While tourists in Barcelona are being sprayed with water pistols and being told to “go home” as part of over-tourism protests, this beautiful northern European city is offering free drinks, among other incentives, in hopes to lure more visitors. 

The Danish capital of Copenhagen appears to be “bucking the trend of other travel hotspots struggling under the burden of too many tourists”, by attempting to lure those travellers who are well-behaved and socially and environmentally conscious, argued the Guardian.

The national tourism board has introduced a programme, which rewards those who choose to ride a bike, take public transport or undergo gardening or rubbish collection work at the harbour or in the city’s parks. 

People who take reusable cups to selected cafes will be rewarded with free drinks, while other benefits include complimentary cocktails at rooftop bars and extra time at 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.

The pilot programme launched on July 15 and will run until August 11. 

Mikkel Aarø-Hansen of the official tourist board Wonderful Copenhagen hopes the idea will act as inspiration to other cities to find a more mutually beneficial and less taxing relationship between tourists and residents. 

He told The Guadian: “We need to ensure that tourism rather than being a burden for the environment is transformed into a power for positive change.

“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.” Mr Aarø-Hansen added 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.”

Such a warm welcome is in stark contrast to what has been witnessed in other parts of Europe over the past few months, especially on the Spanish mainland and islands. Copenhagen’s leaders said that such destinations have failed to manage visitor supply and demand.

In Venice, day trippers now have to pay a daily tax of over £4, while in Barcelona visitors have been sprayed with water pistols in an expression of residents’ anger about over-tourism. 

The Spanish islands of Majorca and Ibiza have also introduced tight restrictions on alcohol consumption and have been inundated with protests during which tourists were told to “go home” and beaches were occupied, leaving no room for foreign sunbathers. 

If successful, the CopenPay project could be repeated and expanded in the future, including rewarding visitors who take a train to Denmark’s capital instead of flying.