South Korea’s Jeju Island Uses NFTs to Attract Young Tourists

South Korea’s Jeju Island is issuing NFT-based tourism cards that aim to attract young tourists to visit and return repeatedly, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported on Jan. 6.

The Digital Tourist Resident Cards will entitle Korean visitors to discounts and “travel support funds” issued in the island’s local currency to keep spending at home. The island’s tourism authority hopes to issue 100,000 digital cards in time for the Chuseok holiday in September.

The cards are targeted at Gen Z and Millennial tourists, and come with access to a platform where visitors can upload and share photos and videos of their visits.

They can also be used to track times and locations visited in their accounts. Using NFTs will also ensure users that their data cannot be tampered with.

In order to encourage repeat visits, recipients of the cards will be offered travel subsidies or discount vouchers based on their travel history to the island.

South Korean tourism numbers were up 74% through the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same time period in 2023, according to Yanolda Research.

Things changed after the one-two punch of martial law and the Jeju Air airline crash that killed 179 on Dec. 29. Travel to South Korea has declined, while tourism in Jeju is down 3.6% year-over-year in the month since martial law was briefly declared on Dec. 3, and down 13.1% in the week since the plane crash, according to the Korea Economic Daily.

Thailand Experiment

The island’s campaign is a small one, but the Tourism Authority of Thailand has run a substantially larger, national NFT program for four years.

The Amazing Hunt NFT Travel Guide allows users to collect NFTs by visiting regional tourism attractions linked to fantastical beasts that represent different regions in a treasure hunt format, the Bangkok Post reported in August.