The number of visitors at the leisure parks and tourist attractions of Wallonia and Brussels have been disappointing this summer. The causes: the terrorist attacks and bad weather in July. The Flemish Region did however have satisfactory results over the summer.
Walloon attractions had a decrease in visits of 4%, according to a tourist assessment of Observatoire du tourisme wallon held between July 1st and August 24th. “Nature” sites suffered a drop of 10%, indoor sites, 3%, and outdoor sites, 5%, while amusement parks and recreational centres had an increase of 2%.
“These figures may still change with the results of the last week of August, with a superb weekend,” stated the Walloon Minister of Tourism, René Collin. Over the summer, the public was mainly Walloon (37%), Flemish (22%) and Dutch (16%). The number of French visitors went down by 7%, “no doubt attributable to the mood generated by the attacks,” said the minister.
The figures for Brussels will be published Wednesday by Visit.Brussels, but the trend is negative, according to the professional association of tourist attractions of Wallonia and Brussels. “Brussels museums and attractions continue to suffer the consequences of the Paris and Brussels attacks. The numbers seem to register a decrease of 30% for the summer in relation to last year.”
(Source: Belga)
