With the #CallBrussels campaign, visit.brussels aims to convince tourists that Brussels is still a destination of choice

Since the infamous Brussels Lockdown, the Belgian capital suffered a noticeable decline in reservations. This decline had serious consequences, particularly for players in the tourist and meetings industry. visit.brussels adapted immediately to this particular situation by informing and supporting all meeting planners organising or planning to organise a meeting in the near future in Brussels. Daily updates were send to them directly as well as posted on the www.visit.brussels landing page. visit.brussels remained in continuous contact with the Brussels meeting professionals to help them reply to the many questions they were receiving.

Beginning of January, as to reconquer the international visitors and meeting organisers, the Brussels-Capital Region launched the #CallBrussels campaign. During the first phase, visit.brussels set up telephone boxes in three emblematic locations of the Brussels-Capital Region. The idea was simple - who better than the people of Brussels to answer the questions that tourists have? They talked wholeheartedly about how life is in Brussels today. From 7 January to 11 January 7 p.m. (GMT +1), 12,688 people from 154 different countries launched a call to one of the three telephone boxes. The campaign #CallBrussels generated a lot of attention in the (inter)national media and was also closely followed on social networks. Since Monday 18 January 10:30 a.m., a video clip with some fun fragments can be watched on http://call.brussels.

People of Brussels reassuring

“Who better than the people of Brussels to answer the questions that tourists and MICE-organisers hesitant about travelling to Brussels might have. In order to foster exchanges between the people abroad and the people of Brussels, visit.brussels set up the telephone boxes in three locations of the Brussels-Capital Region: at the Mont des Arts, on the Place Flagey and on the Place Communale in Molenbeek.” explained Patrick Bontinck, CEO of visit.brussels. “Passers-by were able to answer questions from foreigners, who decides themselves what phone boot to call to from the website www.call.brussels. A webcam was filming the surroundings which made it possible for the people placing the call to actually see the person picking up the phone.”

The first phase of the campaign was followed by the international release of the video clips shot during the action last Monday 18 January. The video can be watched on the website www.call.brussels and will be used to inform all people who might have missed the first part of the campaign as to inform them about the answers given to the most common questions.

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