Exmoor National Park has come up with something genuinely clever: a scheme that actually pays you to care about the place you're visiting. From July through September, travelers who take small green actions can earn 20% off purchases at park centres. It sounds too simple to work, but the park authority is betting that when people see their effort rewarded immediately, they'll want to participate.
The park sprawls across Devon and Somerset in England's southwest, where sea cliffs drop toward churning waters and moorlands roll into deep valleys. Hidden within these landscapes sits something rare: temperate Atlantic rainforest habitats. Around 1.6 million people visit annually, which means the pressure on these ecosystems is real.
How the Pay with Exmoor Care scheme works
The concept is straightforward. Pick one of four actions during your visit, provide proof (a photo, app submission, or social media post), and show it at the till. You get your discount on a single transaction. No stacking. No cash back. The four qualifying actions are: spending two minutes picking up litter; recording three plant or animal species via the iNaturalist app; posting about Exmoor on social media with the @ExmoorNP tag; or getting to the park centres by bike or public transport instead of driving.
The park didn't invent this idea from scratch. Copenhagen's CopenPay scheme inspired the concept, though the Exmoor team adapted it for a rural setting. Dan James, the park's enterprise and communications manager, calls it "a simple but powerful idea." He's right. Each action is easy enough to do without feeling like a chore, yet cumulatively, they address real problems: litter, wildlife awareness, and traffic congestion.
Why this matters for tourism's future
Exmoor sits at the center of a bigger conversation about what happens when tourism meets conservation. Places like Edinburgh are taxing overnight visitors to manage overtourism, while Venice's mayor proposed charging day visitors to control crowds. Exmoor's approach feels different. Rather than simply limiting visitors or squeezing more money from them, it's asking them to become stewards of the place.
The scheme aligns with Exmoor's "Good Tourism Plan," which aims to create tourism that actually benefits communities, landscapes, and visitors rather than extracting value from all three. It's regenerative tourism in practice. The park authority wants visitors, businesses, and nature to all win.
What comes next
This pilot runs through the end of September, so it's still experimental. But the park has already signaled bigger ambitions. They plan to bring more partners on board, including local restaurants, accommodation providers, and shops. The more businesses that participate, the more meaningful the reward becomes for visitors.
Travel destinations worldwide are grappling with how to make tourism work for everyone involved. Hawaii asks visitors to volunteer during trips, turning vacation time into community benefit. Exmoor's gamble is that small incentives can shift behavior just enough to matter. A 20% discount is real money for a family or a couple backpacking through Devon. But more importantly, it's a signal: your choices here count.
If you're planning a southwest England getaway this summer, it's worth timing your visit between July and September. Grab a reusable bag for litter, download iNaturalist before you arrive, and consider the train or bike instead of your car. You might leave Exmoor with a lighter wallet than expected and the knowledge that your visit actually helped protect one of Britain's most beautiful corners.
