Bruges trying to put a lid on short-term tourism

The hordes discharged by massive cruise ships have to be controlled. Good for Bruges.

Bruges was a complete madhouse the day just after Asencion Day a few weeks back. But as soon you leave the beaten path area streets are surprisingly quiet. The Belgian newspapers are reporting this change in tourism policy like indeed reducing the number of cruiseships to a maximum of two per day and hopefully soon reducing the number of chocolate shops too, the latter seems lesser easy as a law need to be changed and for the moment the present government seems having no plans to do that.

Bruges was a complete madhouse the day just after Asencion Day a few
weeks back.

LOL. Wil, we landed into town for our stay a couple of years ago ON Ascension Day... which I'm guessing is THE busiest day of the year in Bruges. For all of my prior reading up, I somehow missed that it was sort of a huge event day? Silly me. Still, it was very exciting to be there to see a 700+ year-old, UNESCO-protected procession except, well, we WERE all atwit until they called the thing off last minute for a threatening rainstorm. Rats. We'd even snagged great ringside seats at a bar and were all settled in with a couple of dandy Belgium brews!

Oh well, the beer was good. 🍺

Kathy – The temporary grandstands of the procession at the main square were still there and I realised how more crazy the place must have been the day before. I have seen the procession a few decades ago, so not really felt bad about missing it. For you it must have been a disappointment but luckely the beer tasted good, cheers!

The Procession of the Holy Blood is always extremely crowded and very very busy.

It is fairly unusual to hear French in Bruges/Brugge. I expect that you heard a lot of French around the Procession. French visitors come from far and wide for it.

let's be reasonable about this.
First there are ports around the world where cruise ships will discharge thousands of people, swell the streets, return to the boat and all is quiet.
These communities are used to it and they thrive on the income and are willing to tolerate tourists for the income they bring into the community. You can pick a port in Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska or any place else and the scenario is the same.
Regardless of how you arrive at a destination, be it on a cruise ship or trekking by train, bus or bike with a backpack, we must appreciate the diversity in our preferences to travel, respect the local people and appreciate the services they have to offer. Leave a good impression. That is job #1 of a tourist.

Bruges was not crowded in mid-September 2018.

campbelldp, I don't see anyone being unreasonable? Discontinuing some tourism advertising and putting limitations on daily amount of dockings are crowd control efforts being planned by city authorities and not by anyone here?

We did a day trip to Bruges from Ghent in April a few years back. (3rd week or so). Didn't find crowds at all. And the weather was quite nice (after the cool, windy stay we had in NL). I feel for people who can only travel during the most popular months - shoulder season (tho I know even that is getting more crowded) is so much nicer if you can do it.

campbelldp, I don't see anyone being unreasonable? Unreasonable, perhaps not, but some point fingers at those who arrive by one mode of transport only rather than recognizing 'hordes' can come by land as well as sea.....campbelldp is just trying to offer an equal opportunity of finger pointing to all hordes....
As one poster wrote elsewhere, a good plague or endemic will do wonders for #. The reality is there is a massive global population and an increase in the middle/upper class that allows for travel. They go to what they hear about.

Living a few km from the Belgian border and 40 minutes driving from Bruges I follow the discussions on Belgian tv and what the local authorities want is to keep welcoming the visitors who like spending the night and are interested in art and history doing the image of Bruges as an unique historic place justice. The crowds are caused mostly by daytrippers arriving with the train, buses, cruiseships or the car like I do. It’s hard to say the individual reason why somebody want to visit Bruges but today with the massive attention of internet and social media a substantial part of the crowds seems to see the place more as a themepark in a very nice setting.

Now Bruges reaching the limits the number of visitors can host they want to manage the situation and for that they want to reduce or at least control the number of daytrippers. Doing that with those arriving with the train, bus or car is not so easy but not with limiting the number of cruiseships in the nearby seaport of Zeebrugge. It has little to do with blaming cruiseships but doing the latter is a part of the solution.

Doing that with those arriving with the train, bus or car is not so
easy but not with limiting the number of cruiseships in the nearby
seaport of Zeebrugge. It has little to do with blaming cruiseships but
doing the latter is a part of the solution.

Great point, Wil. No, I don't agree with demonizing tourists who choose to travel by ship, although I do have some issues with the cruise industry, including some of the ports. But the hordes DO arrive by land and by sea and it's more difficult to control the land arrivals. As a secondary measure, an overrun city probably could also limit, by permit, the amount of touring coaches allowed in per day? Dunno, just noodling.

It'll be interesting to see how Venice collects the "entry fee" to day trippers (of all sorts) that they're supposedly going to apply?