The world – as well as “tourism” itself – is changing rapidly. And we have to keep up by adapting and reinventing ourselves. Searching for the right ingredients for a new/better future for tourism. We invited the sector to reflect on the evolution of tourism, addressing a few pressing questions, and to dare to question the prevailing opinion and approach.
What story are you writing?
We asked ourselves this: as we travel to tomorrow, what will it be like? Which Flanders do we want to share and visit? Which Flanders do we want to be? Well, actually, we’ve already seen this in action at the 1st World War commemoration at the Flanders Fields. This is a story about a destination looking for opportunities to flourish. A story in which residents, visitors and business owners seek and find a healthy balance.
Linden tree
We chose the linden tree as the image for the Travel to Tomorrow idea because the balance between what residents, visitors, and entrepreneurs value, and what the soul of a place demands, is organic in nature. That balance, like a tree, can grow or die, causing communities to flourish or disintegrate. From many real-life stories, we learned what happens when people open up to the positive power of travel and how that power can ignite communities.
Who you are, how you look at your surroundings, neighbours or guests, is mostly related to the connection you seek, consciously or unconsciously. This will to connect is stronger when there is balance. And the will to connect in itself also creates more balance, so that a community can regain its strength and flourish.
➔ Read more about the linden tree in the Travel to Tomorrow magazine
Tourism policy
With our policy we want to strengthen the positive power of tourism in a sustainable way so that Flanders can flourish as an innovative, inspiring, and high-quality destination that offers added value for residents, entrepreneurs, visitors and all stakeholders. Flanders’ approach was and is innovative and ambitious. Just as we have put our vision and policy into practice in the past years.
➔ Download the tourism policy document 2019-2024
Tourism Flanders at work
| Themes | Pilot projects |
| Within our six different core themes, we continue to focus on storylines that are developed Flanders-wide. These focus on places, people and activities. | With several pilot projects, Visit Flanders is implementing direct investments to leverage our six core themes and to enable both experimentation and inspiration. |
| Relaunch initiatives |
| In the relaunch calls, the principles of Travel to Tomorrow were one of the criteria for awarding support. Post-Covid, we see more than ever the openness, support and commitment to embed Travel to Tomorrow in everything we do, and to propagate it not only internally, but also externally and even internationally. |
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