Foreign tourists rediscover Bruges – Asian tourists the challenge for 2023
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Loading... - Michals Filo
- 16 Jan 2023
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Tourism in Bruges continues to recover. Visitor numbers at Bruges Museums again shot higher during the past year. In all nearly 700,000 people visited one of the museums in the western city. The figure continues to edge higher and is heading towards the record high of 900,000 set in 2019 – the last year before the pandemic brought tourist activity to a virtual halt in Bruges and many other Flemish tourist towns.
Most foreign tourists come from neighbouring countries. “Last year visitor numbers from neighbouring countries doubled at least” says Elviera Velghe of Musea Brugge. “Over 80,000 French nationals visited. There were 60,000 Dutch nationals and 50,000 Germans. From the fall British tourists started to return in larger numbers, but here we are still very far off normal figures: 30,000 Brits visited. Following the pandemic and Brexit visitor numbers from the UK are once again heading in the right direction”.
Higher foreign visitor numbers reflect a general trend at museums run by the City of Bruges. “Following a cautious recovery in 2021, 2022 was a very successful year in which visitor numbers were higher by half” says alderman Nico Blontrock. “700,000 visitors means we’re slowly approaching the 2019 record of 900,000 visitors. It’s a great figure given travel restrictions were still in place till mid-February. The first quarter was very calm with tourism activity rebounding from Easter onwards”. Read More…
