Tourism direct GDP (2023) | Tourism direct employment (2023) | Travel exports (2023) |
|---|---|---|
2.0% of total GDP (up 0.1 percentage points since 2022) | 3.4% of total employment (up 0.1 percentage points since 2022) | 8.7% of total service exports (up 2.4 percentage points since 2022) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: Pathways to Sustainable Tourism Growth
National tourism administration: Ministry of Urban, Rural and Ecclesiastical Affairs
National tourism budget: DKK 216.7 million (2024)
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Building a strong and cohesive international brand – Integrating a one brand strategy into all international marketing called “Denmark – The Land of Everyday Wonder”.
Strengthening private investments for tourism – Establishing a project maturity fund and new framework for tourism development that will be boosted by structural funding to improve tourism infrastructure like shelters and walking paths.
Providing strong and unique tourism products – Continuing to strengthen the tourism offer with a focus on meetings and events, outdoor and nature, cycling and cultural tourism.
Tourism is a significant contributor to the Danish economy. Tourism directly contributed DKK 55.0 billion or 2.0% of total GDP in 2023, representing a 6.8% increase compared to 2022. Tourism directly employed 110 000 persons, or 3.4% of the total workforce. Travel accounted for 8.7% of service exports in 2023.
In 2025, nights in commercial accommodation increased to 66.0 million, up 1.1% compared to 2024. This increase was driven by international visitors who spent 35.3 million nights in commercial accommodation establishments (up 3.1%), with domestic visitors staying 30.6 million nights in commercial accommodation (down 1.2%). In 2025, the top international source markets in terms of nights were Germany (representing 61.6% of all inbound nights), the Netherlands (5.2%) and Norway (4.3%).
In 2024, total tourism expenditure reached DKK 168.5 billion, which equates to a 4.0% increase compared to 2023 in current prices. Domestic tourism expenditure contributed DKK 93.1 billion or 55% of total expenditure.
The Ministry of Urban, Rural and Ecclesiastical Affairs is responsible for strategic tourism development in Denmark, shifting from the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs in 2024.
The Danish National Tourism Board supports the Danish Government in setting the strategic direction for tourism and identifying current opportunities and challenges to Danish tourism. Chaired by the Permanent Secretary of State for Urban, Rural and Ecclesiastical Affairs, the Board includes representatives from the tourism sector, universities, the national tourism organisation, VisitDenmark, and national tourism development agencies. It publishes a yearly status report on the tourism sector in Denmark.
VisitDenmark manages the international marketing of tourism and is responsible for market research, analysis and monitoring trends and activities. It works closely with the three national tourism development agencies and local DMOs. The three development agencies are:
Danish Coastal and Nature Tourism, which works to develop tourism outside major cities,
MeetDenmark, which focuses on developing business tourism,
Wonderful Copenhagen, which hosts Danish Urban Tourism and is responsible for developing tourism in Denmark’s four biggest cities.
Across the country, 19 decentralised DMOs support local tourism businesses and tourism development initiatives to build strong and coherent tourism destinations. The DMOs are primarily funded by municipalities and collaborate closely with VisitDenmark on international marketing activities and with the three national tourism development agencies. The national tourism strategy guides the activities of DMOs and serves as a framework for allocating national funds for specific projects on an application basis.
In 2026, the four national tourism organisations received a combined budget of DKK 214.8 million in base funding. This included DKK 139.6 million for VisitDenmark, DKK 24.4 million for the National Tourism Development Organisations, and DKK 50.8 million to Wonderful Copenhagen. The Danish Government has allocated an additional DKK 100 million to tourism between 2024-27 and DKK 200 million to tourism between 2025-2028. There are also several funding pools open to tourism organisations to receive grants.
Source: OECD, adapted from Ministry of Urban, Rural, and Ecclesiastical Affairs, 2026.
The Pathways to Sustainable Tourism Growth Strategy provides guidance to ensure sustainable growth in the tourism sector across Denmark and throughout the year. Launched in October 2024, the Strategy consists of six key initiatives:
A strong and cohesive one brand strategy in all international marketing called “Denmark – The Land of Everyday Wonder”.
A stronger focus on private investments in the tourism sector.
