To encourage tourists to act more sustainably, Wonderful Copenhagen is launching a new initiative: Pay with climate-friendly documents and gain access to a range of Copenhagen's popular attractions.

There is a need to change tourist behaviour and encourage green choices. The data shows a strong willingness, with 82 percent saying they want to act sustainably, but only 22 percent have changed their behaviour. This is the basis for Wonderful Copenhagen, Copenhagen’s official tourism organisation,”s new initiative CopenPay, which will convert green actions into currency to access cultural experiences. Copenhagen’s ambition is to inspire visitors to make conscious choices and help bridge the gap between the desire to act sustainably and actual behaviour. Through CopenPay, tourists’ actions, such as cycling to attractions, collecting plastic waste or volunteering at urban gardens, are rewarded with free access to a range of experiences in the Danish capital. This includes free guided museum tours, free kayak rentals and free lunches made with locally sourced ingredients. For example, visitors who come to Denmark’s national gallery, Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK), with collected plastic waste are invited to a workshop where they can transform the plastic into works of art. Similarly, a trip by public transport or bicycle to Copenhagen’s iconic energy facility, CopenHill, offers a unique experience of skiing down the slope on the building’s roof.”One of our core missions is to make travel sustainable. And we will only succeed if we bridge the huge gap between tourists’ desire to act sustainably and their actual behavior. It may sound simple, but it is not. Through CopenPay, we therefore want to encourage our visitors to behave sustainably while enriching their cultural experience of our destination. It is an experiment and a small step towards creating a new mindset among travelers and one of our many initiatives to make travel more sustainable.”", says Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen. It's easy to use CopenPay: tourists can show a train ticket, arrive by bicycle or present other simple proof of green documents to redeem their rewards. Now Wonderful Copenhagen wants to encourage everyone visiting Copenhagen this summer to use CopenPay and via the official website, CopenPay.com, regular updates on available attractions and rewards are provided. CopenPay is a pilot project that includes over 20 attractions around Copenhagen. The hope is not only that the initiative will continue, but also to inspire other destinations around the world to introduce similar green initiatives."”We need to transform tourism from being an environmental burden to becoming a force for positive development. Key steps in this are changing how we move around the destination, what we consume and how we interact with the local population. With CopenPay, we want both travelers and local attractions to place importance on the green transition. Because travel is international, our shared success depends on the choices made by people and destinations around the world. That is why we also strive to inspire sustainable behavior and cultural appreciation on a global scale.”", says Mikkel Aarø-Hansen."”I am very happy to see an initiative like CopenPay, which combines our rich cultural life with a strong commitment to sustainability. By converting green documents into currency for cultural experiences, tourists get a unique opportunity to explore Copenhagen in a way that benefits both the environment and the local community. This is fully in line with our values and ambitions to promote sustainable solutions in Copenhagen”, says Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Hæstorp Andersen.Facts about CopenPay:

According to the press release.