South Korea’s Jeju Island Announced the Launching of Blockchain Ecosystem for Tourism Industry

Jeju Island, a Korean tourist destination, will soon have a blockchain-based ecosystem for its tourism industry. The Olefang Global Consortium of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean companies led by iFang Korea is developing the ecosystem, which will include restaurants, hotels, car rentals, and shops. The members of the ecosystem will deal with each other internally in the blockchain in the “Olefang” token.

Foreign tourists using this ecosystem will not have to pay conversion costs, which are incurred when their currency is converted into Korean won as well as transaction cost associated with credit cards. They will not have to incur these costs even during their stay if they only use facilities provided by members of the ecosystem.

As part of this, iFang will launch English, Chinese, and Japanese versions of its mobile app, which is currently available only in the Korean language.

iFang will work with Jeju National University to create foreign language courses that will empower youth to work in the tourism sector.

The consortium will look to develop oriental medical tourism, which will promote industries that use Jeju’s natural resources for medicinal purposes.

It will also work with the Korea Food Industry Association, to create a smart farm on Jeju Island that will make use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Jaebung Shim, CEO of IFang Korea, said,

We will expand the world through the OlePang Global Consortium to showcase the environment where blockchain and Cryptocurrency can be used in real life from Jeju Island.

The Consortium met on Jeju Island to discuss the ecosystem.

Japanese members of the consortium who took part in the meet include Mai Group, Japan Corporation, distribution business, and a travel agency.

Chinese firms in the meet included TruChain, which runs a public chain for the Chinese government and is creating a coin ecosystem by working with more than 10,000 stores in Thailand and Everitoken, which is a blockchain-based payment system.

Lastly, from Korea, Sooro Yu, chairman of the Korean Baduk Association, Youngmin Ko, chairman of the Korea Association of Korean Food Industry, and executive director of Namjin Kim, attended the meet.