visit.brussels Night: a new gala evening to celebrate a record year and the key players in the Brussels tourism and congress sector

Brussels, 3 April 2025 - On Thursday 3 April, the first edition of visit.brussels Night was held at Mix in Watermael-Boitsfort. This new event is the result of a merger of two flagship soirées: the visit.brussels Awards Night and the Brussels Business Events Ambassadors Night.

Now under the same banner, the two events have merged to give greater prominence to all the players who contribute to Brussels' reputation in both leisure and business tourism. The evening was also an opportunity for the tourism sector to celebrate an exceptional year. In 2024, Brussels set an all-time record with almost 10 million overnight stays, surpassing the previous record set in 2019 before the COVID crisis. This performance confirms the resilience and growing attractiveness of the capital for both leisure and business tourism.

The evening also saw the presentation of the visit.brussels Awards, which recognise the most innovative cultural and tourism initiatives of the year, and the honouring of the Business Events Ambassadors, who have played a key role in hosting international conferences in the capital.  

The visit.brussels Awards: the initiatives that make Brussels shine 

After a selection process combining public voting and deliberation by a panel of professionals, six creative and inspiring projects were rewarded in different categories, based on criteria such as originality, innovation, inclusiveness and sustainability.

These are the winners of the 2025 visit.brussels Awards by category:

1.  ​Brussels International Icon Award: Anima Festival – Folioscope asbl/vzw  

2.  ​Brussels Best Smart Experience Award: Stoclet 1911 – urban.brussels 

3.  ​Brussels Best Co-creation Award: MolenFest - Molenbeek for Brussels 2030 asbl/vzw 

4​.  ​Brussels Treasure Award: Exhibition - A Century of Belgian Comics – Comic Strip Museum  

5​.  ​Brussels’ Digital Content Creator of The Year Award (category subject to public vote only): Belge une fois 

6.  ​Brussels Best Reviews Award by MMGY-TCI Research (category not subject to public vote or jury vote): Hungry Mary Food Tours

Brussels Business Events Ambassadors: the driving forces behind Brussels' international reputation

Thanks to the efforts of its organisers and the support of the Convention & Association Bureau of visit.brussels, Brussels has become a key centre for international business events. The world's leading city for hosting congresses of international associations, it benefits from a dynamism reinforced by the Brussels Business Events Ambassadors programme, which actively supports bids to organise largescale events.

Since its launch in 2017, this programme has helped to host 135 international congresses, attracting more than 300,000 trade visitors and generating €250 million in economic spin-offs for the destination. This year, 13 organisers of major business events in 2024 have been awarded Brussels Business Events Ambassadors.

These are the Brussels Business Events Ambassadors honoured in 2025:

Michel Arrion, World Cocoa Conference 2024 ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Annette Bakker, 2024 Global NF Conference  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​​François Begot, 11th International CEDH Conference  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Bettina Boon-Falleur, Ethereum Community Conference  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Kris Buedts, EFAS Congress 2024 Cyril Corbet, ISCaM 2024  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Massimo Iovine, European LGBT Police Association Conference  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Laura Jousset, FARI Conference 2024  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Jean Leclercq, Brain and Music Festival 2024  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Candy Mahirwe, JoCo24  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Emily Timney, AMI Plastics World Expos Europe 2024  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​Martine Tondeur, PSYCH-K Workshop  ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​​Frank Trimpont, Enhancing European Public Health Preparedness, Prehospital, and Disaster Medicine  

A unifying event for the future of tourism in Brussels

With the visit.brussels Night, the capital now has a unique opportunity to salute those who, through their commitment and creativity, help to make Brussels a must-see destination for visitors and professionals from all over the world.

More information on the winners of the visit.brussels Awards can be found on www.awards.brussels, with more information on the Brussels Events Ambassadors Programme available at https://www.visit.brussels/en/professionals/Associations/the-brussels-ambassador-program.

Press contact: Jeroen Roppe, j.roppe@visit.brussels - +32 476 61 60 99