Denmark, a small but strong country in Northern Europe, is emerging as a new travel destination. In particular, the capital Copenhagen has transformed into what is called a "city where you travel daily life," offering a variety of options that let tourists stay like locals and gaining popularity as an experiential destination.
Bordered by Norway and Sweden to the north and Germany to the south, Denmark is a small nation about half the size of South Korea that has seen steady tourism demand in recent years. According to Statistics Denmark, the total number of overnight stays in Denmark last year exceeded 65 million, up 2.1% from the previous year and marking an all-time high.
Earlier, in 2017, Copenhagen declared "the end of tourism" and has since revamped the city under a strategy to turn tourists into "temporary residents." The core idea was to let visitors explore the city's atmosphere naturally so they could feel like part of the local community. According to the Nordic research institute Nordregio, Copenhagen recorded 11.1 million annual overnight stays in 2024, a sharp 7% increase from the previous year.
In particular, Copenhagen has designed its infrastructure around sustainability so that tourists can naturally blend into the city. For example, Copenhagen has built 382 kilometers of dedicated bicycle lanes, allowing people to get around the city by bike without traffic congestion, and the city and hotels operate bicycle lending services. The eco-friendly waste-to-energy plant "CopenHill," which has a ski slope on its roof, also showcases a unique feature of the city by combining green policies and citizens' leisure in one space. In addition, tourists can directly contribute to the city's development through the reward program "CopenPay," which lets them receive boat lending fees for picking up trash or museum admission by using public transportation.
Design and architecture are also cited as Copenhagen's competitive edge. The philosophy of "life-centered design," which embodies Danish modernism, permeates the city, exemplified by the mixed-use cultural complex BLOX and the curved pedestrian bridge Circle Bridge. The Nyhavn canal, whose name means "new harbor" in Danish, is also a signature landmark of Copenhagen, regarded as a historic attraction where visitors can view the colorful buildings by taking a cruise.
Cuisine is also drawing tourists. Copenhagen's appeal is that you can find homestyle dishes such as the open-faced sandwich smørrebrød at restaurants, bistros and food markets throughout the city. In particular, since the 2000s, as New Nordic Cuisine, which expresses purity, simplicity and freshness with seasonal ingredients, has gained popularity, Copenhagen has become home to a range of Nordic restaurants. Noma, the legendary fine-dining restaurant that topped the "World's 50 Best Restaurants" list in 2010 and reached the summit five times in total, is also famous as a restaurant that grew in Copenhagen.
The Copenhagen Tourism Organization said, "Spending time in Copenhagen is an experience of finding something special in everyday life," adding, "We hope you will enjoy Copenhagen—and Denmark itself—by not just looking, but by living it firsthand."