Brussels tourist information office shut down due to Visit.brussels cuts

The Visit.brussels tourist office quietly closed its information desk at the BIP on Place Royale on 3 April due to budget cuts.

While a notice on its entrance states that the closure is temporary, Bruzz reports that there is a strong likelihood that the closure is permanent.

This is because the Brussels government plans to reduce the subsidy for the regional organisation responsible for promoting tourism by €5.7 million this year. By 2029, subsidies are set to fall from €22 to €8 million.

Budget issues aside, physical tourist information offices have seen fewer visitors in recent years, as tourists tend to look up information online.

Visit.brussels also closed the tourist information desk at Station Europe on Place du Luxembourg, next to the European parliament back in 2022.

The only remaining desk - on the Grand-Place - will move this autumn to the new tourist shop that the City of Brussels is setting up in the city hall.

Following the relocation of the offices of the mayor and aldermen to the new Brucity administrative centre three years ago, the city hall has served only a ceremonial function and is now primarily promoted by the city council as a museum.

Visitors can take a guided tour of the grand reception halls, the mayor’s former office and the aldermen’s former chambers to view tapestries, paintings, Gothic woodwork and the coats of arms of the old guilds.

To highlight this tourist function of the city hall, the college of aldermen decided to create a visitor shop where tourists can buy souvenirs, postcards or a map of the city afterwards.

“Adjacent to the shop will be a free exhibition space showcasing the history and significance of the Grand-Place,” said Audrey Dubois, chief of staff to tourism alderman Nawal Ben Hamou (PS).

The shop is designed by Mode and Design Brussels (MAD) and will be located in the left wing of the city hall near the grand staircase, where the guided tours end. The aim is for the shop and tourist information desk to open after the summer.

In the past, both Flanders and Wallonia had tourist information offices in Brussels on the Rue du Marché aux Herbes. Tourism Flanders still has its Flanders Shop there, but no tourist information has been provided there since 2017.

The Espace Wallonie opened a little further down the road that same year, selling Walloon specialities and providing information, primarily intended to encourage tourists to visit attractions in Wallonia.

On the orders of the Walloon minister for tourism, the shop recently closed because it was too expensive and saw too few visitors.