Concise.pdf - Brugge Plus

BRUGGE 2002 as an opportunity
for (hotel-based) tourism
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BRUGGE 2002
Introduction
In Bruges the limited space caused by a mediaeval street pattern combined with increasing
visitor numbers every year is exercising ever greater pressure on the other urban functions
and the quality of life. Back in 1990 a study prompted the city council to give shape to the
tourist development within a core zone, the so-called “golden triangle”. That same study
emphasised the advantages of a policy oriented towards hotel-based tourism for an improved
quality of life and a greater economic added value. The policy indicated this recommendation
as a top priority, but the implementation failed due to the lack of a genuine accompanying
action programme.
BRUGGE 2002 was to take up this thread again. It drew the card of hotel-based
tourism, partly because this helps the participation in and experience of culture, partly
because it was thereby underwriting a strategic choice that offered most guarantees
in the long term for sustainable tourist development. BRUGGE 2002 has an immediate
tourist multiplier effect, but it is also a pivotal moment for the perception of
Bruges as a living cultural city and tourist draw after 2002. In the framework of
BRUGGE 2002 targeted initiatives were started up to strengthen the image of Bruges
as a city to stay in.
The impact of BRUGGE 2002 on (hotel-based) tourism
The city of Bruges, Toerisme Vlaanderen and BRUGGE 2002 commissioned the market
research bureau WES to carry out an impact study on the BRUGGE 2002 event.
This study is admittedly a snapshot in time, but it can put the place of this kind of
large-scale culture project in a clearer perspective. It could possibly also be the forerunner
of a tourist policy plan that should further outline the strategic path to be followed
in the coming years.
The WES study reports that during the cultural year Bruges received visits by
3,050,000 day-trippers and 556,000 tourists staying in Bruges for more than a day
for recreational purposes. The number of overnighting tourists is 9% up on 2001. It
can be said that the impact of BRUGGE 2002 on the public can be termed sizeable: it
emerged that 21% of overnighting tourists and 23% of day-trippers had been influenced
by the activities of BRUGGE 2002 in their choice of Bruges as a destination.
Total spending by the day-trippers and recreational
overnighting tourists during the period of the
cultural year is estimated at almost EUR 213 million.
Based on the percentage of overnighting
tourists and day-trippers that visited Bruges on
account of BRUGGE 2002, the WES study concludes
that the Cultural Capital generated a surplus
of EUR 42 million at most in spending, with
EUR 25 million accounted for by overnighting
tourists and EUR 17 million by day-trippers. This
is an increase of 25% at most. The expenditure
surplus was chiefly to the benefit of restaurants
and cafés (EUR 18 million), accommodation
(EUR 10 million), small traders (EUR 8 million)
and attractions (EUR 5 million).
Michael Franti (Cactus Festival)