The tourism plan offered up by Business Minister Henrik Sass Larsen (S) is designed to bring in more ‘quality tourists’ – those who spend a lot of money. It also takes a look at how to spruce up some of the country’s signature tourist locations.

Nearly everyone who has traversed many kilometres to visit the Little Mermaid has had the same reaction when they first saw the tiny statue sitting in the harbour: “That’s it?”

Part of the government’s tourism plan would have the cities of Copenhagen, Odense and the national government collaborate on making a trip to see the Little Mermaid more interesting. One idea floated was the creation of a visitor’s centre.

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Educating the country’s tourism professionals to have a higher understanding of the languages and cultures of tourists from China and Russia is a priority of the tourism plan, including having restaurant menus printed in Chinese. The number of Chinese tourists has doubled since 2009, and the number of Russians visiting Denmark has increased by nearly 90 percent since 2007. Industry figures show that tourists from Russia, Japan and China spend the most money per day while they are travelling.

'Danish Quality Tourism'
The plan calls for the development of a ‘Danish Quality Tourism’ standard which would create a uniform certification process to make sure that restaurants and attractions were meeting voluntary standards.

An online portal for quality tourism would be established and museums and cultural institutions would work at increasing their visitor numbers by expanding opening hours and including signage in other languages.

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The tourism plan also aims to encourage major sporting and cultural events to come to Denmark.

An investigation of the changes needed to help bring in more tourists is expected to be completed in time for the 2015 budget.