Berlin introduces BerlinPay: tourists could receive perks for cleaning the city and behaving more responsibly
This summer, Berlin plans to launch BerlinPay, a pilot project intended to encourage visitors, as well as residents themselves, to become more actively involved in preserving public space and the city’s waters. It is an initiative led by visitBerlin, the city’s official tourism organization, in cooperation with the Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises. Unlike headlines suggesting that the city will simply “pay” tourists to clean, the currently available official information says otherwise: the reward will not be a classic cash payment, but rather various small benefits, discounts, or special experiences provided by partner organizations.
According to visitBerlin’s announcement, BerlinPay is expected to launch in summer 2026 as a city pilot project within the thematic year dedicated to water tourism. The initial focus is not all of Berlin in the broadest sense, but behavior on and around the city’s rivers, canals, and lakes. The organizers want more responsible conduct to become a visible and rewarded part of the tourist experience, instead of sustainability remaining merely an abstract slogan from official strategies. In practice, this would mean that people who collect litter, take part in beautifying waterside neighborhoods, or support socially beneficial projects in those locations could receive symbolic perks from participating partners in hospitality, hotels, culture, mobility, and civil society.
From passive visitor to participant in city life
The idea behind BerlinPay fits into a broader shift among European cities toward a tourism model that seeks to reduce the gap between visitors’ interests and the everyday life of the local community. Instead of the old pattern in which the tourist consumes the city, and city services and residents then repair the consequences for public space, transport, the environment, and quality of life, the new model tries to transfer part of the responsibility and motivation to the guests themselves. Berlin is not starting from scratch here. visitBerlin itself has for years spoken in its strategic documents about a “city worth living in,” sustainable and quality tourism, and the official destination development strategy emphasizes that the growth of tourist traffic must go hand in hand with the interests of neighborhoods, quality of life, and responsible use of resources.
This is especially important for Berlin because it is one of the most visited urban destinations in Europe. According to the official tourism balance for 2025, the city had 29.4 million overnight stays and around 12.4 million guests last year. Around 41 percent of all overnight stays were generated by foreign visitors, and according to visitBerlin estimates, tourism generates 15.1 billion euros in tourist spending and 8.4 billion euros in gross value added, while 224,800 people depend on it directly or indirectly for their livelihood. Such figures explain why Berlin can no longer view tourism only as a marketing opportunity, but also as a matter of governing the city, space, and common goods.
Why the initial emphasis is placed precisely on Berlin’s waters
BerlinPay is not linked to water tourism by chance. Back in November 2024, the Berlin Senate adopted a new conceptual basis for the development of water tourism under the motto “compatible coexistence, balance, and sustainability.” That document highlighted that Berlin and Brandenburg, with nearly 34,800 kilometers of waterways and 3,200 lakes, are part of Europe’s largest inland area for water sports and water tourism. At the same time, the city warned that the use of Berlin’s waters has steadily intensified in recent years and that it is necessary to harmonize tourist activities with the interests of local residents, different user groups, and environmental protection.
In other words, BerlinPay is not just a promotional campaign for a cleaner city, but also an instrument that builds on an already existing public policy. When visitBerlin says it wants to encourage responsible behavior “on and around Berlin’s waters,” behind that lies a much broader discussion about overcrowded banks, litter, pressure on sensitive natural zones, accessibility of moorings, quality of life for residents, and the need for tourism not to conflict with urban life. In that logic, collecting litter or taking part in smaller local actions has both a symbolic and a practical function: the city wants to show that a visit is not necessarily a one-way consumption of space, but can also include a visible contribution to the place being visited.
How BerlinPay is supposed to work in practice
Official announcements do not yet provide a complete operational rulebook, but the basic model is already clear. Partners involved in the project are expected to offer a certain “reward” for recognized responsible behavior. This may be a small discount, a voucher, a symbolic gift, access to special content, or a special experience in Berlin. visitBerlin also stresses that the project is still in the phase of seeking partners and that further details will be presented on May 13, 2026 together with the city senator Franziska Giffey. This means that at the moment it is not entirely clear how participation will be verified, which partners will participate from day one, whether a digital confirmation or a trust-based system will be used, nor what the value of the perks will be.
It is also important to clarify one common misinterpretation. The available official texts do not speak of a direct cash payment to tourists for cleaning the city. They speak of “recognition,” “small advantages,” and “special Berlin experiences.” This is an important difference because it shows that BerlinPay is not conceived as a municipal job that the city shifts onto guests in exchange for a daily wage, but as a behavioral incentive. Such an approach relies on the psychology of participation: people are offered the feeling that they have done something useful, and the city and its partners then symbolically value that through an experience that fits into the destination visit.
Inspiration comes from Copenhagen, but Berlin is trying to develop its own version
The direct model for BerlinPay is the Danish CopenPay, a project first launched by Copenhagen in 2024 and then expanded in 2025. CopenPay is based on the same core idea: positive behavior becomes a kind of currency for cultural and tourism content. Visitors can “pay” by arriving by train, cycling instead of driving, using public transport, staying longer, taking part in urban gardens, or collecting litter, and in return they receive free or discounted content such as bike rentals, tours, meals, or museum benefits.
