Is the flamingo really pink?

[Carl de Moncharline] We've lived with this image since our early youth. However, the flamingo isn't born pink… it becomes pink. It owes this shimmering colour to its environment and to what it finds on its plate. In a word, the flamingo only sees life through rose-tinted glasses because it supposedly lives in good conditions. So let's investigate the plates of the Horeca sector on the other side of the linguistic border, in the « Ongeveer » vicinity of the Anvers Zoo, just to be sure. Yet Brussels is pulling out all the stops While the Brussels Horeca sector is struggling according to all indicators, it's not for lack of customers, « at least for now », because since the new Brussels majority asked visit.brussels to refocus on its « essential missions », and since we know, since Covid, to what extent our professions are not considered essential, the question can be raised. Yet, with nearly 9.8 million overnight stays in 2024, a historic record, and 9.63 million in 2025, as well as approximately 35,000 daily passers-by in the Piétonnier, 34,700 at Porte de Namur, and 28,600 at the Grand-Place, according to the hub.brussels Retail Barometer 2025, one cannot say that Brussels is short of tourists, commuters, or visitors. We will see if the new majority can break the record and exceed 10 million overnight stays. So, if the potential clientele exists, why do we have this unbearable feeling that Brussels is sick and that the Horeca sector is developing better among our Flemish neighbours? In Flanders, politicians sit down at the table with the Horeca sector Does Brussels know its Horeca sector less well? No. The Brussels Region also has its Commerce Observatory, which has been accumulating data for decades… The difference perhaps lies in what is done with it… or not. So let's leave the 'Gastro' for Gastronomy and head towards the Anvers Zoo. To see if the watercress is really greener there than elsewhere. Arriving at Antwerpen-Centraal, one of the many superbly renovated Belgian stations while Brussels is still waiting for the train, we immediately get to the heart of the matter in one of the 16 Horeca hubs identified and analysed by the City in its « Meting Antwerpse horecakernen 2025 ». The difference with Brussels is perhaps that Anvers considers its Horeca sector a fully-fledged economic sector. It measures it to better understand it and has equipped itself with a real guidance strategy. Since 2023, it has had a Horeca Plan, the « Horecabeleidsplan », with the baseline « De stad als supporter voor Antwerpse horeca », « The City as a supporter of the Anvers Horeca sector ». Behind the slogan are 3 main lines of action: simplifying rules, helping establishments to set up and grow, and strengthening collaboration between the City and professionals. But also 20 concrete actions: supporting those who want to invest, promoting Anvers as a Horeca destination, and developing winter terraces. A policy that therefore no longer consists only of regulating the sector, but also and above all of guiding it. Among these twenty actions, one particularly catches my attention: supporting and promoting the nighttime Horeca. An ambition that resonates strangely with me, as the glory days of Cap de Nuit, Si Bémol, Campus, or Cabestan seem so far away… Come on, it's already time to take the train again, direction Gand, where the Horeca sector is considered a player in the city's development and attractiveness. It too has its strategic plan, the « Vision Detailhandel en horeca », and guides the approximately 170 entrepreneurs who, according to Sofie Bracke, alderman for Economy and Commerce, create a restaurant-related business there each year. A dedicated page guides the future operator, from verifying the Horeca zoning designation to applying for their Horeca certificate and various permits, all grouped in one place. The City even offers its « Drukte Radar », which provides information on footfall, origin, and visitor spending by district, to help choose a better location to set up. Therefore, what a sad observation to learn what is happening in Ixelles where, on the emblematic Place du Châtelain, the Horeca unit has just sanctioned two or three establishments that were not in compliance with their zoning designation, according to a shopkeeper on the square who told me the story on September 25. With all the disastrous consequences for him as well as for his suppliers. It's madness, but especially backwards, and one wonders how this is still possible in 2026! Briefly, the journey continues to Hasselt where terrace permits are tacitly renewed rather than requiring a new application each year and can, in principle, remain all year round. Then Courtrai, where the City provides public spaces authorised for terraces to the Horeca sector free of charge, the tax having been abolished in 2020. So the flamingo isn't naturally pink… its life is just made simpler! [Box] Brussels, the pot ready to boil over? Anvers plans, Gand provides guidance, Hasselt simplifies, Courtrai facilitates. And Brussels in all of this? The finding is rather hard to swallow. From January to August 2026, 235 Horeca establishments went bankrupt in Brussels, an increase of 4.4% in one year and over 18% of all Brussels bankruptcies, according to Statbel data updated on September 24. At the beginning of September, the Fédération Horeca Brussels itself asked the question: « Is the Brussels Horeca sector sick, or simply undergoing a transformation? » Behind these figures also lies a growing frustration: that of entrepreneurs who do not feel they are being guided and supported, even though they contribute significantly to the economy of the city and the country, without counting their hours. No, the watercress is not greener in Flanders, and life is not necessarily rosier there. Operators there also suffer from cost indexation, regulations, recruitment difficulties, and bankruptcies. Flanders is not immune to the gloomy atmosphere. But my investigation shows at the very least that some Flemish cities have made the Horeca sector an explicit growth strategy and are seeking to best guide the actors in the sector. The Flemish are perhaps simply evolving in an environment that better allows them to regain their colour. We are now waiting for Brussels to roll out its strategy to allow its Horeca sector to truly take flight again, before climate change causes a forced migration…