CopenPay is coming back to the Danish capital this summer, expanding its potential impact on the environment, travel experiences, and travel culture more broadly. 

Wonderful Copenhagen began this initiative in 2024 as a pilot project that made sustainable actions into a currency (read more in this blog post). CopenPay rewarded climate-friendly actions like cycling or picking up litter with meaningful perks. As Rikke Holm Petersen from Wonderful Copenhagen says, “It’s not just about sustainability. It’s also about creating interaction between locals and guests.” During 2024’s four-week program, more than 5,000 people participated, bike rentals increased, and 1,200 kilos of waste were collected. 

Fewer flights and longer stays are now incentivized

This year, the program is more ambitious. Running from June 17 to August 17, 2025, it’s more than double the length and features more than 70 partners. There are two crucial additions: Travellers arriving by train or electric car will now be rewarded, as will those who stay in the city for four nights or more. 

Why those additions? Wonderful Copenhagen is trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by having people make different transportation choices. By rewarding train travel and electric vehicles, CopenPay encourages behaviour that helps reduce scope 3 emissions — the indirect emissions that come from a traveller’s broader journey, like short-haul flights or fuel consumption from personal vehicles. Wonderful Copenhagen has addressed this directly in its Copenhagen, All Inclusive strategy, which outlines the importance of cutting scope 3 emissions as part of the city’s wider sustainability goals. Similarly, rewarding longer stays aims to reduce the number of high-emission short trips while increasing the value of each visit, even though, as Rikke acknowledges, the emissions data correlating with long stays is not yet in place.

For DMOs watching from the sidelines, CopenPay offers a roadmap.

Rikke also says around 100 destinations around the world have reached out to Wonderful Copenhagen asking how it works. The answer, perhaps, lies in its simplicity. This program shows that it doesn’t necessarily take a complex tech platform or a massive budget to make a difference. It takes the right mindset, willing local partners, and the courage to experiment. “Try things out. Don’t be scared, even if it’s a crazy idea,” says Rikke says in the latest Travel Beyond podcast episode.  “If we don’t try, we can’t make the world a better destination.”

For travellers heading to Copenhagen this summer, taking part in CopenPay is simple: Visit www.copenpay.com, choose an action, and start exploring. From kayak cleanups to garden volunteering and veggie lunches, there’s a growing list of ways to earn your way into the Copenhagen experience, one sustainable step at a time. With more than 70 Copenhagen attractions participating this year and international rail companies like Deutsche Bahn and Snälltåget promoting the initiative, the ripple effect is growing. CopenPay isn’t just about one city anymore. It shows how destinations can lead with purpose.

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SUMMARY

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Copenhagen’s tourism office turned a pilot idea into a 70-partner summer program.
• What types of sustainable actions visitors are rewarded for, like biking, walking, and removing invasive plants.
• Why CopenPay works without an app, complex tech, or strict enforcement.
• How over 100 global destinations ended up asking how to replicate the idea.
• Why Rikke believes funding can sometimes reduce creativity and what actually motivates partners.
• How CopenPay creates surprising connections between locals and visitors.

SHOWNOTES

→ CopenPay official site
Find out how the program works and how visitors can earn rewards for sustainable actions.

→ Earlier episode with Rikke Holm Petersen
In this first conversation, Rikke offers a deep dive into Wonderful Copenhagen’s values, how Danish culture influences tourism, and what makes the DMO rethink its role. CopenPay is just one piece of the puzzle.

→ Participating attractions
Check out the full list of local partners offering rewards through CopenPay this summer.

→ Copenhagen, All Inclusive strategy
Discover Wonderful Copenhagen’s long-term vision for reducing tourism’s environmental impact, including their approach to scope 3 emissions.

TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was generated using AI and has been lightly reviewed for accuracy.

Rikke Holm Peterson: [00:00:00] We will reward people coming with a train. That’s a new thing. So if you go with sne Toda or Deutsche BA, you will be rewarded as well with some specific rewards. And then we also invite people to stay longer, so if you stay longer, you’ll be rewarded as well.

David Archer: Welcome to Travel Beyond. I’m David Archer from Destination Think recording from Haida Gwaii, the territory of the Haida Nation off the north coast of British Columbia in Canada. On this show, we look at travel’s role in making a better world, and we highlight leading destinations and change makers. Our guests are taking local action that the world can learn from.

They’re helping to regenerate ecosystems, communities, and economies, [00:01:00] and they’re often making positive change happen from the bottom up. Many of the voices we’ve highlighted are part of the Destination Think Collective. A peer group of more than 20 ambitious forward-thinking destinations, working toward a better future for travel and the planet.

