South Korea's Jeju Island has been named as one of the new seven natural wonders of the world in a global poll. After winning three UNESCO designations as a World Heritage site, Geopark and a Biosphere Reserve, the island has once again earned recognition for its natural beauty and value. The seven wonders poll was hosted by the Switzerland-based The New7wonders Foundation.

The New7Wonders Foundation announced on its home page at 4:07 a.m. November 12th Korean time the result of its worldwide poll to determine the new seven natural wonders of the world. The top seven chosen were Brazil's Amazon region, Halong Bay in Vietnam, Argentina's Iguazu Falls, Jeju Island, Indonesia's Komodo National Park, the Puerto Princesa Underground River in the Philippines and South Africa's Table Mountain. The rankings were not disclosed and the seven winners were listed in alphabetical order.

The poll was conducted online and via telephone. Some 440 candidates appeared in the initial preliminary. The first round of voting was held from 2007 to 2008 and 261 sites made it through. The second vote was held in 2009 in which seven categories were determined: islands, volcanoes, waterfalls, beaches, national parks, caves and forests. Eleven sites were selected for each group. In the third round of eliminations, 28 finalists were decided through experts' deliberation.

The final vote on the 28 was held from July 2009 to November eleventh this year via telephone, online and mobile phone text messages.

Jeju Island is the first and only site in the world to achieve the triple crown of winning all three UNESCO designations in the natural science field, which are the Biosphere Reserve, World Natural Heritage site and Geopark registrations. Jeju's tourism industry is also expected to enjoy a bump following its latest feat. But the tourism sector had already seen a sharp rise throughout the promotional period before the seven wonders poll results came out.

Jeju authorities as well as the central government have declared their intention to take steps to promote Jeju to the world banking on its seven wonders designation. The government also plans to link global conferences and events scheduled in Korea including the Yeosu Expo and the Formula One Grand Prix with Jeju tourism.

However, the New7Wonders Foundation’s announcement has been at the center of some controversy. The creditability of the foundation has been questioned, while some argue that the polling procedure may not have been entirely fair and subjective. The foundation says it will receive verification by an authorized agency and announce the final selection results in a couple of weeks in an effort to defuse speculations.

It's possible that the rankings will be revised, but experts say the chance of Jeju losing the designation is slim to none because out of the 28 finalists, Jeju was the only site that represented all seven themes: an island, volcano, waterfall, beach, national park, cave and forest.