This summer season Europe’s hottest hotspots are flighting again towards mass tourism.
Whether or not in Barcelona, the place protestors are spraying water at guests, or in Athens, the place overtourism has come to a head, European cities are rethinking how they function an economically necessary business that has resulted in fraught ties with locals.
Copenhagen has a solution to turning tourism from a unfavorable power to a constructive one: by rewarding guests for making a constructive impression, by cleansing up the town or biking from place to put.
The town’s CopenPay program affords “carrots” to vacationers who take climate-friendly actions via a free lunch, espresso, kayak tour or museum entrance.
The pilot mission, which can kick off on July 15, has 24 sights that may rely in direction of the rewards, starting from bike leases to The Nationwide Gallery of Denmark.
The purpose is to encourage guests to make acutely aware decisions that may impression the Danish capital whereas incentivizing them with entrances to the town’s key sights. For example, the Copenhagen Surf College will present free lunch to surfers who assist with half-hour of seaside cleansing following their surf lesson.
“It is an experimental and a small step towards creating a new mindset amongst travelers,” mentioned Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, CEO of Fantastic Copenhagen, the town’s official tourism group, in a press release.
VisitCopenhagen
The group cited knowledge that discovered that vacationers have been typically very prepared to behave sustainably, however solely a small fraction modified their actions, spurring Copenhagen to undertake a brand new strategy “built on trust.”
Fantastic Copenhagen says the initiative isn’t meant to extend tourism however merely promotes a greater solution to go about it.
“We must turn tourism from being an environmental burden into a force for positive change, and one important step in this transformation is to change how we move around on the destination, what we consume, and how we interact with the locals,” Aarø-Hansen mentioned.
Fantastic Copenhagen didn’t instantly return Fortune’s request for remark.
The tourism tug-of-war
Europe has at all times been a vacation spot for picturesque holidays. However just lately, it has additionally change into an instance of the downsides of mass tourism.
Locals typically face the impression of overtourism, which may hurt their general high quality of life and value of residing.
In Madrid, as an example, locals have been priced out of the housing market as a consequence of restricted social housing, worsened by a development in vacation leases to cater to vacationers. In the meantime, Barcelona introduced a ban on Airbnb-style short-lets from 2029 to release the housing provide for locals.
Amsterdam has additionally clamped down on overtourism by tightening guidelines round smoking weed and new resort building.
Iceland has additionally been on the receiving finish of a customer growth, and it plans to introduce a vacationer tax on inns, campsites, cruise ships and extra.
These measures level to how well-liked European locations have a fragile steadiness to strike between curbing customer numbers with out discouraging them solely. Tourism is a key income generator and employer for a lot of of their economies.
If Copenhagen’s pilot mission succeeds at turning tourism right into a power for good, it may set an instance for different cities to undertake.
