Brussels 12 points! Video shows success of #CallBrussels campaign

The Brussels-Capital Region caught the eye on the international level with its campaign #CallBrussels to convince foreign tourists to come to the capital of Europe. The idea was simple - who better than the people of Brussels to answer the questions that tourists have? They talked wholeheartedly about the atmosphere, the buildings and of course the Belgian waffles!

Local Brussels people talking

During five days, telephones were ringing almost non-stop in the pop up telephone boxes at the Mont des Arts, on the Place Flagey and on the Place Communale in Molenbeek. It seemed like the whole world wanted to hear what life is about in Brussels. On five days’ time, more than 12,500 phone calls were registered from 154 countries – an overwhelming success.

And the locals? They took every opportunity to promote their city and region during their conversations with tourists, who called from the neighboring countries, the United States, Brazil, Japan or even from Australia. The local Brussels people played their city guide role with verve and gave callers a taste of the unique melting pot that Brussels is. For a bite in the typical waffle, a sip of Belgian beer or a taste of Belgian chocolate, tourists will of course have to come to Brussels themselves.

You can watch the compilation video of the campaign on http://call.brussels.

Rudi Vervoort, Minister-President of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region, is also very enthusiastic about this campaign: “The campaign would never have been such a success without all Brussels inhabitants, who recalled that the Region is full of assets. To everyone, a huge Thanks for calling!”

About #CallBrussels

The campaign #CallBrussels is an initiative by the Brussels-Capital Region, organized by visit.brussels with support of Toerisme Vlaanderen and Wallonie-Bruxelles Tourisme, which relay the whole campaign via their international networks. The aim of the action is to convince foreign tourists that Brussels is still a destination of choice.

During the first phase, visit.brussels set up telephone boxes in three emblematic locations of the Brussels-Capital Region in order to convince tourists that Brussels is worth a visit. From 7 January to 11 January 7 p.m. (GMT +1), 12,688 people from 154 different countries have called 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.