Picturesque Bruges has joined the likes of Croatia’s Dubrovnik and Spain’s Barcelona by becoming the latest European city to suffer from mass tourism.
To combat this, the Belgian city has announced new regulations to help decrease visitor numbers after the mayor warned it was becoming ‘like Disneyland’.
According to Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, Bruges mayor Dirk De fauw said: “We have to control the influx more if we don’t want it to become a complete Disneyland here.”
Measures which have been implemented include the tourist board revoking advertising campaigns in nearby cities like Brussels and Paris to help decrease the amount of day trippers to the city.
A cap has also been introduced for cruise ships docked in the port, reducing the number from five at a time to two. Cruise ships have also been encouraged to dock during weekdays instead of the weekend.
Bruges previously prohibited any new hotels being built and banned locals from renting out their houses as holiday homes.
Last year, a record 8.3 million tourists visited Bruges – an increase of 900,000 from 2017. Six million of these tourists were day trippers from cruise ships who spent an average of three hours in the city – something the mayor wants to discourage and says the measures being put in place will help preserve the quality of life for the 19,500 locals that call Bruges home.
