members of the provincial residents’ reporter group and university students. Last year, it expanded the project into a stay-based tourism product in partnership with travel agencies, attracting around 300 group tourists.
This year, a separate rewards program was created so individual travelers who are not traveling through an agency can also participate. Separately, the Jeju Tourism Organization is also running an eco-friendly travel support program for groups of 10 or more people staying for at least three days and two nights.
Jeju Province is also linking the program with the Jeju Olle Walking Festival, which will be held on Jeju Olle Routes 19 and 20 from November 5 to 7. The Jeju Olle Travel Center and Olle Stay will provide information on how to participate and submit verification, and the program will also be promoted at the festival. The initiative aims to connect tourists’ environmental protection activities with spending at local businesses.
Lim Hong-cheol, head of Jeju Province’s Environment and Forestry Resources Bureau, said, “We will continue related programs to expand a travel culture in which tourists take direct part in environmental protection activities and to enable tourism and the environment to coexist.”


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