On Tuesday, 30 June 2026, the Brussels regional tourist office definitively shut its last remaining office. The closure is the result of budget cuts imposed on visit.brussels by the Brussels Capital Region government.
Since the 1960s, the Brussels regional tourist office has had an office on the Grand-Place, Brussels central square. It was generally considered a remnant of the so-called ‘Belgique Joyeuse’ era, which included the Expo ’58 and Brussels’ Atomium. However, on 30 June 2026, employees definitively shut the door on visit.brussels’ last physical location – the Brussels Info Place (BIP) on Place Royale already shut down in April.
“The tourist office was able to provide tailor-made guidance to tourists, have a quick chat and send them on their way with a smile. This artisanal dimension of the tourist office will no longer be found here. Every tourist who arrives here tomorrow will have to do without any information. Only Google or the search engines can help them,” commented employee and trade unionist Martin Dekeyser on 30 June, adding that Brussels would be losing a piece of its history.
The closures are the direct consequence of a series of budget cuts imposed by the Brussels Capital Region government. Over time, visit.brussels will lose 64% of its subsidies. In 2026, the regional tourist office will have to operate with €3 million less; by 2029, the loss in subsidies will amount to €6 million.
The subsidy cuts don’t just entail the closure of the physical offices. Overall, 37 out of 159 full-time staff at visit.brussels will have to leave, which is being organised through a voluntary departure plan agreed with the Brussels government. Although the cuts are part of the government’s austerity plan, the unions consider it to be a political rather than an economic choice, stating that although they were presented as inevitable, other choices could have been made.
““We used to help hundreds of visitors every day. During major events, we were even helping as many as 2,000 people a day find their way around Brussels. But that’s all over now. This is a European capital, yet there’s no tourist information service here anymore. From now on, everyone is expected to look everything up online. I simply cannot understand that decision,” former employee Diana Ladrak, who worked at the visit.brussels Grand-Place location for approximately 30 years, told the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.
Brussels’ international trade and promotion offices, too, have been hit hard by the budget cuts. In April, the government announced it would be shutting down at least 14 of its 33 overseas offices, including those in Milan, Barcelona, Geneva, and Shanghai.
With visit.brussels’ last physical location now closed, tourists visiting the Belgian capital and its surroundings will now be forced to look for information online or at their hotel. The Flanders Information Centre and the Visit Wallonia office both closed down over the past year in what seems to be a wave of digitalisation.
