Bruges “Royal Flush” Sundays

Bruges "Royal Flush" Sundays
Sunday was delightful always, and to be perfectly honest, a dream Sunday for me has still got to be a nice breakfast, a bit of a wander, lunch and then an afternoon to Bruges. We’d usually go to Sluis first, chance to shepherd the passengers into the "Chosen" souvenir shop to stock up on much-needed little dolls, lace and Delft, little musical windmills that lit up, snaps with traditional locals, buy some Advocaat or Cherry Brandy (enormous delicacies in those days), stroll down the canal, see the windmill, board the coach, off to Bruges - the first and only "Venice of the North".

The customers loved Bruges, they always did and they always will. Yes of course, it’s a World Heritage site, yes of course it’s got loads of churches, museums and wonderful art treasures, yes of course it’s got stunning architecture created during its colourful historic past, but it’s got much, much more than all that. In my view, Bruges has got nearly every trump in the tourism suite and, over the years, it’s played them all extraordinarily well.

The two to the 8 of Bruges trumps...are "Special Interests",
In the travel industry "Special Interest Travel" is seen as a powerful magnet for tourists and a real money-spinner. Even to the extent that people are paid to sit around and create special interests where none exist, - think of darts festivals for instance - another example of a tourism consultant making money for his clients.

This is how it works... find a particular place where you only get gingham mice - sell trips to see them to the "Gingham Mice Lovers" brigades around the world. Niche product, niche market in today’s jargon - the nicher the better! Result... the "Gingham Mice" fancier not only gets a trip for his money but also they get to follow their addiction too...and they’ll pay more for it. It all gets a bit dodgy when you make your own gingham mice - but hey-ho that’s tourism for you - "Quality tourism" it’s called, quantity money it makes. Bruges has got lots of Special Interests, at least enough to count from 2 to 7 trumps. Just look at the list of potential clients - History buffs (you don’t get more Middle-Aged-Important than Bruges), religious pilgrims (the Holy Blood in the church of the same name is said to liquify every 10 years), lacemakers (a growth industry), beer drinkers (seriously, there’s one cafe in Bruges with over 200 types of beer), architecture enthusiasts (Just look at the Step-Gables) , art lovers (there’s even a Michelangelo Madonna and Child here), antique hunters (Bruges’ antique shops are stuffed with expensive old things and the flea markets are incredible), even chocoholics (believe me, there are more chocolate shops per square metre in Bruges than anywhere else in the world, if there aren’t Bruges chocolate-making courses for bored housewives in their hundreds now, you can bet your life there will be). Enough? Enough to ensure a steady flow of quality money, that’s for sure.
The nine of trumps is...visible history,

People like looking at history. Although learning about history is generally a complete No No, the general public love history facts and stories and they like to be where it happened. Often not to feel or look or indeed see, but to pick up stories and take pictures, go home and retail them to their friends. Also one of the greatest facets of tourism is right there at the top of Dr Maslow’s "Heirarchy of Needs" - self actualisation. This translates to the following statement "We went for a trip to Bruges, it’s very historic you know - would you like to see the pictures we took - bet you didn’t know we were into history did you - we loved it!". This actualises the speaker in his or her own mind as a lover of all things historic. Lovely - one step up. Also, visible history, in particular the sort that Bruges has, creates a fairytale atmosphere - just like the films - with knights and fair damsels and alchemists and witches and things. Except you’re in it, that fairytale world, just where it all happened. As all the theme parks have discovered, fairytale worlds draw in the clients.

The ten of trumps...Bruges is quaint, walkable and compact.
You can pack a great deal into half a day in Bruges. You can see the canals (can’t miss them in fact), you can walk over romantic bridges, you can see boats in the water, you can see delightful outdoor cafe’s with colourful awnings, you can bump along cobbled streets. You can get it all in a very reasonable period of time without missing a lot of the superficial stuff. That’s very satisfying to the tourist. "Been there, seen it, done it" and back onto the coach. Bruges "Drill-down" potential means that there can always be more, too, if you want to look deeper on a second or twenty-second visit.

The Jack of trumps...there are a lot of things to do in Bruges
This fulfils two very important tourism-industry needs - a) provide the tourist with a fully-satisfying visit - a real experience that they can go home and tell their friends about, and b) provide earning opportunities for the locals. So, in Bruges you can take a canal boat trip (with commentaries in numerous languages), you can tour by horse drawn carriage where you’ll get blanketed-up and trotted about, you can visit lace-making factories staffed with dinky old ladies who must have been damsels in those olden days - and who’ll sell you lace with a fervour, you’ll have opportunities to see and hear the Carillon bells. Enough. Until the next time.

The Queen of trumps...There are plenty of things to buy.
Tourists, generally, want more than snaps as proof of their visit. They need souvenirs too. Yet another opportunity for self-actualisation here. So, you’ll find the whole range of Bruges souvenir-tat readily available on each and every tourist-street corner. Plenty of Manneke Pis’s for the "Bucket and Spade Brigade", nice bits of "Hand Made" lace for the ladylike ladies, mass-produced prints and watercolours for the artistically-leaning and Bruges chocolates for everyone. Now it’s "Been there, seen it done it AND got the "T" shirt!"

The King of trumps...close to lots of places
Now, if Bruges were in the depths of Outer Siberia it would have very few tourists and a very small tourism industry. That may seem a crazy statement, but the availability of people-capable-of-spending is critical to the equation. There are places all over the world with just as much, perhaps more, potential than Bruges - they just haven’t been able to hack it...yet. Prague is a classic example. It was always just as glorious, but inaccessible. As soon as it became "Close" twelve million tourists a year. There are many, many more glorious destinations just waiting for the tourism spotlight to shine on them. Bruges was just lucky. The spotlight shone there first, and it’s stayed...why? Because Bruges has played its ace trump very, very well.

The Ace of trumps...looking after the tourism asset.
Managing the tourism asset is critical in the equation, there are so many people to be pleased and needs to be satisfied that it is very difficult to steer a course that provides a sustainable flow of tourists ...and money! Even if you have all the trump cards, you can still screw it up - bigtime. Just imagine Bruges after the first 50 years of mass tourism. It could have a multi-national in every prime site. McDonalds, all the Espresso Bongo’s, Holiday Inns and many more. Yes, they’re there, but they’re either outside of the city heart, or they’re tasteful and attractive - and they’re not there in force. Bruges could be full up with tourist coaches and open-top busses - resulting in traffic chaos. It’s not, they’re kept outside, and cars are provided a big underground car park within walking distance of the centre. Why have the burghers of Bruges taken an up-market attitude to tourism developement? Because they’re not stupid, and they want up-market tourists providing up-market money for their own homegrown entrepreneurs. Many a tourist city could take a leaf out of Bruges’ tourism development attitude.
So, the tourists get a quality experience, the locals get quality money and quality opportunities
Back to Sunday afternoon 1959 and we’re bowling along back to Ostend. "Sing Something Simple" is on the BBC radio and we’re all joining in "Goodnight Irene, Goodnight". And it will be.