The Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Jeju Tourism Organization (President Ko Eun-suk) are launching a real-time tourist congestion analysis service that actively utilizes big data technology for the tourists visiting Jeju to enjoy safe tourism without worrying about COVID-19.

The service uses data from base stations of a telecommunications company (SKT) to update and provide regional distribution maps by gender and age of residents/tourists every 5 minutes. Users can view places with a lot of residents and tourists in real-time, as well as places that have the greatest increase in traffic in the last 3 hours and statistics for the last 24 hours to check out the popularity and congestion of each location.

The service provides information for tourists to travel safely without stress, presenting the time frame in which destinations that similar travelers prefer are less crowded. You can find this service on the official Jeju tourism information portal, VisitJeju (visitjeju.net/kr/bigdatamap), operated by the Jeju Tourism Organization. The agency plans to offer it on mobile and as an application in the future.

JTO will also support the creation of various tourism businesses that fit individual/non-face-to-face tourism trends. Based on the tourist distribution map, the agency is promoting distributed regional marketing through customized recommendation services for tourists and develop an analysis service that integrates data in the tourism industry.

Currently, JTO is analyzing tourist consumption patterns and movement patterns based on various big data such as credit cards, automotive navigation, mobile communications, bus cards, and Wi-Fi, in addition to compiling state-approved statistics reports with surveys on tourists and tourism trends. Through such efforts, the agency is responding to the rapidly changing tourist demands since the outbreak of COVID-19 by supporting the establishment of data-based tourism policies.

According to the big data analysis from the moving patterns of Jeju tourists, JTO has established and managed COVID-19 countermeasure clusters that focused on the eight major destinations—Jeju International Airport, Hamdeok Beach, Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak/Seongjikoji, Pyoseon Beach, old downtown Seogwipo, Jungmun Tourist Complex, Hyopjae/Geumneung Beach, and Gwakji/Handam Beach. Similarly, the Jeju-type tourism disease prevention system is expected to be more effectively created and operated through the real-time tourist congestion analysis service.

“We will continue to meet the needs of residents for reviving the local economy after COVID-19 by providing services that are actually felt, based on the analysis of big data as and statistical management of the tourism industry,” said an official from the Jeju Tourism Organization.