The Visit Brussels team from Brussels were on a week-long mission in India with the objective to interact with over 130 trade and media partners from the travel fraternity. The two city event covering Mumbai and Delhi was taken as an opportunity to talk about the tourism offerings that this European Capital can offer to Indian outbound travellers.
The exclusive networking session in Mumbai was attended by The Consul General of the Kingdom of Belgium, Peter Huyghebaert as the chief guest. While, the Ambassador of Belgium to India H.E. François Delhaye graced the event in Delhi.
The visit.brussels team led by Anousjka Schmidt, foreign markets manager, visit.brussels; Pieter Callebaut, business development leisure, visit.brussels and Ellona Pereira, account director, visit.brussels – India, gave an indepth overview of the booming tourism industry during the networking evening in Mumbai and Delhi. During the B2B interactions, the European partners enlightened the travel trade partners about why Brussels is an ideal getaway destination for scenic wonders and attractions, Brusselicious experiences and business pursuit.
Schmidt, while addressing the gathering, spoke about the importance of the India market for Brussels’ tourism industry and briefed travel partners on the various attractions in the capital. “Brussels is growing to become an important “go-to” destination in all the European itineraries. From January to July in 2018, Indian arrival to Brussels grew by over 14 per cent in comparison the same period last year. While a significant rise of over 21 per cent in the number of nights spend in Brussels by Indians has been observed,” she added.
Pereira commented, “India is a growing and promising market. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Jaipur are the important feeder markets we focused on during our recently conducted roadshows and trade events and in December will also cover Kolkata and Ahmedabad. Hyderabad, Pune and some Tier II cities will be included in our target list next calendar year. Keeping in line with our objectives to further enhance the brand awareness of Brussels, we are undergoing a series of marketing activities to strengthen its engagement with the domestic trade and media. We would like to ensure that every Indian traveller experiences Brussels and remembers the cool capital of Europe forever.”
The compact nature of the country and high volume of visitor attractions and activities make Brussels a perfect get-away destination for tourists in India and beyond. It lets visitors discover their passion in culture, shopping, festivals, adventure or even make a love affair with much famous chocolates.