All inclusive Copenhagen: gaining the currency for sustainable solutions

CMW talks to Kit Lykketoft, director of the Danish capital’s CVB:

The ‘Copenhagen, All Inclusive’ strategy aims to make tourism a force for good. Can you elaborate on what this strategy entails and how it reflects Copenhagen’s vision for tourism by 2030?

Today’s accounting of tourism is far from all-inclusive. Tourism contributes to climate challenges and overtourism, but it also offers much more positive social value. We want to shed light on tourism’s true impact on society and the world – its positive and negative effects, both direct and indirect, hence why it’s called Copenhagen, All inclusive.

Our goal is become part of the solution and not the problem and to develop tourism in a way that contributes positively to local, national, and global development, where everything is accounted for in an environment where we can inspire others to do the same. To understand, and thereby to be able to develop the broader societal value of tourism, we have created a new tourism compass The Copenhagen Compass as well as an ambitious net zero Climate Roadmap that calls on the industry to change course.

We want tourism, including business tourism, in Copenhagen to accelerate the green transformation and create enriching encounters between locals and visitors. For this to happen, we have set goals that are crucial if the industry wants to address urgent challenges related to climate change and the increasing number of travellers.

Our Climate Roadmap, outlines how the Danish capital’s tourism can achieve specific emission reductions by 2030 and 2035, respectively, on its way to carbon neutrality (net zero) by 2050 at the latest. So, we aim high and hope to increase the level of competition among all destinations to be greener too. Tourism, after all, is a global business, and it takes international efforts to turn tourism into a force for good.

How is the CVB implementing this strategy in its daily operations and partnerships?

We want to inspire a commitment, both locally and internationally, whereby, by collaborative force, we can accelerate the journey begun. We’ve set some ambitious goals, sub-goals, and benchmarks, aware that in an ever-changing world with strong geopolitical uncertainty we don’t have all the answers today. We’ve also outlined a wide range of actions under each of our main goals and then we’ll pause and evaluate again in 2026.

Inclusivity and sustainability are no doubt big topics and part of the strategy. Tell us about any initiatives here?

Our three overall goals span contributing to accelerating the green transition locally and globally to creating enriching encounters and lasting value, and larger socio-economic value for more people. Here, of course, tourism creates economic value for all and helps strengthen Denmark’s cohesive welfare society, too.

We want to create ripple-effects in society, be it through uplifting people and geographic areas, supporting year-round jobs or as an employment engine for people on the fringes of the labour markets, for instance. This includes how we promote off-peak stays in Copenhagen these days through campaigns and try to inspire our partners to (co-)create new events and offers in the city aimed at increasing all-year tourism.

A new winter bathing event in early 2025 is one example of how we successfully developed and promoted fun and out-of-the-ordinary things to do in Copenhagen in wintertime and created huge traction among both locals and visitors keen on taking a dip in the clean, Copenhagen harbour.

The Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDSi) is an important benchmark for cities like Copenhagen. How important is it to focus on maintaining this momentum and ranking?

To keep ourselves on track and committed to the goals we’ve set, we use the GDSi as a benchmark. We’ve been part of the entire journey with the index, which has become an internationally recognised and validated benchmark, and been in the top five for years. We strive to rank No.1, of course.

Can you provide examples of how the local Meetingplace Wonderful Copenhagen partner network aligns with the city’s sustainability goals?

Meetingplace Wonderful Copenhagen’s strategy ‘Copenhagen Together for Positive Impact’ is aligned with ‘Copenhagen, All Inclusive’ and the city’s sustainability goals. The network actively works to get as many partners as possible certified and many have, for instance, already signed our sustainability manifesto Planet Copenhagen.

Created a few years ago, to enforce the sustainable transition in our capital region, the manifesto focuses on climate, environment and social justice and is based on five overall goals as well as action plans. Many local partners have already committed themselves to the manifesto and we hope to have everyone on board in the years to come.

To succeed with our all inclusive strategy, we need our partners on board, and thus we’re very pleased to see the city come together in communities and networks like Meetingplace and pull in the same direction. Our Meetingplace partners are very much part of the green transition and broader societal value of tourism and a good example of how what we’ve set out to accomplish certainly isn’t done overnight and on our own.

The Sustainable Guide 3.0 and CopenPay 2.0 are mentioned as innovative tools in this journey. Could you explain their essence?

Pioneering back in 2019, the Copenhagen Sustainability Guide (a 3.0. version is published in mid-May) is a hands-on planning tool designed to help make conscious choices with the aim of reducing the negative impact of any given business event. It leads the planner through various categories (transport, food, etc.) and helps calculate the potential emissions. The new version of the guide includes a post-event feature to increase transparency and make it possible to calculate actual emissions of a given event.

CopenPay was an initiative in the summer of 2024 that drew headlines worldwide for its innovative approach to more sustainable tourism. We knew that many visitors wanted to give back to the destination, but just didn’t know how to do it. So, Wonderful Copenhagen and 20+ partners in the city joined forces to make sustainable behaviour a kind of ‘currency’ that could ‘buy’ visitors to the city free experiences.

For instance, one could get a free boat-ride for an hour if trash was collected on the way; free access to different attractions if public transport or bikes were used to get there, and so on. It became a huge success among both the participating partners and the visitors who used it. This year CopenPay 2.0. returns three times bigger, runs twice as long and rewards train travel. We’re also in talks with a few congresses held in the city to also include the initiative.

Impact and legacy are central to your work at the CVB. How do you measure the long-term benefits of hosting events in Copenhagen?

The measurements we establish are highly dependent on the type of legacy initiative we are working with. Sometimes, we arrange rather specific activities with a well-defined outcome, for example the development of school materials for education in wind energy in connection with WindEurope 2025 held in Copenhagen this April.

Other legacy initiatives are targeting more high-level agendas, such as news avoidance among Generation Z, which was the legacy subject during the World News Media Congress (WAN-IFRA) in 2024. Together with an international folk high school, we developed a set of news criteria for the young generation. In this case, it is difficult to directly measure how this specific legacy activity will contribute to more young people reading the news, but we can measure the global distribution of the ‘Copenhagen Criteria’, which will contribute to putting this important subject on the global agenda.

The upcoming ‘Copenhagen Sprint’ event in June is highlighted as an example of creating legacy through events. What makes this event significant?

Copenhagen Sprint on 21-22 June will showcase how cultural and sports events can be used as catalysts for leaving a lasting impact. The new event, will cast a renewed focus on ‘inclusive cycling’ through a half-day event for people with special needs and seniors.

This event is organised in collaboration with the Danish Cyclist’s Federation, the Elsass Foundation, and Knowledge Center on Disability, and is aimed at anyone interested in trying out different types of adaptive cycles (tricycles, handcycles, tandems, E-bikes etc.), meeting professional para athletes, speaking with representatives from the municipality (and learning about application processes and legislation), and getting acquainted with para communities.

Besides the half-day event, a new national cycling guide for visitors has also been developed in partnership with VisitDenmark and all of the country’s destination marketing organisations (DMOs) to showcase how Denmark is an excellent destination for cycling and outdoor activities.

Looking ahead, what are some key milestones or projects that Wonderful Copenhagen aims to achieve under this strategy by 2030?

First, we have an emission-reducing milestone of 27% in 2030 and 37% in 2035, respectively, in our Roadmap to net zero, which is very ambitious. But we