Is a free lunch enough incentive to get you to litter-pick on holiday? Copenhagen hopes so

Copenhagen is well-known for embracing sustainability and now the Danish capital is extending its inexperienced initiative to vacationers.

Fantastic Copenhagen, the official tourism organisation of the Capital Area of Denmark, has launched a undertaking which can rework guests’ inexperienced actions into forex for cultural experiences.

The town is a vastly well-liked vacation spot, recording over 12 million in a single day stays in 2024.

Now there’s much more cause to go to due to the newly launched ‘CopenPay’.

Kicking off on 15 July, a trial scheme will see guests inspired to participate in actions like litter-picking, travelling by public transport – versus utilizing vehicles or taxis – or biking across the metropolis.

In the event that they select to become involved, they’ll be capable to declare rewards free of charge lunches, coffees, and glasses of wine – in addition to entry museums and kayak rental.

How did ‘CopenPay’ come about and the way will it work?

The so-called ‘CopenPay’ scheme was designed to offset the “environmental burden” of tourism, the Copenhagen vacationer board says.

“If you journey overseas – in the event you fly to different locations otherwise you journey by automotive – you pollute,” the vacationer board’s communications chief Rikke Holm Petersen, explains, “One of many issues we are able to change is getting individuals to behave extra sustainably on the vacation spot.”

The board does admit it’s just one a part of a far bigger initiative, with Petersen saying the plan is just a “little step in direction of the inexperienced transition.”

Working till 11 August, will probably be ‘trust-based’. Which means sights received’t be made to ask for proof that the inexperienced exercise you say you have completed has truly been accomplished.

“In some sights, you might need to indicate an image of you using a bike, or of your public transportation ticket,” Petersen says.

Up to now, some 24 organisations have signed as much as the pilot scheme – however the authorities will not be reimbursing the businesses behind the sights.

The transfer comes following a launch of knowledge from 2023’s Sustainability Index which suggests vacationers are eager to make extra inexperienced selections – 82 per cent of individuals – however have but to take action – 22 per cent.

What is going to vacationers truly collaborating within the scheme be inspired to do?

CopenPay will reward all kinds of actions taken by guests equivalent to biking, collaborating in clean-up efforts, or volunteering at city farms, with entry to must-visit experiences.

They’ll embody choices from complimentary guided museum excursions to sports activities to free vegetarian lunches produced from locally-grown crops.

Among the experiences might be unique to these participating.

For example, guests on the Nationwide Gallery of Denmark who gather plastic waste might be invited to participate in a workshop to show it into a bit of artwork.

If a vacationer decides to take public transport or a motorbike to Copenhagen’s iconic heating plant, they’ll be given the distinctive expertise of snowboarding down its slope, situated on the constructing’s roof.

Copenhagen officers hope these incentives will show fruitful for the way forward for town’s tourism – and its contribution to inexperienced tourism.

“We should flip tourism from being an environmental burden right into a power for optimistic change – and one necessary step on this transformation is to alter how we transfer round on the vacation spot, what we eat, and the way we work together with the locals,” Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, CEO at Fantastic Copenhagen, says.

“With CopenPay, we would like travellers – in addition to native sights – to give attention to the change, and the alternatives, that we have to make”.

Copenhagen’s hope now isn’t solely to proceed and increase the pilot undertaking – but in addition to encourage different cities world wide to introduce comparable initiatives.