Global Hiking Mate Guide: How Seoul’s 2026 International Hiking Program Connects to Seoul Hiking Week

Global Hiking Mate is the international community program linked to Seoul’s growing hiking tourism push in 2026. Built around influencers selected from 32 countries, the program connects foreign visitors, Seoul’s mountain tourism centers, and the expanded Seoul Hiking Week calendar through themed hikes and wellness activities.¹

The key point for readers is that Global Hiking Mate is not a one-day event. Its 2026 launch ceremony was held on March 7 at BAC Academy near the Bukhansan Seoul Hiking Tourism Center, and participants are scheduled to carry out missions through November using the Bukhansan, Bugaksan, and Gwanaksan centers as their main bases.¹ Seoul Hiking Week also expanded to two seasonal editions in 2026, with spring and autumn operations planned.¹

What Global Hiking Mate Is in 2026

The 2026 Global Hiking Mate group consists of 100 influencers chosen from 32 countries. Their combined follower count was introduced at about 550,000, giving the program a clear role as both a hiking community and a tourism promotion channel for Seoul’s mountains.¹

The program’s activities are centered on three Seoul Hiking Tourism Centers: Bukhansan, Bugaksan, and Gwanaksan. These centers matter because they are not only meeting points; they support mountain visitors with functions such as equipment rental, resting space, and route guidance, depending on the center and program.²³

Kwon Hyuk-bin, head of the Seoul Tourism Organization’s tourism industry division, described Global Hiking Mate as “a special community where friends of different nationalities and languages become one through mountains.”¹ That quote captures the program’s practical identity: it is designed around shared hikes, themed missions, and wellness programs rather than conventional sightseeing alone.

For international visitors who are not part of the influencer cohort, the useful takeaway is that the same wider ecosystem supports public hiking tourism. Seoul Hiking Week Spring, for example, was open to both citizens and foreign tourists, and its program guidance included equipment rental and center souvenirs.⁴

How It Connects to Seoul Hiking Week Spring

Seoul Hiking Week Spring ran from March 23 to April 12, 2026. Over those three weeks, 12 hiking experience programs operated under themes tied to downtown mountains, northern mountains, and southern mountains.⁴ Those programs used the city’s hiking tourism centers as bases, matching the same center-based structure used by Global Hiking Mate.

The spring edition had already finished by April 29, 2026, so readers should treat the published results as completed outcomes rather than upcoming registration information. The Seoul Tourism Organization reported that all 12 programs closed early, and the three centers recorded 6,662 visitors during the three-week operating period.⁵

Foreign visitor growth was the standout result. Foreign visitors increased 105.9% compared with the same period the previous year, and at the Bukhansan center, foreign visitors accounted for 85% of visitors.⁵ Geum Chang-hoon of the Seoul Tourism Organization’s tourism resources development team said Seoul hiking had become “a trend for foreign tourists.”⁵

This is where Global Hiking Mate and Seoul Hiking Week reinforce each other. Global Hiking Mate gives Seoul a long-running international community through November, while Seoul Hiking Week packages mountain routes into seasonal programs that ordinary residents and visitors can join when registration is available. The spring results show strong demand, so future participants should expect popular programs to fill quickly when official sign-ups open.

Using the Seoul Hiking Tourism Centers

The most specific operational details available in the sources concern the Bukhansan Seoul Hiking Tourism Center. VisitSeoul TV’s 2026 Seoul Hiking Week video description lists the center address as 5F, 181-7 Ui-dong, Gangbuk-gu, and states operating hours as 09:00 to 18:00, excluding Mondays and public holidays.³

The same official video description says the Bukhansan center provides hiking gear rental and route guidance.³ Earlier coverage of a January 17 Bugaksan foreign hiking program also noted that some participants rented items such as hiking shoes and jackets at the Bugaksan Seoul Hiking Tourism Center.⁶

Those details are especially useful for international travelers who want to hike but do not want to bring a full mountain kit to Seoul. However, the sources do not provide a complete booking process, rental fee list, or real-time inventory. The safest reader action is to check the relevant Seoul Hiking Tourism Center before planning around a specific item or route.

The January 17 Bugaksan program also shows the type of visitor experience Seoul has been promoting. Twenty-four foreign tourists from 17 countries joined a route covering Malbawi Observatory, Sukjeongmun, Gokjang, and Baegakmaru.² A participant, Iman Laroussi, said, “I liked it because there is a charm you can only feel in winter hiking.”² While that comment came from a winter program rather than Seoul Hiking Week Spring, it helps explain why the city is positioning hiking as a year-round tourism experience.

작성자 소개

Patrick Choi

Administrator

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