About a month ago on the podcast, we took a look at a project from Copenhagen called Copen Pay in the summer of 2024. You might remember Copen Pay was a fresh experiment. It’s sort of a gamified way to inspire visitors to do something good for the city and the planet by rewarding them with free experiences and discounts.

So the idea was that you do a green action, like ride a bike, pick up litter, eat some plant-based food, and in return you’d be rewarded. It worked out. A lot of people participated and said that they were quite satisfied with it. It gained a lot of attention to, and this summer, CopenPay is back. It’s bigger, it’s running longer, and it hopes to have a bigger impact too on visitors and the environment.

For one thing, there are more tourism operators [00:02:00] involved and experiences to participate in this time around, but the minds behind the project at Wonderful Copenhagen are also trying to encourage two important behavior changes, more trained travel. And longer stays. So this year, if you arrive in Copenhagen by train or in an electric car, you get access to extra perks.

And if you stay four nights or more, there’s a bonus for that too. The emphasis on train travel has the potential to reduce emissions caused by air travel, and although my guest says they don’t yet have the data on this, longer stays are thought to reduce emissions from travel as well. It’s another aspect of the slow travel movement we’ve been hearing about, and it aligns with Copenhagen’s strategy they released in 2024 called Copenhagen, All-Inclusive to walk us through what’s new this year we’re welcoming back a familiar voice.

Rikke Holm Peterson from Wonderful Copenhagen here. I asked Rikke how Copen pay is expanding 

Rikke Holm Peterson: a lot, many good things actually. Yeah. Uh, this year, even bigger. So we set an ambition of [00:03:00] 50 partners. Right now we are above 70. So that’s a lot. Wow. So 70 partners are joining us. Yeah. Uh, and we are running it for, uh, so instead of four weeks, we are running it now for, for nine weeks.

So double up in time. So we start on the 17th of June and it will run. Nine weeks or until the 17th of August. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, many of the experiences we had last year they can experience because of course there are many people who, what, uh, who weren’t coming to Copenhagen or, or what their last year, but could come this year.

So many of the same experiences, but also new ones. Um, for instance, you can. Remove invasive plants, um, in some of the areas, and you are being rewarded with, um, the vegetarian food. That’s one thing. Or you can go to a, so, and you can learn about different types of animals and how they’re being threatened and what we can do.

So the learning experience is, yeah, we [00:04:00] have a lot more about learning. We also have a lecture at Copenhagen University where we talk about sustainability. We have yoga sessions. We will do something about, uh, food waste. So we will have a big event on that as well. Uh, what can we do about food waste in general?

How can we actually cook and use that and not throw it out? We are good to go as a partner in our program, and then we will reward, uh, we didn’t have that, uh, last year. We will reward people coming by train. That’s a new thing. So, uh, some of, um, yeah, some of the journalists of course pointed out that, uh, transportation is a big CU two thing.

Um, and last year we started on, so, um, CopenPay was for when people were here and not including the transportation. So we will include that. Uh, so if you go with Snell to, or Deutsche. Uh, you will be rewarded as well with some specific rewards. Perfect. [00:05:00] And then we also invite people to stay longer, so if you stay longer, we’ll be rewarded as well.

David Archer: Yeah. And how have you chosen to promote this project? Are you offering it to residents too? 

Rikke Holm Peterson: So, of course, last year was for the people who were in Copenhagen, so it was out in the streets. We had promotion out in the streets with big, big billboards, uh, inviting. We had it on some buses and on bikes as well.

So out in the city and when people arrived, uh, to Copenhagen Airport, they were being welcomed by Copen Pay as well, just as they arrived. Um, so it was very much when people were here again, it’s not about attracting more people. We have many people coming in summer already, so it was noticable for the people who were here, you know, to take part in it.

And this year, because we are traveling. You know, you need to, we need to talk about it earlier than when we are launching it. Otherwise, people can’t change the way they travel [00:06:00] to Copenhagen. So again, as I said, we work with a lot of, um, trains. Companies like Doto and they will of course tell about it in their channels.

And of course, a person from Canada or the US won’t be able to take the train from where you live, right, going here. But, some of the ones who live closer to us, they will be able to take the train. Um, so of course we will talk about it. We need to talk about it in these channels. But other than that, we are not doing anything else.

So it will be the same. And then we will like, like we did last year, send out a press release and hopefully the media will pick it up, uh, and we can start the conversation. That’s probably the most important thing. Start the conversation on how we can. Do better, all of us. 

David Archer: And, and this is purely for the summer at the moment.

Are there any plans to expand that to other seasons as well? 

Rikke Holm Peterson: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, we started out last year and did a pilot [00:07:00] project this year. It’s not a pilot project because we did it last year. So we know what we are doing, we’re just extending it. Um, and then we’ll learn from that. I would love it to be, uh.

