Visit Brussels unveils action plan to win back tourists

Jazz, geek and pop culture, diversity and Europe are among the key themes being pursued this year by Visit Brussels, which has presented its action plan to attract more tourists to the city after a very difficult 2016.

The capital lost business after the Paris attacks, the 22 March attacks here in Brussels and after the Nice attack. Other European cites not directly attacked suffered the same loss.

Visit Brussels has in the past year undergone structural changes resulting in greater cohesion, an elimination of redundant efforts and an increased cooperation between the tourist offices of the three regions. Tourism is now completely a regional competence and the Brussels tourist promotion which was previously done by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles is now folded into Visit Brussels for a more streamlined approach.

The organisation will have permanent "touristic attachés" abroad in six priority markets: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK as well as a stepped-up presence in the US and Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The Visit Brussels website will be expanded from three to six languages with the addition of German, Spanish and Italian.

Visit Brussels will concentrate its promotion around the themes of Europe (and the opening of the House of European History in Leopold Park), arts and creativity (with jazz the main event), heritage (and the new Banad festival of art deco and art nouveau) and city life (gastronomy, night life and a particular emphasis on geek and pop culture). The overarching theme is Mixity 2017 - a year-long celebration of diversity.