War tourism is good business

With more than two million visitors expected to visit Belgium's World War One sites over the next four years business seems good. In a "normal" year, the Flanders Fields area accommodates 350,000 visitors - mainly British, Belgian, Dutch and a growing band from the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. This is set to rise to 500,000.

 The Belgium government has invested more than 50m euros (£42m; $67m) in centenary events - the anniversary is likely to make the many "must-see" WW1 attractions in the region even more popular than they were before. The prospect has sparked a construction boom in the region, with hotels adding extra rooms, museums expanding, new tours formulated and an increase in parking spaces by the most important cemeteries.

Carine Declercq said the anniversary helped her and husband Stefan to realise a lifelong ambition to open Main Street Hotel in Ypres two years ago, at a cost of 800,000 euros.
"It's always risky starting a new business, so we thought that Ypres might be a safe choice because of 2014-2018," she said.

Dries Loontjens, owner of Kasteelhof't Hooghe - a 15-bedroom English cottage-style hotel restaurant on the former front line 3km (two miles) from Ypres - said he had received so many large group accommodation requests he decided to build a new 12-bed hotel on adjacent land. He hopes his new 1.24m euro investment, set to open in March 2014, will help meet the demands for groups of about 40 to 45 people.
"With the forthcoming remembrance of the start of WW1, Ypres is expecting large groups of tourists and every available room will be needed," he said.

Teachers Nick De Bodt and Rik Caubergs said the prospect of a tourism boom had prompted them to launch Bike and Culture Flanders, a travel agency which combines WW1 cycle tours with cultural activities such as chocolate-making.

 A 10million-euro refurbishment has increased the size of the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres by 50%, while Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery has a new visitors' centre. The Memorial Museum of Passchendaele 1917 in Zonnebeke has a new building, while the Yser Tower Museum in Diksmuide has been renovated. At Tyne Cot, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, many of the broken white Portland stone headstones are being replaced with marble - part of an effort to get the cemeteries looking perfect for the expected crowds.

WW1  tour guide Carl Ooghe said he feared not all attempts to lure in tourists were as tasteful. "It makes me frown when I see souvenir shops selling poppy gin, poppy chocolates, poppy umbrellas and even chocolate helmets," he said. "It could offend some people and reflects negatively on the image of a town like Ypres."