Scoop up litter from canals. Volunteer on an urban farm. Pedal by bike instead of driving. As a reward for green deeds, visitors to Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, can get perks like free ice cream, glasses of wine and discounted museum entry.
It’s part of a newly launched initiative called CopenPay, which encourages travellers to think and act a little more sustainably. From art galleries to sports-rental outfits, 24 attractions are taking part in the one-month pilot scheme, which runs until 11 August.
This welcoming approach stands in stark contrast to other European cities, where mass tourism has ignited tensions. To limit visitor numbers, Venice has introduced daily entry fees and banned large groups and loudspeakers, while in Barcelona and Majorca, residents have protested in the streets. With the behaviour of holiday makers increasingly in the spotlight, often for the wrong reasons, Carina Ren, a professor and tourism researcher at Aalborg University, thinks “CopenPay is super timely”.
“It tries to give a little bit of an answer to how tourism can pay back and how it can help,” she told the BBC.
With a population of around 600,000, Denmark’s compact, bike-friendly capital often ranks among the world’s greenest cities. However since the pandemic, record numbers of tourists have flocked to the country. Last year Copenhagen saw more than 12 million international overnight stays, with July and August the peak season.
Greeted by screens in the airport promoting CopenPay and banners on the side of buses, visitors are now being nudged to play their part by making more sustainable choices like greener modes of transport and reducing waste, while they also enjoy the city’s cultural experiences.
The launch garnered huge media attention and Petersen is adamant it’s not a marketing stunt. “We haven’t done this to attract tourists. Obviously, we have many already.”
I wondered, will Denmark’s carrot rather than stick approach work? And could it be a model for other destinations? As a writer living in Copenhagen, I decided to test it out to see how tourists can give back to their host city, and learn what they thought of the scheme.
My first activity was a morning dip and communal singing session – both popular Danish pastimes. My eco-friendly deed: simply turning up by foot. My reward: complimentary coffee.
With deep breaths and tingling muscles, I clambered quickly out of the cold seawater at 08:00 having just plunged myself into a small pool tethered to Copenhagen’s harbourfront. Feeling buoyed by newfound energy and a warming cup of coffee, moments later I was joining more than a dozen other early risers for avery Danish singalong, belting out the Beatles classic Let it be followed by Frank Sinatra’s Fly Me to the Moon – all English-language songs so everyone could join in.
Singing enthusiastically near me were Jasmine Blakeway and her friends from Birmingham in the UK, who’d learned about CopenPay on Instagram. “We thought what a great way to start our morning,” Blakeway told me, adding that embracing local culture and trying to act sustainably was something they cared about. “It is important to us that wherever we go, we only leave a positive mark.”
My next adventure started by entering a discount code into an app, hopping onto an orange rental bike and pedalling southwards along the waterfront, where I boarded an electric GoBoat. More than 500 people had booked out the slots available via CopenPay for a free hour-long boat trip in return for picking up litter while exploring Copenhagen’s waterways.
Moving barely faster than walking pace, our small battery-powered boat cruised through a canal, circling Denmark’s brooding parliament. Overlooked by grand historic buildings and towering church spires, we soaked in the surroundings, all while armed with small fishing nets, scouring the water for rubbish. However, with Copenhagen’s canals being so clean, it proved to be tricky to spot any. Finally, we scooped up a crisp packet and plastic toy plane.
“It’s very, very clean,” said tourist Mark Brown back on the jetty. “We didn’t find very much.” Holidaying with his family from York, they booked the boat rental “to do something different”.
Similarly, GreenKayak, which is also part of CopenPay, loans kayaks for two hours free-of-charge to those picking up rubbish. “When you hear that you have to collect trash, maybe for some people it doesn’t sound like that much fun,” GreenKayak’s Elisabeth Friis Larsen said. “But when people do it, they actually find themselves enjoying being on a treasure hunt. But it’s a trash hunt.”
Exploring the scheme further, I biked beyond the city centre to Refshaleøen, a former industrial zone that’s now a popular foodie hangout and arts destination. It’s also home to the urban farm Oens Have (“Island Garden”). Marooned among warehouses and boat hangars, it’s a veritable green oasis where sunflowers reach skywards, and butterflies and bumble bees dance on the purple cornflowers and strawberry patches, alongside a hen coop and beehives.
Volunteering in the garden, my first task was to remove dried-out flower heads from a bed of yellow and orange calendula and then weed a patch of leeks. Kneeling in the sunshine for a couple of hours, it was easy to forget I was in the city, and rather than feeling like a chore, it was really rather blissful.
“It’s a place where you can come and use your hands. Here you can be present with each other, have a really nice conversation,” explained Oens Have co-founder, Livia Urban Swart Haaland, as we collected handfuls of wonderfully fragrant coriander seeds. “These are used fresh, and in ferments and pickles, by our restaurant,” she added, which tucked inside a yurt, focuses on seasonal produce.
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Among rows of kale and rhubarb, more than 30 green-fingered volunteers were mucking in with weeding and harvesting; a spectrum of nationalities and ages from retirees to families with small children, including a handful who’d signed up through CopenPay.
“We’re just happy that people have the opportunity to join in who wouldn’t have heard about it. I think it’s really nice when you travel to contribute and go a little deeper into the culture,” said Haaland.
Our efforts were rewarded with a delicious lunch of mixed vegetables and fresh bread. We sat elbow to elbow around a communal table and everyone was soon eagerly chatting. Italian tourist Sara Carenini, who was travelling solo in Scandinavia, said she was drawn to the social side of volunteering.
“Around the table, nobody is a stranger,” she said. “I really enjoyed that part of it.”
However, she also felt it can be tricky navigating how to act sustainably. “It’s very hard these days to differentiate what is and what isn’t greenwashing. But at the end of the day, if you’re a tourist, why not do it consciously and give something back to the city?”
It’s evident there’s strong interest in CopenPay, with many of the scheme’s activities already booked up. But litter-picking and volunteering doesn’t appeal to everyone, especially when on holiday. On iconic Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s picture-postcard street lined with colourful buildings and vintage sailboats, several tourists I spoke to liked the idea of doing green deeds, though none were taking part in the CopenPay scheme.
“We’re here three more days. During a trip like this, I probably wouldn’t do it,” one man told me. “But if I was here for maybe, say, two weeks, I definitely would.” A young woman agreed, adding, “It’s probably a good way for young people who are on a budget to get to experience more.”
For Berit Charlotte Kaae, a senior researcher in tourism at Copenhagen University, CopenPay is a small step in the right direction. “I think it’s an interesting ‘carrot-way’ of trying to change people’s behaviour,” she said, noting though that the immediate green impact of the scheme is probably limited. “In the overall picture, I don’t think it’s going to really do a lot for environmental issues. The big impact comes from how you get here,” Kaae said, pointing to polluting transport like air travel and cruise ships that should be addressed.
Ren added that she would like to see attractions more spread out away from the usual tourist trail. And in a city where most people already get around by bike or public transport, she thinks the bar for some rewards is set a little low. “We’re in Copenhagen, who would ever use a car to go to these places?”
After the trial period wraps up, Petersen’s team will assess CopenPay’s success. She hopes it will eventually run year-round and that its eco-conscious message will spread even further. “Travelling transcends borders, so the people who are coming here will hopefully be inspired to do it back home again,” she said.
Source: BBC
