With the aim of boosting the presence of Ulleungdo as a global tourist destination for both local and global visitors in the next five years, the Korea Tourism Organization has joined hands with Ulleung County and Kolon Glotech, Inc., the KTO announced Friday.

Ulleungdo, an island east of South Korea is 72.86 square kilometers in size, and has a population of about 10,153. The island is known for its well preserved natural environment along the coast and its geographic significance, overlooking Dokdo and other historically meaningful islands.

Over the five-year period, the three organizations will actively carry out both business and cultural projects with a goal of raising Ulleungdo’s annual visitors to 1 million by 2026.

Planned projects include supporting a variety of tourism content and improving the island‘s accommodation infrastructure through the introduction and promotion of the Korea Quality certified designation system created by the KTO to help tourists select ensured quality accommodations and services. The KTO also plans to develop tourism products linked to Ulleungdo’s key features.

Kolon Glotech’s Healing Stay Kosmos, a high-end lodging facility in the county was recently designated as the first KQ certified accommodation in Ulleungdo. Following a series of strict service quality assessments, Healing Stay Kosmos earned a more than 90 percent mark in its total evaluation score, and assigned “premiere,” the highest KQ rank by the KTO.

Following the official trilateral business agreement ceremony on Friday, the KTO will award the KQ certificate to Healing Stay Kosmos, and work together to expand tourist visits through jointly developing promotion projects.

Meanwhile, Ulleungdo’s 44.5-kilometer-long loop road was completed in 2019 after decades of a lack of budget and struggles caused by steep shore cliffs that make building roads difficult.

Shim Hay-ryun, director of the Tourism Certification Center at KTO, announced that Ulleungdo is prepared to face a “major inflection point” of both quantitative and qualitative growth in the tourism sector, and the organization expects that a unique regional tourism model will grow in Ulleungdo along with the KQ system.