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| Actress Jung Ho-yeon as Kang Sae-byeok in Netflix original series "Squid Game" / Courtesy of Netflix |
By Nam Hyun-woo
The popularity of Netflix's original series "Squid Game" is pushing up global audiences' awareness of Jeju Island, after a brief reference to the scenic island during an episode of the Korean drama series.
According to Google, the Google Trends global score of keyword search for "Jeju Island" for the period of Oct. 3 to 9 stood at 100, which is the highest in the 0-100 scale scoring system showing interest in a keyword in a specific time range. "Jeju" on its own also scored 100 during the same period.
The score for "Jeju Island" had been moving between 10 and 25 from January to early September this year, but it spiked up after "Squid Game" was released on Sept. 17. The score was 43 for Sept. 19-25, 90 for Sept. 26―Oct. 2 and 100 for the Oct. 3-9 period. It declined slightly to 92 during the period of Oct. 10-16.
Google Trends showed that related keywords to Jeju Island were "Squid Game," "Squid Game Jeju Island" and "Jung Ho-yeon" who played Kang Sae-byeok in the drama.
Jeju Island is mentioned just once during episode 6 of the series, in which Kang, a North Korean defector, says she wants to visit the island with her little brother if she survives in the game.
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| Seongsan Ilchulbong on Jeju Island / Korea Times photo by Wang Tae-seog |
Following the show's popularity, Newsweek magazine introduced Jeju Island, describing it as the "Hawaii of South Korea" and a place Kang "dreamed" of.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeju Island became one of the most-visited tourist destination for Koreans, due to restrictions on overseas travel.
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