A strong and unique variety of tourism products offered to our guests such as culture, events, outdoor and business tourism.
A green focus where tourism contributes to a sustainable green transition.
A foundation of knowledge and data, with a strong focus on entrepreneurship, digitalisation, and data as drivers for innovation in tourism.
A social focus putting people at the centre, to promote social inclusion and stronger communities.
A key priority is to strengthen marketing, with a focus on attracting international tourists outside of the high season and business tourism, achieved through increased funding for VisitDenmark. Within their marketing campaigns, Denmark is adopting a one brand strategy to provide consistent and cohesive messaging to potential visitors. All marketing will be centred around “Denmark – The Land of Everyday Wonder”. Denmark is also working with local destinations to market towards Danish tourists. This initiative will be supported by DKK 10 million in total from 2024-2027, with the aim for 40% to 60% funding split between the government and destinations. After 2027, funding is planned to be the responsibility of DMOs. To increase international accessibility, Denmark is enhancing marketing to attract new strategically important aviation routes.
To better support tourism investment throughout the country, Denmark will establish a project maturity fund as well as a better framework for tourism development, which is currently in the pilot stage. Denmark is looking to re-launch planning and building permits within the pilot scheme for coastal and nature tourism. Structural funding will be provided to improve tourism infrastructure such as shelters and walking paths.
The tourism offering will be enhanced by: strengthening meetings and events tourism; developing outdoor tourism together with nature and local communities, including new outdoor trails; and expanding the network and signage for cycling tourism. Cycling tourism will continue as a key focus as Denmark hosts Copenhagen Sprint, an annual World Tour cycling race, and prepares for the UCI Road World Championships in 2029.
Culture tourism is a key focus. Denmark established an Expert Group for culture tourism to target this inbound market. Work is also being undertaken to strengthen culture tourism within the coastal and nature regions and a new reform for museums was agreed in May 2024 to establish a new funding structure for Danish museums.
Tourism will be included in Denmark’s green transition. New sustainability reporting on certified tourism businesses has been introduced, with support provided to SMEs and entrepreneurs to meet these new requirements. There is also a goal to have 70% of all accommodation establishments achieve the baseline sustainability certification before 2030. More will be done to reduce tourism’s carbon emissions by improving infrastructure for electric cars, promoting cycling, and introducing green air travel.
Data and digitalisation can help to drive innovation in tourism. Denmark is working to strengthen and develop a VisitData platform, which provides open access to tourism data (see box below). The are also plans for the continued development of a Hub for Innovation in Tourism (HIT), a national initiative in Denmark that aims to strengthen the tourism sector and enhance competitiveness by connecting startups with established tourism operators. First developed in 2021, the Hub helps entrepreneurs to test, develop, and market their solutions in the dynamic landscape of tourism.
To address current tourism workforce issues, key initiatives include reducing barriers and improving opportunities to attract unemployed youths, boosting training opportunities in the sector, attracting foreign employment and strengthening the quality of education for people working in tourism.
The ability of Danish tourism businesses to innovate and leverage data is crucial to strengthen the competitiveness, productivity, and efficiency of Danish tourism. Both internationally and within Danish tourism, increasingly high demands are still being placed on tourism enterprises’ innovation and digitalisation. Some Danish accommodation providers have already embraced digitalisation and AI to a significant extent and work more strategically with data as a foundation for innovation and business decision making. The overall aim of VisitData is to use data as a basis for decisions and business development.
VisitDenmark and Danish Coastal and Nature Tourism have established VisitData as a national tourism platform, in collaboration with all destination management organisations across Denmark. VisitData provides access to tourism organisations’ own data, and they can access national data sources such as data from the national weather service, accommodation statistics from Statistics Denmark, mobile positioning data, and transaction data. Users can also view national industry benchmarks and access a local benchmark if there are multiple businesses in the specific destination that are using VisitData. VisitData is still under construction, but VisitDenmark plans to incorporate dashboards regarding:
Attractions
Campsites
Destinations
Retail
Events
Holiday homes
Hotels
Culture
Restaurants
Transactions
The realisation of VisitData also enables streamlining and use of shared public data. VisitData holds great potential to support and strengthen digital innovation by providing broad access to new data insights across the tourism sector.