COVID-19 Tears Up Belgian Tourism

Views of the City of Brugge (Daniël van der Kolk / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The lockdown policy has been proven to be good at holding back the pace of the COVID-19 pandemic. If traced, not only the spread of the virus from Wuhan can be contained. Sadly, the abundant coffers of income from the tourism sector have been restrained too.

Among the countries that rely on tourism as the spearhead of their source of income, there is Belgium who filled one of the lists. How not, the historic city centers in Belgium, Brugge and Brussels are daily full of tourists from various parts of the world. As a result of COVID-19, the center of tourist attractions has become lonely and lonely.

Launching Reuters, COVID-19 is of course a devastating blow to the tourism industry in Belgium. Brugge, for example. The city is almost completely dependent on eight million visitors with coffers of income that touch the figure of 750 million euros each year. Now, they had no tactics other than to lament the empty town square.

"No more tourists. Nobody comes to Brugge anymore," said Brugge Mayor Dirk De Fauw.

De Fauw also said that in March 2016 there was also a suicide bombing in Brussels which made tourist visits lonely. However, when compared to COVID-19, the events in 2016, at first glance, are nothing.

Not only that, overall the COVID-19 pandemic has cost Belgium up to 1 billion euros each month. Regarding the loss, one of the people affected was a restaurant entrepreneur in Brussels, Marc Van Muylders. He revealed that COVID-19 had put his business into critical times.

"The impact is huge," said Marc. Meanwhile, the Belgian government last week extended the lockdown as a measure to prevent the spread of the corona virus until May 3.

Interestingly, the owners of the policy have relaxed their lockdown policy a bit by starting to allow certain shops and city parks to reopen. However, with one note, that is, Belgian citizens must wear a mask when leaving the house and apply physical distancing rules.