e-journal # 1. geotourism

Geotourism for Hanok Village

#20150465

Eunbin Lee

           Korea is famous for a lot of traditional and cultural heritages. Among those, ‘Hanok village’ is famous for its beauty and age-long traditions. Hanok is a term for Korea’s traditional houses and located in Bookchon province. As it became renowned, more and more tourists are visiting this place every year. However, because of this increase, villagers are undergoing stressful times. Local residents are suffering from trash, noise, traffic congestion, trespassing etc. When introduced, geotourism will be able to reduce these problems and bring positive effects on Hanok village.

           One positive effect is that it can stop Hanok village become more and more commercialized. Until now, with traditional tourism, there was a vicious circle repeated: tourists come, major business district develops, and more tourists come. There are some interviews with the residents complaining about tourist’s shameless behaviors. According to the interview, the tourists abandon trashes everywhere and urinate on the street. Also, their sightseeing buses induce traffic jam. To lessen these damages as much as possible, it is essential to reduce the number of visitors to reasonable level. With geotourism, it will be much easier for villagers to manage the tourists more directly and efficiently.

Also, geotourism is needed for resident’s economic growth. In traditional tourism, only the major companies benefit and problems that comes with the profit, remains to be resident’s burden. There is a chart showing current status of Bookchon visitors. The number already reached more than 160,000 in 2011 and the number is in a strong uptrend. In geotourism, this figure can be a golden opportunity for local residents. Through local businesses such as providing resident’s real living spaces or traditional play classes, the villagers will be able to earn profit. Also, since the residents are the actual experts of the town, it will be much better if they work as tour guides. They will be able to introduce tiny little details in the village.

Lots of problems happening in Hanok village are derived from traditional tourism. To make Hanok village a place that both stands as residential area and living space, geotourism is the solution. Geotourism will help Hanok village become less commercialized and help the residents earn economic profit.