Copenhagen’s innovative trial scheme to reward green tourism concludes
This summer, Copenhagen launched a trial scheme to help promote green tourism and encouraged visitors to the capital of Denmark to act in an environmentally-friendly fashion.
The programme was launched on July 15th and concluded on August 11th. Holidaymakers were rewarded for acts such as taking public transportation or riding bikes rather than renting cars or taking taxis across the city. Collecting plastic is another behaviour that authorities in Copenhagen sought from tourists, who then received a perk as a thank you before the end of their trip.
These gifts varied from a free admission to a museum, a coffee, extra time at skiing to a meal at a local restaurant. The scheme was called CopenPay, and it remains to be seen whether it will return in the future or introduced on a full-time basis.
The system has largely been built on trusts with those using CopenPay able to upload photographs of receipts from public transports or images of them participating in sustainable activities.
Throughout the entirety of the scheme, the CopenPay scheme was highly advertised across the Danish capital with green advertisements prominently featuring on public transport.
Why CopenPay was launched
Tourism is a valuable resource to Copenhagen, and their economy is boosted by the millions that make the voyage to the city each year. Despite only having a population of 600,000, a figure comparable with Leeds, over 19million overnight stays were enjoyed in Copenhagen during 2022, as it bounced back from the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a bid to keep Copenhagen’s air clean and pristine, the authorities introduced CopenPay to change the instincts of holidaymakers.
Ahead of the launch, Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen, the official tourism board for the Danish capital, explained to Euronews Green, “What we know is that there’s a big gap between the tourists’ intention before [and after] they arrive and consume. We know that four out of five of us intend to act sustainably, but only one out of five of us actually does.”
Aarø-Hansen continued: “Before we close that gap, we will not be able to create sustainable tourism. So the basic idea [of CopenPay] is to show people that climate actions are not that difficult. We can all do it. We all have a choice to act sustainably and climate-friendly. And there are many things we can do in Copenhagen to make a difference.”
While tourism is vital to the economy of cities such as Copenhagen, there will be no tourism if the environment is allowed to be tarnished. The idea for the scheme was born after a report was published in 2023 by Kantar, discovering that over 88 per cent of tourists wished to travel more sustainably, but only 22 per cent had changed their habits. Therefore, the progressive scheme was designed to increase the latter number.
The results of the CopenPay scheme are yet to be published, but if it has been a success, then it’s likely that more cities across Europe will follow Copenhagen’s lead and replicate the initiative.
