This year, BlogTalk's venue is Jeju Island (see Google Maps), a famous Korean tourist spot. It is a very beautiful nature spot, and is one of world's top tourist locations (although many people still do not know of it).

Here is some practical information describing how to reach Jeju Island so that you can make your trip as smooth as possible and have the most enjoyable time with us!

Step 1. Book Your Flight(s) to Seoul

Jeju International Airport supports a total of 17 direct airlines which provide links to many major cities. There are many flights each day from Seoul (Gimpo International Airport, GMP) and several weekly flights from international cities to Jeju: six from Tokyo, four from Osaka, two from Beijing, and three from Hong Kong.

Important: If you come from another country (not Korea), you should book your flight in two separate steps. Calculating a price from London or New York directly to Jeju will give you ridiculous prices - something like $3000 - while booking your trip just to Gimpo or Incheon (GMP or ICN) should be between $1000 and $1500. Then your flight to Jeju can be booked separately by our tour agency for a much lower price ($150 to 200).

To recap:

• For your plane to Gimpo International Airport or Incheon International Airport (airport codes GMP or ICN), use a system like Kayak or Travelocity.
• For your plane from Gimpo (GMP) to Jeju, you can use our local travel agency, YB Tour. You can directly contact Mr. Namguk Kim at YB Tour (e-mail [email protected] or phone +82-2-2022-2427); the website is in Korean only.

If you depart from Tokyo or Shanghai (Hongqiao), Tokyo (Haneda) or Osaka, you can directly reach Gimpo International Airport (GMP) the same as you would a domestic airport. It is just 1.5-hours flight away from Shanghai and 2.5-hours flight from Tokyo.

Step 2. How to Get to Jeju

If you arrive at Incheon International Airport, you need to transfer to a domestic flight in Gimpo International Airport. This is one hour by shuttle bus or you can take the Airport Railroad Express Train connecting Incheon and Gimpo Airports. It operates every 5-10 minutes with a fare of 6,000 KRW ($5).

If you arrive in Gimpo from Shanghai, Tokyo or Osaka, you can directly reach the domestic terminal (using the free airport shuttle bus) within 10 minutes.

In Jeju, there will also be shuttle buses carrying you conveniently from the airport to your hotel and the conference centre.

It takes just one hour to fly from Gimpo to Jeju and its route is one of the top three busiest air traffic routes in the world.

Step 3. How to Get to the Hotel and Venue

After arriving in Jeju International Airport, you can come to the hotel and venue (located in the Jungmun Resort Complex) using various methods.

From Jeju Airport:

• By Jeju Airport Limousine Bus number 600 (the limousine bus stop is on the left side of the front gate (Samyoung Traffic #600), with departure every 15 minutes. The first bus departs at 06:20, and the last one departs after the arrival of the last airplane. It reaches all hotels contracted by us with a price less than 4,000 KRW ($3).
• By taxi, approximately 40 minutes ride, costing around 30,000 KRW ($25).

The Jeju Airport Limousine bus covers the following stops and hotels on its service route:

Airport → Crown Plaza Hotel → Entrance to the Yeomiji Botanical Garden → Hyatt Hotel → Shilla Hotel → Lotte Hotel → Hankook Condominium → Jeju International Convention Center → New Gyeongnam Hotel → Seogwipo KAL Hotel

Why come to Jeju?

We know it may be a very complex route for you, but in Jeju you will experience a beautiful nature spot with excellent conference facilities and insightful people. Recently, Jeju Island was listed as a finalist in the new Seven Wonders of Nature (a list that includes the top 28 natural spots in the world).

It is a volcanic island about 130 km from the southern coast of Korea. The island contains the Natural World Heritage Site entitled Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes. It is definitely worth coming here!