Journal of the Korean Geographical Society ISSN:1225-6633(Print) 대한지리학회지

Islands are vulnerable to outer influences due to their small size and isolation. Tourism often becomes an important development focus because of their unique culture and nature. Jeju-do, as well as other islands, has experienced such development mostly led by central government, and the regional change was understood as the outcome of global influences without much concern with the local response or strategy. Thus, vulnerability has been the key theme in island development studies. This paper examines the current state of island development as an outcome of locals’ alternating strategy in which the islanders accept the central government’s plan, but express their demands to modify them. It is reflected in the electoral preference for ruling or oppositional parties, local movements against central government’s development plans, and the spatial organization of tourism sites from a few growth centers to more dispersed, balanced development. These suggest that the current state of island development is not derived from unidirectional global forces, even if islands are peripheral. Rather, it is the outcome of an alternating strategy of Jeju locals accepting the central government development plans while managing them for local benefits.