For decades, five families in Bruges have run the tourist boats that chug serenely along the beautiful Flemish city’s picturesque canals. Day in, day out, the guides describe the medieval belfry, low-sweeping bridges and rich history of this “Venice of the north”.
But there may be stormy waters ahead for the boaters of Bruges. There is talk that Chinese investors and, even worse, people from Ghent, known locally as Stroppendragers or noose-bearers, could make waves.
To comply with EU law, the municipality will, in 2027, end the existing licensing regime, after which concessions will be open to tender, and competition encouraged. With the boating companies also obliged to invest in electric boats – at €200,000 a vessel, double the cost of a diesel engine – the future is uncertain. A wary eye is being cast at boat companies in Ghent, a rival city since the Battle of Beverhoutsveld in 1382. The nickname of Stroppendragers for Ghent dwellers was earned after the gentry there were forced by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in 1540 to parade with ropes around their necks after a failed rebellion.
“The five shipping companies have been providing tourist round-trips for years, some even since 1905,” councillor Geert Van Tieghem, from the N-VA, a conservative Flemish party, told Het Nieuwsblad. “That is a piece of nautical heritage that we absolutely must cherish.
“Now that the market is opening up, the concern is understandable. The economic market is large. You never know when people show interest from China. Or from Ghent, where there are also boats. It is important to give the Bruges shipping companies a little more legal certainty when they make such large investments.”
Jos Michielsens, from the boat company Venice Van Het Noorden, which has been a proud user of a jetty near the city’s old fish market, the Huidenvettersplein, since the 1950s, said it could be the end of an era.
“We are asked to make such a heavy investment, but we are not assured that we will be able to reap the benefits,” he said. “That is upsetting and makes me fearful of the future. We can’t help but go with it – it’s with the knife at the throat. If the state obliges you to make a certain investment in your home, then you do that too, right?”
The alderman for tourism in Bruges, Philip Pierins, said it was necessary for the licensing procedure to be “transparent” and that the concessions would now be time-limited rather than permanent.
“The city of Bruges engaged a law firm to carry out a legal screening of the existing municipal bylaw on boat trips,” Pierins said. “This screening showed that the duration of the licences for the current licence-holders could be extended indefinitely, and because the current licence-holders were always given priority in the context of the application procedure, it was virtually impossible for another interested market-player to obtain a licence.”
The obligation to replace diesel boats with electric vessels has been accompanied by municipal funding to help the companies establish charging-points at their jetties. A 2024 deadline for making the transition from diesel has been extended to 2027. The regulated price for a tourist trip has also increased from €10 to €12, he said.
Pierins added: “It is therefore not the case that they are ‘putting a knife to their throats’, as they seem to indicate. They are not obliged to have a full electric fleet by the end of the licence period, but every old diesel boat they replace must be an electric boat from now on.
“Another condition to which they are committed is that every shipping company from now on offers at least one digital payment option, in addition to the existing option to pay in cash,” he said.