I think we did it all year round, but it requires a lot, uh, also from our partners and we need to think, um, how can it, can it be something we do all year round? So, it needs to be Yeah. Lasting in a good way for them as well. 

David Archer: Right. For those of our listeners who are in the travel industry or working at another destination organization, can you describe.

Wonderful Copenhagen’s role in this project. 

Rikke Holm Peterson: Yeah, so we came up with the idea and we are the official tourism organization of Copenhagen. So of course we work closely with our municipality, but, we also work independently. But our role is of course to gather both private and public, uh, stakeholders.

And again, Copen Pay was something we invented, came up with. [00:08:00] We have a huge role because we. I had to reach out to all of the partners, invite them to be part of this. Uh, uh, the municipality, of course supported it and loved the idea. Uh, and it’s easier to love an idea when you are being successful with what you’re doing.

Of course, afterwards, yes. But they also like the initiative initially. But um, yeah, we work quite on our own actually, you know, but we are the ones who can. Gather both private and public interests and stakeholders together. Um, yeah, and in this case, we started out a lot with the private stakeholders because they were so important to it.

If we didn’t have them on board, we didn’t have anything. 

David Archer: Yeah, right. You need the people providing the experiences exactly. As rewards and, uh, in some cases, you know, helping to do the actions 

Rikke Holm Peterson: and, and perhaps one important thing to say for others, if, if you wanted to do it. The reason why I think our partners loved it is [00:09:00] that, you know, being part of something bigger, being part of a movement or being part of a framework, you know, and we can provide a framework, give it, give it to them, so they need to cooperate better with one another so we can provide that, and that’s what they said, and that’s also what they loved about it.

We are also doing that not only in regards to, but also in regards to seasonality. 

David Archer: Yeah. What do you think is an obstacle for one of the stakeholders or operators that you’re working with when they’re considering whether or not to join a pilot project that’s a little bit experimental. 

Rikke Holm Peterson: Yeah. In this case, we, so we, all of them this year in, in regards to CopenPay, so that was, they said, yes, we will do it.

And then when we evaluated, they said, Hmm, next year we might want money from you. So that, so they ask, they asked me for financing. Like, how can you support us? So then we’ll do more. And I, I [00:10:00] said, if we do that, then we don’t have any money to run it. 

David Archer: Yeah. 

Rikke Holm Peterson: And um, so I sort of pushed it back and said, if you want to be part of something broader, you need to make it fit into your own business in regards to CopenPay.

We learned that, um, some of the attractions, for instance, I use gobo now. They, they weren’t fully booked during the mornings on Tuesday and Thursday, so they had available slots Okay. Where, where they could actually provide or offer, uh, their boats. And what they experienced was that people booked another hour.

So they got one for free, but they booked an additional hour. So all of a sudden they got business out of it. And I’m always saying that if I give money, people be, become lazy. You know, you need to. Tap into the idea and figure out how it can actually fit your business and what you can come up with.

Each business is unique. So I said no financing. Then I wouldn’t, then we wouldn’t have a program. I would use all my money for the partners and then we wouldn’t have [00:11:00] anything to promote or any money that we could use for promotion. 

David Archer: Right. Yeah, that’s fascinating. 

Rikke Holm Peterson: The thing about Copen, what they also have been telling us, the partners, um, it also gave them an incentive internally.

In the way they were thinking about sustainability that all of a sudden they had their employees like, we are working for cool companies who contribute to a really good thing where we are sustainable. We are sort of contributing to that. So it was also a cultural thing inside that they could use. So in many ways you don’t know exactly the outcome or the benefits of it before you are doing it.

And that’s why you need to be brave and sometimes make some changes and sometimes you don’t gain a lot of lot from it, but sometimes you do. 

David Archer: Thinking beyond the initial Copen pay project. Well, you mentioned the trains, uh, being part of this year. Mm-hmm. Uh, are there other opportunities to grow the environmental impact of the project?

Rikke Holm Peterson: It’s, it’s a [00:12:00] really good question, and I would, right now, I would say no because. I mean, there’s the food thing, what you put into your mouth, and that’s one thing, and that’s an important part of CopenPay as well. And then you have transportation as a big thing, both the way you move around or the way you go to your destination.

And then we’ve sort of said, let’s do longer. Longer stays. But again, we don’t have, you know. Any facts supporting that when you stay longer than your list sustainable, uh, then, then you don’t travel that much. We don’t know, but we believe in longer stage, fewer flights. So that’s sort of the way we think about it.

I had another thing. It’s also consumption, so that would be another thing, but we haven’t included that one. Uh, in CopenPay of course, we are also aware of the rewards we are offering people. We’d rather want people, we’d rather want people to get experiences than things in their hands, [00:13:00] so to speak. Okay. So that would be another thing.

