The future of small-scale accommodation in Flanders

Tourism Flanders has for several years been committed to 'Travel to Tomorrow', which transforms tourism in Flanders into a model that offers both economic and social added value. Also, since 2023, the accommodation decree simplifies all kinds of administrative processes and creates a level playing field within the accommodation sector. In turn, Tourism Flanders' future plans focus on sustainability, digitalisation and filling in bottleneck jobs. In this way, Flanders continues to develop as a sustainable and attractive tourist destination.

Hotelvak was curious about current developments and spoke about them with Peter De Wilde, CEO of Tourism Flanders. Here we present the second part of this inspiring conversation. You can read the first part in Hotelvak 03/2024.

What future plans does Tourism Flanders have to further develop tourism?

We remain ambitious and make choices to invest our resources where we as the Flemish Government can offer the greatest added value. Naturally, the ambition is to build further on our 'Travelling to Tomorrow' vision and on the thematic approach that is now bearing fruit. Today, we are at an important point in the policy cycle. In the coming months, a new Flemish government will be formed and future policy choices will be made. The 'Travelling to Tomorrow' vision and thematic operation allow us, together with policymakers, our partners and the sector, to bring further stability to tourism policy but at the same time be ambitious. In moments of crisis, such as during the pandemic, we showed that a stable strategy and clear ambition is necessary and works in Flanders. It allowed us to show the necessary flexibility, respond to the acute needs that existed while still building on solid choices to develop Flanders tourism. We therefore received confidence for our approach to spend relaunch funds well in tourism in Flanders.

For the future, I see some key focal points. First, working across policy domains is a must. The people, the sector, expect that from the government. They want a government that cooperates well internally, coordinates and acts as one actor. The cooperation around the national and landscape parks teaches us that this approach pays off. It's not easy, but we owe it to ourselves and to the taxpayer to align the various components around tourism, heritage, nature, spatial planning, landscapes, etc. and develop them into a harmonious whole. This is what we want to pursue within the contours of our vision and strategy in the coming years. 

A second spearhead is making tourism more sustainable. Economically, tourism is stable in Flanders and in terms of social sustainability we are among the pioneers in Europe. But there are still huge challenges in terms of ecological sustainability, for all destinations. How can we reconcile further tourism growth with climate neutrality? We are preparing a programme together with local and provincial partners to find the right answers together in the coming years. You hear, there too we are working towards an integrated whole with our partners. 

Third, we want to encourage and support digitisation in the sector. Never before has so much data been available, yet it is not easy to do data-driven destination management. Through our involvement in European networks such as NECSTouR (the network of tourism regions in Europe), which I myself chair, we want to learn a lot about tourism data management to deploy in Flanders. 

Finally, we need to ensure that bottleneck jobs in tourism can be filled. 

How to (further) position Flanders as a leading tourist destination in a competitive market?

Actually, I've already given all the ingredients for that: through the right combination of developing and promoting experiences in Flanders that match who we are, what we offer and what added value seekers from abroad are interested in. We try to take on that role of making the right choices every day, from our vision 'Reizen naar Morgen' everything starts from balance and equilibrium towards the creation of tourism that brings added value. 

COVID-19: recovery and resilience

How did the COVID-19 pandemic change tourism in Flanders?

During the crisis, we saw far more Belgian guests than foreign ones. In 2019 it was about 45 per cent, in 2021 it was 68 per cent. Those who travelled also stayed much longer. Bookings mainly took place last minute, up to two weeks before the departure date on average. 

After the crisis, we noted a fairly rapid normalisation of travel patterns. There are still slightly more Belgian travellers in Flanders (47 per cent), but that share is gradually decreasing. The number of arrivals in Flanders is again one per cent higher than in pre-coronary 2019, the number of overnight stays is again four per cent higher. The length of stay is still slightly longer, but this too is normalising. And the average booking period has again increased to one to two months before departure. 

Still, certainly not everything is back to the way it was before covid. We still see jobs not getting filled, especially hotels and youth lodges. During the pandemic, almost a fifth of operators with staff said they could not keep a (large) proportion of their permanent staff. This has still not recovered. In our most recent lodging survey (February 2024), a quarter of hotel operators with staff said they did not have enough staff to keep the lodging running smoothly. In 2022, this was about a third.

The corona crisis has also had an impact on 'Everyone deserves a holiday'. That network is a public-private form of cooperation, with Tourism Flanders acting as matchmaker. The tourism entrepreneur offers a reduced-rate offer for Flemish people with financial holiday thresholds. The role of Tourism Flanders is to guarantee that the discount goes to the right people. This system came under pressure during the covid crisis, as tourism entrepreneurs ran out of financial room to offer the usual discounts. In response, a new support instrument was set up, with Tourism Flanders taking on part of the costs. This approach was greatly appreciated by the tourism entrepreneurs and also by the people who could still go on holiday as a result. From the evaluation, Tourism Minister Zuhal Demir followed up on this initiative by working out a solidarity cost-sharing scheme specifically for the accommodation sector.

Overall, we can at least say that the corona years hit the tourism industry hard. Nevertheless, during this period, tourism entrepreneurs never gave up and looked for all kinds of ways to generate alternative income (take-away, reduce indoor capacity, introduce strict hygiene measures, ...) in addition to the support measures some were able to enjoy. More than ever, tourism showed itself to be a resilient and innovative sector.

How can we better address future crises to protect the tourism industry?

By definition, crises always come unexpectedly. To cope with them optimally, it is vital that the public and private sectors work closely together to come up with a smart plan of action and effective communication. This requires trust, cooperation, communication, openness, empathy, honesty and efficiency. In a crisis situation, the public authorities have an important coordinating role to play in terms of communication, monitoring, support measures and other initiatives to support visitors and the sector.

During the corona crisis, tourism was always included in general support measures such as the protection mechanism, more flexible rules for temporary unemployment, the bridging loan and many others. There were also specific support measures for the tourism sector. The lodging sector could mainly rely on the Flemish Stimulus Programme and support for the social tourism sector. More than half of tourist lodgings applied for some form of support and also indicated that this was necessary to keep their business open. 

Tourism has proven to be resilient on several occasions. Nevertheless, it is good to learn from previous experiences to be better prepared for the next crisis. Therefore, there will be a review of support measures.