By Kwon Mee-yoo
Staff reporter
The Jeju "
" trail walking paths, Jeonju Hanok (traditional Korean house) village, and eight other top tourist sites and figures won Korea Tourism Awards (KTA), Thursday, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports said.
The Olle trails in Jeju Island are a big hit ― more than 250,000 people have visited the walking courses bringing in 19 billion won. Opened in September 2007, there are now 20 Olle routes spanning 329 kilometers on the island. Olle is the old Jeju dialect word for narrow paths inaccessible by cars.
"Olle give people a chance to walk, feel and enjoy the island," a Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) official said. "They also present a new paradigm for tourism by relying on visitors to protect the environment and clean up after them."
The KTO and culture ministry jointly organized the awards for the first time this year. To select the winners, they conducted online polls, with 14,127 participating in the voting over three months until mid-June.
The
village has more than 700 houses, the largest urban hanok community in Korea. More than 2.8 million people visited the village last year.
In addition to the traditional architecture, the village also has a traditional culture center for performances and offers accommodation in hanoks as well as a traditional liquor museum.
The forest resort
in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province was chosen as the best tourist spot for the disabled.
The resort has added wooded decking on its tour courses to cater to those who are in wheelchairs.
, also known as Millennium Palace Resort & Spa, in Gyeongju was chosen for the best accommodation.
The television dramas "Boys over Flowers" and entertainment shows "Infinite Challenge," "Just Married" and " Gold Miss is Coming" were filmed at the resort, the first hanok hotel in Korea. The hotel is known for its beautiful wooden structure and open-air baths attached to each house.
An original cockle restaurant in
, located in front of Beolgyo Post Office, took the best restaurant award.
An Internet club
received the award for online media. With more than 100,000 members, the community shares information on travel and famous bloggers write tourism news daily.
It also launched a "Green Tour" in March.
Park Gang-seop's
won the best book, while the
in Myeong-dong was selected as the best tourist guidance system. The
Corporation was praised for its attitude toward its employees by designating a Family Day and enforcing mandatory use of vacation.
The achievement award was given to actor
and the team producing the KBS variety show
A popular "hallyu" (Korean wave) star Bae has been made an Honorary Ambassador for the "2010-2012 Visit Korea" campaign and also published a travel essay "Journey in Search of Korea's Beauty" in 2009.
The "1 Day 2 Nights" team was recognized for its contribution in boosting domestic tourism by sampling various tourist sites across the nation including riding rail bikes in Gangwon Province and visiting green tea fields in Boseong, South Jeolla Province.