And in some places, of course, we offer free coffee. Actually in one of the museums last year we said, if you bring your own cup, you get free coffee. 

David Archer: Yeah. 

Rikke Holm Peterson: So, yeah. 

David Archer: What would you need as wonderful, Copenhagen or or in your role to make an even bigger impact with the project in the future? 

Rikke Holm Peterson: Make it all year round.

Okay. That would be one thing, and not even for Copenhagen, but for the world. Work with other destinations who would do the same. Because one thing is what we are doing in Copenhagen and, and we, we are contributing as much as we can, but I think we all need to do something. 

David Archer: Is this idea spreading, do you think?

Rikke Holm Peterson: Yeah, for sure. I mean, you should see my calendar. Okay. In the last year? Yeah. We’ve had, I don’t know, we talked about it the other day, perhaps a hundred destinations we’ve been talking to [00:14:00] who, wow. I wanted to hear more about it. Uh, we’ve become part of the Europe EU Commission. They have like a pathway for transitioning.

Sustainability and eco eco resilience, they call it, I think. Um, so we’ve become part of that. Um, we presented it for all of the OECD countries as well. Mm-hmm. What are, and where they talk a lot about policymaking, where we were sort of a proof of how you can actually act and do something. Yeah. 

David Archer: Yeah.

What are the other a hundred destinations asking, or, or what kinds of destinations are they? 

Rikke Holm Peterson: All kinds of destinations. So all from Asia to the United States, to, to some small towns in Italy or not Spain. We haven’t, men haven’t had many, but universities, Austria, anywhere, many, many places in the world.

What are they asking? They’re curious about how we, how we’ve done it. And all of them are probably so they’re curious on [00:15:00] how, how have we done it? How have we set it up? And all of them also ask like. Did you use an app or how are you, so they are probably being surprised on how simple we’ve kept it. 

David Archer: It’s a different way of thinking as a destination organization.

Right. Yeah, 

Rikke Holm Peterson: it is. And we didn’t even know that ourselves. We were just like, of course locals should be part of it. But it’s also because we love the interaction between locals and guests when they come. I mean, we, and if we can encourage more of that, we would love that. But I was really surprised, and I use the scoreboard as well because I’ve talked a lot to them and they were just like.

You should have seen our boat. Like we had four guests, four locals. I mean, they were just like, it was amazing to see the interaction and, and also the way that locals helped the guests. Like, you should see this and that, and you could, you know, so, so, um, we are trying to highlight that as well. So it’s not only a sustainability thing, but it’s also a way where you can meet locals if you offer it for [00:16:00] locals as well.

And in fact, uh, I think a month afterwards, we’ve been told that in Poland, in some areas of Poland, they had copied CopenPay which is awesome. Um, and, and did it for an area. I’m really excited to see what, how this summer will look like if more cities will come up with it and, uh, and how it will look like.

Yeah. 

David Archer: That must feel good to see that spread. Yeah. As you look around the world at other destinations or uh, what kinds of places or sustainability solutions are inspiring you the most these days? 

Rikke Holm Peterson: I’m going to Queenstown. Okay, great. Yeah, they’ve done so much, so 

David Archer: That’s great. So that would 

Rikke Holm Peterson: be one example.

Uh, I’ve been talking a lot about visiting Berlin as well, and they are all into trains as well, and I love that. I love that, but of course you can’t transport yourself if you, on the other side of the world. 

David Archer: Do you have any words of [00:17:00] advice for other people in your position or, or if you could say one thing to all of those a hundred destinations at one time, what might that be?

Rikke Holm Peterson: Hmm. Yeah, that would be, try things out. Don’t be scared. Try it, even if it’s a crazy idea you have, because if we don’t do anything. We can’t make the world a better destination. 

David Archer: That’s good advice, and it’s a good place to end our conversation today. So I want to thank you so much, Rika, for, for being with us on the show today.

Rikke Holm Peterson: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. 

David Archer: Yeah, you bet. And good luck with uh, CopenPay this summer. 

Rikke Holm Peterson: Yeah. Fingers crossed for us. Okay. Okay. 

David Archer: We’ll be cheering you on. 

Rikke Holm Peterson: Thank you.

David Archer: This has been Travel Beyond Presented by Destination Think. And that was Rikke Holm Peterson from Wonderful Copenhagen. If you’d like to learn more about how Copen Pay works, you can go to visit copenhagen.com/copen. Pay for more resources and show notes. [00:18:00] Visit our website@destinationthink.com. This episode was hosted, produced, and has theme music composed by David Archer.

Sarah Raymond Du Bois, my co-producer. Amy Bison, Anna-Lina Chutter, Lindsey Payne, and Cory Price provided production support. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to give us a five star review, to help more people find the show. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll be back with more next week.