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Extra funding to improve Brussels' international image
Tourism authority Visit Brussels has been granted an extra €700,000 in subsidies to boost the city's image among overseas visitors after the 22 March terror attacks.
The funding, from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, will go towards promoting the Mixity 2017 event - a year-long celebration of diversity in Brussels, and a new initiative around the theme of pop and street culture.
The Wallonia-Brussels minister in charge of promoting the capital city, Rachid Madrane, said: "Brussels is recovering, but its image has been severely damaged in recent months.
"The government is spending a significant amount to promote the strong points our capital has - its diversity, which is too often presented as a problem when it is a remarkable asset - and its creativity in emerging cultural sectors."
Comments
Are they going to spend any of that money on teaching shop assistants and waiters how to be more customer-friendly and not scare customers away?
How about cleaning up all that ugly graffiti around Gare du Midi and other tourist areas?
Brussels could improve its image tremendously if they removed the graffiti, fixed the dirty and broken garbage bins all around, removed the dead plants, trimmed the bushes and trees, repaired the broken cobblestones, removed graffiti from the red city mailboxes, (how about the graffiti on the front of the Palais de Justice ??????), fined the buses and taxis who park at the Rond Point Stephanie, and removed the beggars parked in front of all the shops. Brussels could be so gorgeous but it is dirty and sad. Stop creating "new initiatives" and just take care of what we already have.