Low-cost Icelandic airline Play is helping travelers plan a European shoulder season vacation by offering 25 percent off fall and early winter flights.
13.07.2024 - 07:21 / nytimes.com
A new fee for Venice day trippers. A looming ban on vacation rentals in Barcelona. Restrictions on the sale of alcohol in Majorca. At a time when overwhelmed European destinations are slapping tourists with restrictions and fees, Copenhagen is trying a different approach: rewarding visitors who act responsibly.
Beginning July 15, tourists who demonstrate climate-friendly travel behavior by participating in the city’s green initiatives — including cycling, train travel and clean-up efforts — will be granted access to museum tours, kayak rentals, free meals and more.
“We must turn tourism from being an environmental burden into a force for positive change,” said Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, the chief executive of Wonderful Copenhagen, the tourism organization for the Capital Region of Denmark. An important step in this transformation, he said, “is to change how we move around on the destination, what we consume, and how we interact with the locals.”
On average, 81 percent of consumers say they want to act more sustainably, but only 22 percent have changed their behavior, according to a 2023 sustainable report by Kanter, a London-based market research group. Copenhagen’s new initiative, CopenPay, aims to bridge the gap between the desire to act sustainably and actual behavior by making climate-friendly action a currency for cultural experiences.
For instance, those who arrive by bike or train at CopenHill, an artificial ski slope built on top of a new waste-management center, will be able to go down the rooftop hill for free. Other sites will allow visitors to volunteer in cleanup efforts. The National Gallery of Denmark will hold workshops to turn plastic waste into pieces of art, while the Copenhagen Surf School will offer a free lunch to surfers who take part in 30 minutes of beach cleaning after their surf course. More than 20 attractions will be participating in the pilot program over the summer.
“Our vision with CopenPay is to create a ripple effect,” Mr. Hansen said. “We hope that by showcasing the success of this and other initiatives, other cities around the globe will be inspired to find their way to incentivize more sustainable tourism behavior, ultimately leading to a more sustainable future for everyone.”
Low-cost Icelandic airline Play is helping travelers plan a European shoulder season vacation by offering 25 percent off fall and early winter flights.
easyJet expects to fly more passengers than ever before this summer operating 80,000 flights over the school holidays The airline will see its busiest day of the summer on 28 July expecting to fly over 300,000 customers on nearly 2000 flights across its European network
The mass IT outage is causing problems for everyone — even Mickey Mouse.
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One of the simple pleasures of traveling is checking into a hotel room and being greeted by miniature bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash from luxurious brands that you’d never splurge on for yourself.
Jul 17, 2024 • 3 min read
As devastating as the COVID-19 pandemic was, it also served to highlight a critically important reality: The tourism industry needs to do far more to protect the planet.And so too do travelers.During the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, there was a great deal of industry buzz about changes that travel brands and destinations were implementing to step up efforts to protect the planet.Some of those changes came to pass, some were greenwashing. And the abuzz surrounding the dire to be more considerate of the planet, biodiversity and fragile ecosystems has largely faded.Meanwhile, overtourism has once again become rampant and locals in communities impacted by the crushing weight of hordes of tourists are actively protesting.Amid this backdrop, Copenhagen has announced a refreshingly innovative new plan to reward visitors for engaging in environmentally-friendly activities.The new program has been dubbed CopenPay, according to a press release issued by Wonderful Copenhagen, the Danish capital’s tourism organization.
Air France-KLM and SAS have signed codeshare and interline agreements effective September 1, 2024, enhancing European and future intercontinental connectivity, and offering reciprocal loyalty program benefits as SAS joins the SkyTeam alliance.
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After a five-year break, Colombia's flag carrier is returning to the Windy City. Starting in late October, Avianca will launch nonstop service to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD).
Till a little over a century ago, river cruising was quite prevalent in India until railways took over as a faster means of transport. Cut to now, the activity is back and growing in the country, only now it’s more for leisure, said Raj Singh, chairman of Heritage River Journeys, which operates Antara River Cruises in India.