Official data from Wonderful Copenhagen show that in 2025 CopenPay grew to 100 participating attractions and lasted nine weeks, while interest from other destinations exceeded one hundred cities and regions. That Danish organization also states that more than 30,000 participants have joined since the launch, that bicycle rentals increased by 59 percent during the initiative, and that seven out of ten participants said the experience encouraged them to change their habits even after returning home. It is precisely on the basis of such a response that Copenhagen launched the broader DestinationPay model at the end of 2025, conceived as a framework for other cities wishing to adopt the same principle. In that context, Berlin was cited as the first city developing its own version under the name BerlinPay.
Still, Berlin is not copying Copenhagen mechanically. Sabine Wendt of visitBerlin stated that the city is developing a comparable, but locally adapted concept in cooperation with partners from the visitor economy. This is an important remark because Berlin has a different urban structure, different tourism flows, and different types of pressure on public space. Copenhagen has for years been a global example of a city that builds sustainability through infrastructure, cycling culture, and its relationship to public waters. Berlin, on the other hand, has a strong image of freedom, creativity, and informality, but at the same time a chronic problem with the cleanliness of certain parks, banks, and public areas. That is why BerlinPay also has an additional reputational dimension for the German capital: it is not only about green tourism, but also about an attempt to turn more responsible behavior into part of the city’s identity.
Can such a model really change the city
The most realistic answer is: not by itself, but it can have a measurable effect if it is well designed. The problem of waste in big cities cannot be solved by a campaign that relies on the goodwill of visitors. The cleanliness of urban space and the protection of waters depend above all on municipal systems, urban planning management, inspections, transport policy, waste infrastructure, resident education, and clear rules for the use of public spaces. BerlinPay therefore should not be viewed as a substitute for public services, but as an additional tool that can improve the behavior of some visitors and create visible small effects at locations under the greatest pressure.
On the other hand, it is precisely the symbolic level of such projects that is often crucial. If a tourist gets the impression that the city values responsible behavior and not only consumption, there is a greater likelihood that they will adapt their own stay to that expectation. It is equally important that such an approach also changes the message the destination sends about itself: instead of inviting unlimited consumption of attractions, the city promotes participation, care for space, and a partnership-based relationship with the local community. At a time when many European cities are struggling with the consequences of overtourism, such a change in narrative is becoming increasingly important.
A broader change in European tourism
BerlinPay comes at a time when tourism is recovering strongly again on a global level, but at the same time pressure is growing for that recovery to be more sustainable than before. UN Tourism announced that around 1.52 billion international tourist arrivals were recorded in 2025, and long-term projections still point to the possibility of reaching 1.8 billion by 2030. For cities, this means more and more economic opportunities, but also more and more questions about who bears the cost of crowds, waste, emissions, and infrastructure strain. Within that framework, BerlinPay is interesting because it does not start from prohibition and restriction, but from incentive.
This, of course, does not mean that the model is without limitations. Critics rightly warn that the biggest climate impacts of tourism do not occur at the level of one-off litter collection, but above all through transport, especially air travel. Copenhagen therefore included in CopenPay rewards for arriving by train and for staying longer instead of making short, intensive visits. Whether Berlin will move in a similar direction in later phases has not yet been confirmed. But it is already clear that the city’s tourism authorities want to open space for a different type of relationship with guests: less passive sightseeing and more locally useful activities.
What Berlin can gain, and what remains an open question
If the project succeeds in bringing together enough partners and if the rules are simple, Berlin could gain several things at once. First, even if limited, a contribution to cleaner banks and public spaces in zones of intensified tourist pressure. Second, an additional communication tool through which Berlin positions itself internationally as a city trying to develop tourism in a way acceptable to residents. Third, useful data on which types of incentives really motivate visitors and how willing they are to participate in sustainable activities if they receive a recognizable, but not necessarily expensive, reward in return.
However, many questions remain open. It is still not known how large the real scope of the project will be, what participation verification will look like, whether the rewards will be attractive enough to motivate a wider number of guests, and whether the model can be sustained beyond the promotional launch. It is equally important whether Berliners themselves will participate in it, because the official announcement is not limited only to tourists but also speaks of activating residents. It is precisely the combination of local participation and visitor motivation that could determine whether BerlinPay remains a charming seasonal campaign or grows into a more lasting tool of urban tourism policy.
For now, the most accurate way to put it is that Berlin is not introducing payment to tourists for cleaning the city in the literal sense, but is testing a reward system for responsible behavior. In a city that is still seeking a balance between enormous tourist interest, residents’ quality of life, and the protection of its public spaces, such an experiment carries both practical and political weight. If BerlinPay succeeds in turning at least some visitors from observers into participants, Berlin could gain a model more important than a single summer campaign: proof that tourism does not necessarily have to leave the city more exhausted than it found it.
Sources:- visitBerlin – official announcement of the BerlinPay project, a pilot project for summer 2026 focused on responsible behavior on and around city waters (link)- visitBerlin – official overview of Berlin’s sustainable tourism strategy and its basis in Tourism Plan 2018+ (link)- visitBerlin – tourism balance for 2025 with data on overnight stays, guests, and the economic impact of tourism in Berlin (link)- Berlin.de – press release on the adoption of the water tourism concept and data on the extent of waterways and lakes in the Berlin-Brandenburg region (link)- Visit Copenhagen – official description of the CopenPay program and the way sustainable visitor decisions are rewarded (link)- Wonderful Copenhagen – official overview of CopenPay’s development, the number of partners, participants, and the effects of the program (link)- Wonderful Copenhagen – presentation of the global DestinationPay model and confirmation that Berlin is developing its own version, BerlinPay (link)- UN Tourism – latest overview of the global tourism recovery and international arrivals in 2025 (link)
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