Tourists offered financial and other incentives to act environmentally
As the summer holiday season begins and tourist numbers reach unacceptable levels in many places, destinations across Europe are trying to control the impact.
In a case of carrot or stick, Copenhagen is one of the few places offering rewards for good behaviour, rather than penalties aimed at deterring people from even visiting in the first place.
In a program called Copenpay, tourists earn rewards at Copenhagen attractions ranging from a free lunch or a cup of coffee to a kayak tour or even a free entrance to a museum. Choosing to bike instead of drive, offering to help maintain the city, work in an urban garden, or pledge to sustainable behaviour all count towards rewards.
The goal is to lure only the well-behaved, socially and environmentally conscious traveller. They are doing this with a programme to encourage climate-friendly, sustainable behaviour.
During the next few weeks, in what will start as a trial, the Danish town will reward those who choose to ride a bike, take public transport or undergo a bit of work like gardening or rubbish collection at the harbour or in the city’s parks.
People who turn up with their own reusable coffee cups can expect to receive a free brew at selected venues, while other perks for good behaviour include a complimentary cocktail on a rooftop bar, or extra time spent on the city’s artificial ski slope complex.
“All our choices have an environmental impact, so why not make conscious decisions that benefit us all and be rewarded for them?” the organisers behind CopenPay suggest.
In an article in the Guardian newspaper, it is pointed out that tempers are running hot in some over visited towns. Barcelona visitors have been sprayed with water pistols in an expression of local people’s anger about over-tourism. Greek mayors are demanding that cruise lines should stop visiting, and in Venice, they have even been banned from some parts.
But in the Danish capital the approach is much friendlier.
Mikkel Aarø-Hansen of the official tourist board Wonderful Copenhagen said he hoped the idea would act as an inspiration for other cities to adopt as they seek to find a workable way to create a more mutually beneficial and less onerous relationship between tourists and local people.
“We need to ensure that tourism, rather than being a burden for the environment is transformed into a power for positive change,” he said. He added that by embracing elements of the so-called experience economy the programme would also encourage more positive encounters between tourists and local people.
“Our core goals are to make travelling more sustainable. We’ll only manage this though if we are able to overcome the big divide between the desire of visitors to behave in a sustainable way and their actual behaviour.” He added that the challenge was “more complicated than it sounds”.
“We want visitors to make more conscious, more climate-friendly decisions and in so doing to hopefully have a more rewarding travel experience,” Aarø-Hansen added.
Boozy, anti-social tourism is a problem throughout the world. In Thailand, authorities are tightening up on the more unsavoury site of its tourist industry, and even in English towns, there is much discussion over how to control visitor behaviour.
It is a difficult enigma. Over the last 50 years, destinations from the Costa del Sol to Australia have tried to Encourage the tourist pound to their shores, but now with too many visitors and alternative revenue streams including home workers, many places would like them to go away.
Tourism is actually really important. It creates jobs, helps puts money into local communities. Plus, it’s a great way of sharing and learning about different cultures, but experts say it’s really important to be a responsible tourist, that means, being respectful to local cultures and the environment, trying to stay for more than just a night, and visit places off the beaten track.
So the Copenhagen experiment is worth watching.
Waiting to see
Will it be possible to persuade people to think about the environment and even clear litter on their holidays?
Copenhagen has the advantage of being more likely to attract responsible tourists than some other places that seem to be a magnet destination undesirable, thoughtless visitors.
Even so, what they are suggesting is a major step forward from spraying tourists with water, which is what happened in Barcelona.