CopenPay is becoming a permanent part of Copenhagen’s tourism offer from 22 June, turning a Danish pilot that rewards visitors for climate-conscious actions into a year-round scheme. Wonderful Copenhagen, the official tourism organisation for the Danish capital, says the programme will continue without an end date after two years of testing, international attention and growing interest from other destinations.
From summer pilot to year-round CopenPay
The idea behind CopenPay is simple: visitors can exchange environmentally friendly behaviour for access to cultural experiences, food, transport perks or attractions. Actions can include cycling through the city, arriving by train, collecting litter, using public transport or taking part in local clean-up activities.
The scheme was introduced in summer 2024 as a limited pilot. It expanded in 2025 and will now return as a permanent platform. According to Wonderful Copenhagen, more than 30,000 people have already taken part, while the 2026 version includes more than 100 participating attractions and partners across the city.
The move marks a change in status for one of Copenhagen’s most visible sustainable tourism experiments. What began as a seasonal campaign is now being treated as part of the city’s broader visitor strategy, linking tourism, local behaviour and Copenhagen’s long-standing image as a cycling and climate-conscious city.
How Copenhagen tourism rewards greener choices
The rewards vary by activity and partner. Visitors may receive coffee, meals, discounted or free museum access, guided tours, bike rentals, cultural events or outdoor experiences. The participating network includes institutions and companies such as the National Museum (Nationalmuseet), the National Gallery of Denmark (Statens Museum for Kunst), CopenHill and the bike rental company Donkey Republic.
CopenPay now works through a digital system. Visitors choose an activity, complete it and show proof through the app or at the participating partner. The structure keeps the scheme easy to use, while allowing Copenhagen to connect tourist behaviour with local environmental and cultural initiatives.
Transport is central to the programme. Tourists who arrive by train can receive rewards such as bike rentals or cycling lessons, while electric vehicle users may receive parking or charging benefits. The programme also encourages longer stays, reflecting the idea that visitors should travel less often but engage more deeply with the destination.
Tourists seem to value the experience more than the reward
Wonderful Copenhagen says a recent evaluation by the analysis agency Maple found that participants are not mainly driven by the free or discounted benefit itself. Only 23% said the reward was their main motivation, while 48% pointed to the chance to have a unique, meaningful and educational experience.
The same evaluation found that seven out of ten participants reported changing habits after returning home. For Wonderful Copenhagen, this is the central argument for making CopenPay permanent: the programme is not presented as a full climate solution, but as a behavioural nudge that can make visitors more aware of their choices.
Rikke Holm Petersen, Director of Behaviour at Wonderful Copenhagen, summed up the project’s ambition with a concise phrase: “Inspiration and contribution seem to be the new souvenir.” The message reflects a shift in how Copenhagen wants visitors to see their role in the city — not only as consumers of experiences, but as temporary participants in local life.
DestinationPay turns CopenPay into an exportable model
Copenhagen’s decision comes as the concept is spreading abroad. Wonderful Copenhagen made the model available to other destinations under the name DestinationPay, offering cities and regions a framework to create their own versions of the scheme. The organisation says more than 350 destinations have been introduced to the concept.
Berlin has already launched its own version, BerlinPay, through visitBerlin. The German pilot focuses on responsible behaviour around the city’s waterways and includes activities such as planting, watering trees, arriving by bicycle and collecting litter, with rewards offered by more than 40 partners.
Other initiatives are being prepared in countries including Germany, Italy, France, the USA, Canada, Japan and Australia. NordiskPost previously reported on DestinationPay as a sign that Copenhagen’s green tourism model was moving from local experiment to international policy template. The permanent rollout in Copenhagen strengthens that trajectory.
The limits of reward-based sustainable tourism
The scheme also raises a broader question: how much can small, visible actions change the environmental impact of tourism? Cycling to a museum, collecting litter or choosing a plant-based meal can improve the local experience and reduce some forms of pollution, but they do not offset the emissions linked to long-distance flights, cruise traffic or the structural growth of international travel.
This is why the strongest version of CopenPay is not the one that treats rewards as compensation. Its value lies in awareness, visitor management and the possibility of making lower-impact choices more normal. To be credible, however, reward-based tourism will need transparent data on participation, behavioural change and climate effects.
For Copenhagen and other Nordic cities, the permanent launch of CopenPay offers a practical test of whether sustainable tourism can be shaped through incentives rather than restrictions alone. For the wider European debate, it also shows how climate policy, urban mobility and visitor behaviour are becoming part of the same conversation. The next question is whether the model can remain meaningful as it grows beyond the city that created it.
