At the first Rural Tourism Idea Competition held on August 23, the idea of Nolchon: Let’s Play in the Village, pro­posed by Kang Moon-hee, Kim Yeon-min, and Jang Hui-ju from the Dept. of Tourism Manage­ment at Kyung Hee University (KHU) was selected for the grand prize. The Rural Tourism Idea Competition is an event or­ganized by the Ministry of Agri­culture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Development Administration to discover cre­ative ideas for the rural tourism policy and business models proposed by young people in their twenties and thirties. The creators of Nolchon, Kang, Kim, and Jang, mentioned that they participated in the competition to challenge themselves and present their innovative ideas. 

A Useful Rural Traveling App

Nolchon is a type of “nong-tech” application that com­bines the word “nong”?rural areas in Korean language and “tech”?financial technology, functioning as a reward app where users can earn money while traveling in rural areas. Nolchon, a fusion of the Korean words for rural and nongtech, is a gamified app that incentivizes users for exploring rural ar­eas. Nolchon provides mileage points to the users when they verify traveling to rural areas other than their place of resi­dence. These mileage points can be used as a cash at local tour­ism destinations and are also available for purchasing local specialties.

The Creators’ Inspiration and Goals

Based on the competition theme: Rural tourism that makes people want to visit again and stay longer, they wanted to dispel the negative perception that rural tourism is boring. Inspired by the app Real Farm, where users receive actu­al crops by farming in the game, the creators of Nolchon pursued an idea that incorporates giving rewards into rural travel. They envisioned a similar concept for rural tourism, where users could earn tangible rewards for exploring real-world rural des­tinations.

The key factors for the app’s success were originality, feasi­bility, and concreteness. While presenting innovative nongtech ideas, they also paid attention to the details to make them fea­sible. They presented tangible items using design and editing skills, such as the app logo, user interface, and banner promo­tions. They stated that this con­tributed as an advantage in the evaluation.

The creators also mentioned that they were able to come up with these ideas thanks to their major, tourism management. They said, “Various knowledges learned during classes, such as deriving the proposal back­ground through tourism trends, persona analysis for potential users, and structuring a busi­ness model, served as the basis for the competition planning.”

Enhancing Convenience and Accessibility

In addition, Nolchon aims to enhance the convenience and accessibility of rural travel in­formation by collaborating with existing websites that provide rural-related service such as Welchon and Nongsaro, to enable effective information delivery. Furthermore, Nolchon includes the quiz content, Rural Golden Bell inspired by the quiz show “Golden Bell”, based on knowl­edge related to either rural areas or agriculture. Users must solve quizzes to receive rewards. This feature aims to decrease the psychological distance of users towards rural areas.

Benefits and Expectations

The greatest advantage of Nolchon is its circular structure that benefits the government, businesses, and the users of the app. The government gains valu­able insights into rural tourism patterns, businesses receive increased customer traffic, and app users enjoy a fun and re­warding travel experience. The creators expressed their expec­tations for the activation of rural tourism and the vitalization of the local economy through the app. They provided insights during the interview, stating, “If interest in rural areas increases, it is possible to aim for a tourism substitution effect by offsetting the declining local consumption due to the decrease in local pop­ulation with tourist spending.” Furthermore, they are hoping that by creating jobs in the tour­ism industry and promoting consumption of agricultural products, it is achievable to ad­dress population decline in rural areas. They clearly expressed their desire for people to develop an interest in rural areas, wish­ing for the thriving of the rural tourism industry.

Kang, Kim, and Jang at­tributed their success to their thorough research, innovative approach, and passion for rural tourism. They also shared that they are considering various ways to implement this idea in the future. They expressed their affection for rural areas, saying, “Rural areas have a unique charm that can be obtained only from nature, different from urban travel. It would be great if more people could expe­rience the allure of rural travel and become captivated by it.”

The creators encouraged the students preparing for the upcoming Rural Tourism Idea Competition, stating that if they have passion and interest in the field, they could achieve good results. They also advise that adopting an attitude of thoroughly researching exist­ing ideas and attempting new approaches to devise innova­tive ideas would be helpful.

The Nolchon app is one of the examples made to attract peo­ple to rural areas. If efforts to revitalize rural areas continue and more people start visiting rural areas, various infra­structure will be established, providing a foundation for the development of rural areas. It is hoped that opportunities aimed at garnering people’s interest in rural areas will continue to expand, creating more collective engagement to support the revival of rural regions.