Brussels city centre has attracted 1.5 million visitors every month since April. Although visitor levels haven't yet returned to pre-covid-19 levels, it is a sign that things are beginning to return to life before the pandemic, based on figures from Hub.brussels and reported by Le Soir and Bruzz.
Brussels city council member for Economic Affairs Fabian Maingain carried out counts during the past few weeks to get an idea of the number of visitors in the pedestrian zone using technology from Wi-Fi sensors that use broadcast signals from smartphones of passers-by. The results are based on visitor rates around the Saint Catherine neighbourhood and De Brouckère.
"The city centre has clearly been revived," said Fabian Maingain in Le Soir.
The data tracks the number of visitors to the city centre and focuses less on residents, employees and passers-by. People who spent thirty minutes or less in the pedestrian zone were not included.
Returning tourists
In addition, tourists from abroad are slowly coming back. In January, there were 263,199, while that number has increased to 569,703 five months later.
Of the 1.5 million visitors in May to the city centre, 615,328 were Brussels residents, 410,873 Belgians and 569,703 tourists. "This is also the result of events such as the Pride and the Brussels Jazz Weekend," explained Mangain.
"We have an event and cultural sector that is looking forward to an unprecedented year. Recently there was the Ommegang and soon we will have events such as the Zuidfoor and the flower carpet," a delighted Mangain said.
