The city belongs first to its residents

Copenhagen is one of Northern Europe’s most visited cities. But how should tourism develop if the Danish capital is to remain attractive not only to visitors, but above all to the people who live there? This was the question considered by a mini public of 36 Copenhagen residents.

On 22 September 2026, the Citizens’ Jury on the Future of Tourism presented its recommendations at Copenhagen City Hall to Christopher Røhl, the city’s mayor for culture, leisure and citizen services, and Søren Tegen Pedersen, CEO of Wonderful Copenhagen. Its 95-page report contains five overarching recommendations and 31 proposals for the city’s future tourism policy. 

36 residents deliberate on tourism

In January 2026, the city sent invitations to 40,000 randomly selected residents. Around 500 expressed an interest in taking part. From this group, 36 people were selected to reflect Copenhagen’s population as closely as possible.

The jury met four times between March and May 2026, with each session lasting four hours. An open meeting on 14 April allowed other residents and representatives of tourism and urban development to contribute their perspectives. The process was commissioned by the City of Copenhagen and Wonderful Copenhagen as part of the European CULTIGEN project. We Do Democracy designed and facilitated the meetings. 

The mini public was asked what tourism should look like in 2030 if it is to make Copenhagen a better place to live and visit, support the green transition, encourage positive encounters and protect residents’ interests.

"Many good and relevant questions"

Tourism researcher Matias Thuen Jørgensen of Roskilde University was among the experts who answered the members’ questions. He reported receiving “many good and relevant questions about the opportunities and limitations of tourism”, which indicated that the process was working. “It is an ambitious democratic set-up, and you can feel it in the room,” he said. 

We Do Democracy described the underlying idea in similar terms: “We believe that we can create a much better capital if more people are allowed into the room where we weigh up what the right balance should be.” 

More benefits for local communities

The Citizens' Jury calls for a tourism economy whose revenues benefit Copenhagen’s neighbourhoods and residents to a greater extent. Tourism development should respect the city’s character and identity. Climate, environmental protection and the green transition should be considered from the outset rather than added later. 

Its concrete proposals include a general overnight-stay tax, a halt to further hotel construction in the central København K and København V districts, and stronger action against illegal short-term holiday rentals. Any new hotels should meet the highest sustainability standards.

Against further growth in air traffic

The mini public also opposes further growth in air traffic at Copenhagen Airport in Kastrup. Instead, the city should attract more visitors arriving by train and offer them specific advantages. Other proposals address cruise tourism, the number and character of souvenir shops, and an annual festival devoted to new Nordic climate-friendly food.

Jury member Lars Kjerulf Petersen summarised one of the report’s central principles by saying that Copenhagen should be “first and foremost for those who live in the city”. In his assessment, the members had developed “good fundamental principles, recommendations and ideas”. Whether those ideas would be implemented, he added, was “another story”. 

Everyday experience meets expert knowledge

The members heard from specialists in tourism research, urban development and futures studies. The expert group included Carina Ren and Anette Therkelsen of Aalborg University, futurist Carsten Beck, and Matias Thuen Jørgensen of Roskilde University and the Centre for Tourism Research. 

The members then had to turn different experiences and political views into shared recommendations. At the handover ceremony, participants described this as both the beautiful and the difficult part of the process: people with different perspectives had to listen to one another, challenge their own positions and work towards a common set of recommendations. 

Handover does not mean implementation

At the beginning of the process, Christopher Røhl and Søren Tegen Pedersen welcomed the members with a joint message. The future of tourism, they said, required “engagement, dialogue and shared responsibility – and room for more perspectives than those that usually occupy most of the debate”.

The City of Copenhagen and Wonderful Copenhagen have committed themselves to working with the recommendations. However, the presentation of the report was not a political decision to implement them. Measures such as an overnight-stay tax, restrictions on hotel construction and limits on aviation and cruise tourism must still be considered and decided by the competent political and national authorities.

The Citizens’ Jury has therefore not adopted a new tourism plan. It has established a benchmark against which future policy can be judged: tourism should serve the city economically, socially and environmentally – and Copenhagen should remain, first of all, a city for the people who live there.