visit.brussels Appoints Partners as Destination Ambassadors

Wednesday, 01.02.2017
At the Brussels Ambassadors Night, accompanied by a gala dinner, visit.brussels presented 37 Ambassador awards to the partners who, over the past three years, have contributed to propagating and supporting Brussels as an international MICE destination. In front of an audience of academics, doctors, European Commissioners, deans of universities, chairmen and board members of international […]

At the Brussels Ambassadors Night, accompanied by a gala dinner, visit.brussels presented 37 Ambassador awards to the partners who, over the past three years, have contributed to propagating and supporting Brussels as an international MICE destination. In front of an audience of academics, doctors, European Commissioners, deans of universities, chairmen and board members of international associations based in Brussels, scientists, hospital directors and other destination partners, the 37 new ambassadors were praised for their efforts and help in bringing international events to Brussels.

130 people participated in this first edition of the Brussels Ambassadors Night. visit.brussels will use this event to launch a new network that can be activated to allow new international events to take place in Brussels. This is supposed to enhance the Belgian capital’s international appeal. In addition, it also wishes to focus the attention of the Belgian academic and economic spheres on the importance and the advantages of having an international event on their specific field take place in Brussels.

With its 657 gatherings in 2016, the Brussels-Capital Region ranks as Europe’s number one convention destination, and second worldwide (according to the Union of International Associations). Put together, the conventions were responsible for 2,710,000 overnight stays in 2015. The impact of these events gives rise to total revenues of 632 million euros per year, and keeps over 18,000 people employed. In 2016, 58,60 % of the total number of overnight stays were professional stays (44,1 % MICE and 14,5 % for other professional reasons).

The 37 award winners of the Brussels Ambassadors Night contributed to this result. Jointly, they organised 66 trade fairs, conventions and sports events with over 800 participants. Together, the award winners welcomed over 500,000 participants and 9,472 speakers. 

www.visit.brussels/nl/lists/meetings-homepage

www.uia.org/