As the beginning of the 100 year anniversary of the outbreak of WWI draws close, research commissioned by Westtoer, the tourism organisation for the province of West Flanders, in co-operation with VISITFLANDERS, shows huge growth in visitor numbers to the Flanders Fields area. The first five months of 2014 has seen an increase of 70% compared with the same period in 2013, with visitors from the United Kingdom making up 37.2% of the number.

Considerable investment has been made into the area's key museums and other visitor sites, in preparation for the commemoration of the Great War, including significant refurbishment and expansion of the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres (reopened July 2012) and the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917 (reopened July 2013). Research from these museums, as well as other attractions and sites has revealed the following:

- 63.5% of visitors from Britain were school groups; individual visits made up 23.1% of the total, and 13.4% were group visits.

- 67.3% of individual British visitors were “extremely satisfied” with their experience of Flanders Fields; a further 28.0% were “satisfied”

- 58.8% of group visitors from Britain were “extremely satisfied”, with 38.6% responding as being “satisfied”.

- With an average stay of between 2-3 nights, the most popular sites visited were Tyne Cot Cemetery, the Last Post ceremony in Ypres  and the In Flanders Fields Museum.

- British visitors were second only to Belgian visitors in terms of the most frequent visitors to the area. Other Commonwealth visitors represented a total of 12,400 visitors to the area and of these, Australians made up 7,300 of this number.

Andrew Daines, Director of VISITFLANDERS UK and Ireland said “With increasing numbers of British and Commonwealth visitors expected for 2014, we are proud of what Flanders has to offer all age and interest groups in terms of its tourism infrastructure. We are delighted that visitors are impressed with the regions' respect for WW1 heritage and its ability to convey a universal message of the importance of peace”.

9th July 2014

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