Global tourist destinations are adopting Copenhagen’s praised initiative to promote more conscious travel

Massive popular resistance, water guns, and locals demonstrating is the reality in many big cities and popular tourist destinations around the world, where tourism faces issues with overcrowding and visitor behavior. In clear contrast to these negative scenarios, Copenhagen has taken a forward-thinking initiative by engaging and rewarding tourists for their behavior. The aim of CopenPay is to inspire and nudge travelers about the choices they make when they travel.

Copenhagen offers free boat tours and bike rentals and even a free lunch to tourists for collecting litter, choosing public transport or helping out in a communal garden. Last summer, the Danish Capital launched a new positive approach to tourism – CopenPay, rewarding tourists for making more conscious choices. And for its second run this summer Copenhagen now also rewards tourists who arrive by train and is furthermore urging tourists to generally travel less by rewarding longer stays.

And now the positive Copenhagen approach is spreading internationally as a number of cities and tourist destinations are planning on creating their own local incentive schemes inspired of ‘CopenPay’.

Since launcing the CopenPay initiative the tourist board of Copenhagen, Wonderful Copenhagen, has been in contact with a wide number of other cities and tourist destinations all interested in adopting a local version of CopenPay.

“Since launching CopenPay last summer we’ve been met by an enormous interest from cities and tourist boards from Europe, Asia and North America, all wanting to know more about CopenPay and our learnings. So far, we have shared insights on CopenPay with more than 100 interested parties, and as we aim to contribute to a positive change globally, we are happy to share,” says Søren Tegen Petersen, CEO at Wonderful Copenhagen.

One of those cities considering its own version – inspired by Copenhagen – is Berlin.

”CopenPay stands out as an inspiring example of how creative measures can effectively raise awareness for more sustainable travel. In Berlin, we share this ambition and are currently considering setting up a similar concept tailored to Berlin, in close collaboration with our partners from the visitor economy,” says Sabine Wendt, CEO visitBerlin.

Also the capital of Finland is considering local initiatives, inspired by CopenPay:

“CopenPay is a great initiative, and we would be delighted to build upon that spirit in collaboration with other destinations — aiming even higher, together. As a city situated by the sea, Helsinki is eager to collaborate across the Nordics and the Baltics to promote regenerative tourism and to launch a shared initiative focused on the restoration of the Baltic Sea", says Tourism Director Nina Vesterinen, City of Helsinki.

In the German city of Bremen, they’ve launched a cooperative campaign with Deutsche Bahn, now developed further inspired by CopenPay:

“This year, Bremen Tourism once again launched a cooperative campaign with Deutsche Bahn to put the spotlight on sustainable travel. CopenPay served as a major inspiration, guiding us to develop new, creative ways to actively reward climate-friendly travel behavior. Overnight guests arriving in Bremen by train received a surprise bag filled with vouchers and small gifts from various local tourism businesses. The campaign was very well received by our visitors and has encouraged us to further expand the concept, strengthening Bremen as a sustainable destination. For 2026, we are planning an even larger initiative,” says Oliver Rau, Managing Director of Bremen Marketing and Tourism, Wirtschaftsförderung Bremen GmbH.

UN projects a steep increase in global travel with the number of arrivals increasing globally from 1.4 billion in 2019 to 1.8 billion in 2030 – so there is a need to reconsider how we travel. And CopenPay is all about raising awareness about the choices we all make as tourists.

The potential for developing local versions inspired of the Copenhagen initiative extents to destinations around the globe, says Rodney Payne, CEO of Destination Think – a Canada based consulting agency specializing in forward thinking development in the global tourism industry.

“With CopenPay, Copenhagen proves that bold ideas can inspire global change. This innovative model shows other destinations how to engage visitors in ways that are both sustainable and deeply connected to local life where travelers become active participants rather than passive consumers. So CopenPay holds huge potential for destinations around the world to adopt into their own local version,” says Rodney Payne.