Europe’s most popular destinations are struggling to contain the influx of tourists this summer.
Whether it’s Barcelona, where protesters are using water cannons on tourists, or Athens, where overtourism is reaching its peak, European cities are rethinking how they operate economically vital industries that are creating tensions with local residents.
Copenhagen has the answer to transform tourism from a negative force into a positive one: reward tourists for making a positive impact by cleaning up the city or cycling around it.
The city’s CopenPay program offers “perks” such as free lunches, coffee, kayaking tours and museum admission to tourists who take climate-friendly actions.
The pilot project, which starts on July 15, has 24 attractions that can count towards the rewards, ranging from bike rentals to the National Gallery of Denmark.
The aim is to encourage visitors to make conscious choices that will have an impact on the Danish capital, while encouraging entry to the city’s main attractions. For example, Copenhagen Surf School offers a free lunch to surfers who spend 30 minutes helping clean up the beach after their surfing lesson.
“This is an experiment, a small step towards generating a new mindset among travelers,” Mikkel Aaro Hansen, CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen, the city’s official tourism organization, said in a statement.
Visit Copenhagen
The group cited data showing that tourists are often highly motivated to adopt sustainable behaviour but that only a small proportion have changed their behaviour, and urged Copenhagen to adopt a new “trust-based” approach.
Wonderful Copenhagen says the initiative is not aimed at increasing tourism, but simply promoting a better way of doing things.
“We need to transform tourism from an environmental burden into a driver of positive change, and one of the key steps in this transformation is to change how we get around destinations, what we consume and how we interact with locals,” said Arlo Hansen.
Wonderful Copenhagen did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Tourism tug-of-war
Europe has long been known as a picturesque holiday destination, but in recent times it has also become an example of the downsides of mass tourism.
Local residents often face the impacts of overtourism, which can negatively impact the overall quality of life and cost of living.
In Madrid, for example, limited public housing availability has shut locals out of the housing market, a situation made worse by the rise of vacation rentals catering to tourists, while Barcelona has announced it will ban Airbnb-style short-term rentals from 2029 in order to free up housing supply for locals.
Amsterdam is cracking down on overtourism by imposing tougher regulations on cannabis smoking and the construction of new hotels.
Iceland is also seeing an increase in tourists and plans to introduce a tourist tax on hotels, campsites and cruise ships.
These measures show that Europe’s top tourist destinations must strike a delicate balance between curbing tourist numbers and not completely alienating tourists, who are a vital source of income and jobs for many countries.
If Copenhagen’s pilot project is successful in turning tourism into a force for good, it could set an example for other cities to adopt.
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