Press. voanews.com.
The
streets of the Belgian town of Bruges were not as crowded with tourists at the
start of the summer as in other years. Bruges is a popular spot because it's an
UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as the location of the Colin Farrell movie
In Bruges. Tourism is the second most important industry for the town, but 2016
has been tough on the sector.
Europe
has experienced several terror attacks since last year. Bombings in March at
the Brussels Airport and a metro station killed 32 people. Armed military
service members still patrol the streets of the Belgian capital. Bruges
Mayor Renaat Landuyt says several bookings agencies cut Belgium from their
itineraries after the attack.
"We
have seen fewer tourists coming in from the United States and Japan,” Landuyt
said. “The financial impact is biggest on the hotels. The big hotels lowered
their rates, but small hotels can't afford that."
About 20
percent fewer foreign tourists came to Bruges, according to Landuyt, but the
good August weather attracted more local tourists to the medieval town.
Bruges is
not the only place suffering. Brussels saw its tourism industry decline by one
quarter in the months following the attacks. Brussels now relies more on
visitors from Belgium and surrounding countries, as tourists from other parts
of the world have stayed away.
Geert
Cochez is the deputy CEO of Visit Brussels, a tourist agency promoting the
capital city. Cochez says it was extremely difficult to start the tourism
season.
"We
made a huge effort convincing organizations not to cancel big events in the
months after the attacks,” Cochez said. “Even though all summer activities
continued, business tourism got back on its feet much faster than leisure
tourism."
Janet and
Chin Wong from Sydney, Australia, have been on a European tour this summer.
They visited Paris, France, are now in Belgium to see Brussels and Bruges, and
then will explore other European countries. Unlike her husband, Janet Wong says
she was nervous about the trip.
"I
was scared because of what happened, but we had already planned everything last
year," she said.
Many
souvenir shops are located around the corner from tourist attractions such as
the Grand Place and Manneken Pis in the center of Brussels. Stephanie Blancard
is a student working in one such souvenir shop. Blanchard says she feels lucky
she found the job.
"I
applied to many stores, but everywhere said they didn't need extra people for
the summer months,” she said. “And I heard that other shops fired their summer
staff because business is so slow."
The
neighborhood of Molenbeek is the one place in Belgium that is attracting new
tourists. Molenbeek made headlines after some of the terrorists from the
November Paris attacks were linked to the neighborhood. Tour organization
Bruksel binnenstebuiten held only five Molenbeek tours in 2015. But since the
Paris attacks, it started offering English-language tours, as well. Now it has
done more than 50 tours in the infamous borough.
Tour
organizer Bert de Bisschop says the Molenbeek tours do not actually focus on
the terrorists. "We
don't ignore it, but we try to give a more representative image than what has
been reported in the media,” de Bisschop said. “People do not even ask to see
the houses where the terrorists were living or hiding, they want to understand
the area and the people."
Belgium
is not the only country being shunned by tourists. The Paris attacks in
November and the assault in Nice in July left more than 200 people dead and
more than 500 injured. The Paris region tourist board says it is losing out on
$850 million in revenue this year because tourists have been scared away.
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