Seoul and Jeju Island: What makes them South Korea’s most popular tourist destinations?
N Seoul Tower, Yongin’s Everland and Jeju Island’s Eco Land Theme Park feature among Korea’s hottest ticketed attractions for international travellers
Jeju Island and Seoul are South Korea’s top draws for activity-hungry international travellers, according to Trip.com.
The global travel search engine analysed the purchase activity of foreign customers visiting Korea between January and August this year to compile a chart of the country’s most popular paid attractions.
The resulting list weighed heavily in favour of both the capital Seoul and the island escape of Jeju – nicknamed the “Hawaii of South Korea” – with four of the country’s top 10 attractions in each destination, as well as one activity each in Gyeonggi Province and Busan.
A trip up N Seoul Tower was the hottest ticketed activity for visitors to Korea. Built in 1969, it is the first tourist tower in Korea. Standing atop the 262-metre Nam Mountain, and rising 480 metres above sea level, the tower has emerged as a key landmark that provides a bird’s-eye view of the city.
Everland, the nation’s largest theme park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and the Nanta Show – a non-verbal stage performance featuring acrobatic cooks that plays at Seoul’s Myeongdong Nanta Theatre – were the second and third most-popular activities.
Attractions on Jeju Island dominated the middle of the chart, ranking from fourth to sixth.
Number four is the Eco Land Theme Park in the Gotjawal primeval forest, where visitors can ride on a train that looks like a 19th-century steam-powered Baldwin locomotive. While on the 4.5km-long ride, which features five differently themed stations, visitors can glimpse a variety of plants and wildlife.
Number five is the Teddy Bear Museum in Jungmun Tourism Complex, which opened in 2001 and is dedicated to cuddly toys. Nanta can also be enjoyed on the island, with a theatre exclusively for the show, which marks Jeju’s third entry on the list.
Theatre figures again, with The Painters: Hero, an innovative non-verbal performance that fuses live drawing with mime, dance and comedy – a must-do attraction sitting at seventh place. A perennial feature at Seoul Theater, audiences watch a play, an art show and a musical in a single performance where about 10 art pieces are created live on stage.
Glimpsing underwater marine life also proved popular with foreign visitors, with tickets to three aquariums – Sea Life Busan Aquarium, Seoul’s Coex Aquarium and Aqua Planet Jeju – rounding out the top 10 list.