Tourism Flemish Brabant’s Bucket List gives expats a new way to discover the region

Tourism Flemish Brabant recently launched an online ‘Bucket List’ for expats. The purpose of the ‘Become a local’ bucket list is to inspire foreigners currently living in or around Brussels to go out and explore the province of Flemish Brabant.

‘According to estimates, over 200,000 expats live in Brussels and its immediate vicinity,’ says Tourism Representative, Monique Swinnen. ‘These internationals often tend to be significant globetrotters, which is why they enjoy getting out as much as they can to explore their host country. It’s largely online and through insider tips (for example, word-of-mouth advertising) that they find their inspiration. The Bucket List enables us to offer them a website customised toward helping them acquire a taste of our region’s local colour.’

Roughly 20 challenges spur this target audience on toward spending their free time in getting to know the unique regional identity of their new habitat. Among others, they can test out a Geuze beer, visit the local farmers’ market, take a bike ride along the node-to-node network, and much more.

The more items they can check off the list, the higher their ‘local’ score. The website also provides them with the opportunity to share their own progress using social media. By taking this approach, they dare other travellers to try and best their score.

‘It’s a brand-new way of making this kind of information available. And in my opinion, the fact that you can easily share this info with friends and family on social media is fantastic. It’s fun, quirky and interesting. I think that it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser among the internationals!’ says expat Mike Chambers.

Furthermore, Tourism Flemish Brabant will be going ‘on tour’ with the Bucket List following the online launch. ‘We will be actively looking for events with high expat attendance,’ says Monique Swinnen. ‘Our brand-new exhibition trailer already gives us the chance to give the expat community a taste of a few Bucket List activities, and our hope is that this will be a good way to acquaint them with the tourist treasures of Flemish Brabant.’
In addition to the Bucket List campaign, Tourism Flemish Brabant will also be introducing an online newsletter this spring, with tips on discovering the region’s hidden gems, tailored to the international community.