Jeju Expands Smart Trail Management as Sustainable Hiking Gains Ground

Nowadays, Jeju Island has begun to use new technologies in the management of outdoor tourism. Hence, Jeju Island has finally found the answer to solve the problem related to the increasing number of tourists and the island’s fragile environment. The Olle Trails are one of the most popular services that involve walking tours across different areas such as coastal, agricultural, forestry, volcanic, and rural zones. According to one of the statements, Jeju Island has already used IoT technology that was built on the analysis of satellite footfall and sensor gates for automatic ecological carrying capacity on Olle Trails. Nonetheless, it has not been officially proven yet.

Olle Trails Put Jeju’s Landscape on Foot

The Jeju Olle network offers a very different way to experience the island from conventional sightseeing.

Routes connect coastlines, villages, forests, farmland and volcanic landscapes, encouraging visitors to move through communities rather than simply travelling between major attractions.

Jeju’s official tourism platform describes individual Olle routes in terms of their walking distances, difficulty, landscapes and village connections. For example, Olle Route 4 runs approximately 19 kilometres between Pyoseon and Namwon and takes around five to six hours to complete.

Another example is Olle Route 12, a 17.1-kilometre coastal route connecting Mureung Ecological School with Yongsu Port.

This distributed structure gives the Olle network a natural connection with community tourism. Visitors walk through places where residents live and work rather than remaining inside a conventional resort environment.

Managing Visitors Is Becoming More Important

The success of walking tourism creates a management challenge.

Large numbers of visitors concentrated on a small number of scenic sections can contribute to trail erosion, vegetation damage, litter and pressure on local infrastructure.

The solution is not necessarily to reduce tourism across the entire island.

Instead, destination managers can monitor where visitors are travelling, identify vulnerable areas and encourage movement toward less crowded routes.

This is where digital visitor-management systems could become useful.

Real-time information can potentially show where demand is building, allowing authorities and tourism organisations to communicate alternative routes before pressure becomes excessive.

The approach is already visible elsewhere in Jeju’s protected landscapes.

Hallasan Shows How Capacity Controls Can Work

Jeju’s Hallasan National Park already operates a reservation-based system on its busiest summit routes.

Under normal conditions, the official tourism information states that the daily reservation limit is 1,000 visitors for Seongpanak and 500 for Gwaneumsa. These controls demonstrate that visitor capacity is already part of Jeju’s approach to protecting heavily used mountain environments.

The system is more straightforward than the AI-driven model described in the brief.

Visitors reserve access, and authorities can manage the number of people entering specific trails.

Hallasan also has other routes that do not require reservations, including Eorimok, Yeongsil, Donnaeko, Eoseungsaengak and Seokguram.

That combination provides an example of how access can be distributed across different trails rather than concentrating every visitor on the same route.

Digital Tools Are Already Part of Jeju’s Outdoor Tourism

Technology is also becoming more closely connected with Jeju’s hiking experience.

The Hallasan National Park reservation system has been linked with the JEJU IoT application for mobile summit-certification services. Visitors can use the system to verify their summit visit and obtain a digital certificate without relying solely on physical kiosks.

In May 2026, Hallasan authorities also changed the certification process so GPS information embedded in uploaded photographs would no longer be used for certification.

These systems do not amount to the AI carrying-capacity network described in the proposal, but they show how digital infrastructure is increasingly being integrated into visitor management.

From Counting Visitors to Understanding Movement

The next step for destinations such as Jeju could be more sophisticated analysis of visitor movement.

Rather than simply asking how many people enter a trail, authorities could examine where visitors concentrate, how long they remain in particular areas and whether certain sections experience repeated pressure.

That information could support decisions about trail maintenance, signage, transport connections and seasonal access.

Jeju already has experience using large-scale population and mobility data for policy planning.

In January 2026, the provincial government began a pilot population-policy platform using AI and telecommunications big-data analysis to examine population inflows, movement patterns and time-based flows across different parts of the island. (jeju.go.kr)

That does not mean the same system is currently being used to manage Olle trails.

It does, however, demonstrate the province’s growing interest in data-based understanding of how people move around Jeju.

Redirecting Visitors Could Support Local Communities

A carefully designed visitor-redirection system could also benefit rural communities.

If one coastal section becomes overcrowded, travellers could be encouraged to explore a quieter Olle course passing through another village.

That would distribute visitor spending more widely.

Local restaurants, cafés, guesthouses, farm experiences and small tourism businesses could benefit from visitors who might otherwise remain concentrated around Jeju’s most recognisable attractions.

The model would also fit the basic structure of the Olle network, where walking routes already connect communities and landscapes.

But redirection should remain informative rather than unnecessarily restrictive unless there is a genuine ecological or safety reason to limit access.

The Carrying-Capacity Question

The idea of carrying capacity is particularly important for protected landscapes.

There is no universal visitor number that automatically defines when a trail becomes environmentally stressed. Capacity depends on soil conditions, rainfall, vegetation, trail design, wildlife sensitivity, seasonality and the behaviour of visitors.

That means an automated system would need more than a simple headcount.

Environmental indicators would need to be considered alongside visitor numbers.

For example, a trail could experience greater erosion after heavy rainfall even with relatively modest visitor numbers, while a well-maintained route might tolerate substantially more walkers during dry conditions.

This is why technology is most useful when combined with ecological expertise and on-the-ground monitoring.

Jeju’s Tourism Model Is Becoming More Data-Aware

Thus, the suggested AI hiking trail system is a direction, not a certainty in terms of being island-wide. There are several components available on Jeju Island: systems of making reservations for mountain trails, digital services for visitors, analysis of movement of the population, and walking trails that spread tourists to rural communities. The next step could be linking up those instruments. This would involve being provided with up-to-date information on crowded trails, weather conditions, temporary restrictions, and alternative paths even before setting out. From the community’s point of view, it would mean a balanced distribution of visitors. From the viewpoint of the conservation managers, such information would make it possible to have a prior warning of the overuse of some particular landscapes. The challenge for Jeju Island would consist in making sure that the use of technology will enhance but not overwhelm the experience. The allure of the Olle Trail remains, however, pretty simple – walking, landscapes, villages and the shifting coastline of the island.