Ypres mayor Talpe wants more Walloons to discover Westhoek

The visitor figures of ‘In Flanders Fields Museum’ show that more than 60% of the visitors came from the Netherlands last year, of which 95% from Flanders and Brussels.

Potential market

Since the corona crisis, Talpe has noticed that too few Walloon tourists have found their way to the Westhoek. “Visitor figures from Wallonia are a lot lower than those from Flanders. For us, that is a potential market that we can capitalize on to boost memorial tourism.”

The competent minister Demir will now ask VISITFLANDERS to include Talpe’s request. The minister also wants to look together with Westtoer at how extra promotion can be done on the Walloon market.

Also betting on British tourists

Tourism is economically important for the Westhoek. In the future, the Westhoek therefore wants to continue to focus on British tourists. “In 2019, 1 in 3 memorial tourists were British, last year that was about 1 in 5. That is why VISITFLANDERS will set up digital consumer campaigns in the United Kingdom to promote intensively on the British market,” said Mayor Talpe.