Copenhagen publicizes scheme to reward vacationers with free meals

Copenhagen has announced a scheme to reward tourists with free food and activities for litter picking, travelling by public transport or biking around the city. 

The CopenPay initiative offers those helping out with environmentally friendly tasks free lunches, coffees, glasses of wine, museum tours and kayak rentals in return.

It was created to offset the ‘environmental burden’ created by tourism and it not intended to increase tourism, according to the city’s tourism board.

‘With CopenPay, we’re empowering people to experience more of what Copenhagen offers while placing less burden on our planet,’ Mikkel Aaro Hansen, CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen, said.  

‘It’s about creating meaningful and memorable experiences that are enjoyable and environmentally responsible.’

The CopenPay initiative offers those helping out with environmentally friendly tasks free lunches, coffees, glasses of wine, museum tours and kayak rentals in return (file image of Copenhagen)

To get the rewards, tourists simply need to show their public transport ticket or a picture of themselves while picking up litter or volunteering at urban farms (file image of cyclists in Copenhagen)

The tourist board’s communications chief, Rikke Holm Petersen, told the BBC: ‘When you travel abroad – if you fly to other places or you travel by car – you pollute. 

‘One of the things we can change is getting people to act more sustainably at the destination.’

So far, 24 companies are participating in the sustainable tourism scheme and none of them are paid by the government for taking part and offering the free rewards to tourists. 

To get the rewards, tourists simply need to show their public transport ticket or a picture of themselves while picking up litter or volunteering at urban farms. 

CopenPay is ‘built on trust, just as Danish society is the most trusting in the world,’ the tourism board says on its website. 

The city’s major, Sophie Haestorp Andersen, says she is ‘thrilled to see an initiative like CopenPay that combines our rich cultural life with a strong commitment to sustainability’. 

She added: ‘By converting green actions into currency for cultural experiences, tourists are given a unique opportunity to explore Copenhagen in a way that benefits both the environment and the local community. 

‘This aligns perfectly with our values and ambitions to promote sustainable solutions in Copenhagen.’

Hansen added: ‘It is a core task for us to make travelling sustainable. And we will only succeed if we bridge the large gap between the visitors’ desire to act sustainably and their actual behaviour. It might sound simple, but it is not. 

‘We want visitors to make conscious, green choices and hopefully end up getting even better experiences while they visit.‘

The pilot scheme will run from July 15 to August 11 and if it is a success, it will be rolled out for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile tourism destinations in Spain have been protesting against mass tourism in the last few weeks, hoping to turn away holidaymakers.

Furious locals who orchestrated mass anti-tourism protests across the Canary Islands earlier this year have issued a warning to British travellers just last week, vowing they would target the ‘main holidaymaker areas’.

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tenerife on April 20

Another piece of graffiti across a bench urges holidaymakers to stay away from stunning spot

Demonstrators packed into Weyler Square in the Tenerife capital Santa Cruz, the start point for a march on the Brit-popular holiday island on April 20

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tenerife on April 20, with roughly 200,000 protesters thought to have taken part in mass demonstrations across the island archipelago.

The protests, organised by various groups including ‘Friends of Nature of Tenerife (ATAN)’ aimed to discourage foreign holidaymakers while also compelling councils to introduce new legislation aimed at protecting the islands from the effects of an ever-expanding tourism industry. 

But the groups claim their demands have fallen on deaf ears and as a result are gearing up for another explosive demonstration. 

‘We have decided to take to the streets again. This time we will take to the streets in the very centre of this development model: in the main tourist areas,’ a statement from ATAN read. 

‘We ask people to continue fighting from every corner of the islands against this unjust model that is destroying our lives and our territory.’