A better way to experience the Danish capital

Copenhagen Card is the official digital city card for Copenhagen. It gives customers unlimited access to more than 80 of Copenhagen’s top tourist attractions and free access to public transport in the city and surrounding area. Copenhagen Card has been the official city card for travelers to the Danish capital since 1984.

Over the years, the card has evolved. In May 2019, a digital card was introduced. Until November 2022, the card was available both as a physical and digital card. For every visit to an attraction, the card is scanned to register the visit.

Copenhagen Card is owned by Wonderful Copenhagen, the tourism organization of the Capital Region of Denmark.

Copenhagen Card’s evolution created multiple layers of tech complexity and less-than-optimal user experiences:

• Multiple systems depended on each other.

• The management system had become outdated, both in terms of UX and functionality.

• Different payment solution providers served the website and the app, making for fragmented and frustrating customer experiences.

It was time to revisit each of these platforms and rethink the whole architecture. Copenhagen Card asked Valtech to support their transformation by making the card 100% digital, offering a smoother flow for customers and partners, and creating a more flexible system architecture.

We designed the Copenhagen Card experience to act like a friendly local who guides visitors around. The app can tell users about nearby attractions and show them the opening hours. Everything users need is available offline, too.

For the customer, this means:

• Empowered exploration. Customers can discover museums and attractions with ease, even when Wi-Fi or mobile coverage are unavailable. The app uses built-in GPS functionality to guide users so they never feel lost.

• Effortless planning. The app lets users mark attractions as favorites, map routes in Google or Apple map apps based on their current locations, and discover hidden gems.

• An all-inclusive experience. Copenhagen Card gives can give customers unlimited public transport and entrance to more than 80 attractions — without needing to convert their money to Danish kroner.

How we brought simplicity to the system’s architecture

The existing management system from City Card Solutions had already proved able to handle city cards for other cities (e.g., Vienna, Gibraltar, Innsbruck, among others). We centered our work around their new management system (CCMS) and connected our native app to it directly. There is now a direct line for new orders, redemption and card activations.

The smoother operations that new architecture facilitates

With a new, simpler system architecture, Copenhagen Card unlocked agility that allows them to optimize internal resources and develop the product.

For the customer, this means:

• The card is easier to purchase. Before, most customers bought a Copenhagen Card online, printed the order then redeemed it at a physical sales point to get a physical card. Now, customers either download an app to buy the card (two in three customers do this) or buy on the website as before, then have the card appear in their app.

• Smoother payment processing. Before we re-architected the system, the app had one payment solution provider, and the website had another. Now that the native app and website connect with the CCMS, there is a single payment solution provider for the whole system. That has allowed us to automate the flow of daily reports and bank transfers.

• Reliability. Before, operations ran through a website back-end that the management system and app both depended on. That put strain on servers and memory, and systems would go down. Now, there are no issues with servers or memory max, so users experience far less system downtime.

• More room for innovation. Before, Copenhagen Card had to manage a stock of physical cards that were distributed to more than 100 different physical sales points. Now, with everything being digital there is no need to commit internal resources to physical stock management. That frees up the Copenhagen Card team to focus on creating new, innovative customer experiences.

The accolades

Others in the industry have recognized the impact of Copenhagen Card’s transformation. In June 2024, Copenhagen Card won silver in the Best in System Design category at the Danish Digital Award ceremony.

The benefits to the city

With the Copenhagen Card, Copenhagen's tourism ecosystem flourishes. Tourists spend less time lost and frustrated, giving them more time to delve deeper into the city's offerings. Copenhagen Card catalyzes a more efficient, enjoyable tourism experience for everyone involved.

Photos by Lukas Bukhoven / Copenhagen Media Center 

• High user engagement. Copenhagen Card users are actively planning their trips by researching attractions in the app. So far, there have been more than 2.8 million attraction details viewed, and the average session length in the app is 24 minutes and 54 seconds.

• 56% conversion rate. More than half of app users convert into paying customers. Copenhagen Card is an effective tool for driving sales.

• User satisfaction. People continue to rate the app highly. It has 4.2 stars in the app stores and 4.7 stars on Trustpilot.

• Low churn. Users remain engaged with the app even after purchase. We have measured a Day 6 churn rate of 10%. This means users find long-term value in the app, after the initial card activation.

But this is just the beginning. The Copenhagen Card is a steppingstone toward a future where city exploration becomes effortless, exciting and truly unforgettable.