Tourism Copenhagen encourages tourists to travel more sustainably
Copenhagen is launching a new campaign to encourage tourists to act in a climate-friendly way. There are rewards for visitors to the Danish capital.
15.07.2024, 04:53
SDA
A free drink as a reward for cycling, collecting garbage in a green kayak or an extra round of skiing at the waste incineration plant: as part of the "CopenPay" initiative, travelers to Copenhagen can earn rewards in bars, museums and other attractions in the city.
To do so, they have to use a bicycle or the metro, for example, or pick up litter in and around city parks, beaches or waterways. Those who bring their plastic waste to the Danish National Gallery SMK can turn it into a work of art in a workshop. The activities are also open to locals.
Capital of cycling - and also of "sustainable tourism"?
According to the tourism organization Wonderful Copenhagen, the campaign is not aimed at attracting more tourists to the city. Rather, the aim is to make it easier for travelers to put their climate awareness into action: A large proportion of tourists want to act sustainably, but only a few actually change their behaviour, the organization announced.
Copenhagen now wants to bridge this gap by enabling tourists to do concrete things that benefit the climate and the environment. "We want visitors to make conscious, environmentally friendly choices and hopefully have even better experiences during their visit," explained the head of Wonderful Copenhagen, Mikkel Aarø-Hansen. Tourism must be transformed from an environmental burden into a force for positive change. An important step in this is to change the way people move around the destination, what they consume and how they interact with the locals.
Copenhagen has long been striving to be perceived as the "capital of sustainable tourism". The initiative is a pilot project that will initially run until August 11 - and should ultimately inspire other cities around the world to launch similar initiatives.
