Tired of Amsterdam? Time to discover Maastricht!

The historic building which now houses Maastricht’s tourist office wasn’t much of a welcoming place back in the XV century. The “Dinghuis” - from the Dutch words “geding” (trial) and “huis” (house) - originally served as a court house with prison cells in the basement. A watchman was stationed at the top of the tower to sound the alarm in case of a fire or any other type of danger. The bell still functions perfectly (only in an automated way now) and can be heard every full hour.

The premises have been transformed into a regular office space and if it weren’t for some small details like the beautiful fireplaces or window decorations one wouldn’t guess that this is one of the oldest buildings in the city. Instead of the fate of a suspect, it is now the destiny of the city’s image that is being decided at the Dinghuis.

VVV Maastricht, as the tourist office is better known, recently finalised the English version of its website at www.vvvmaastricht.nl. Previously only small sections of the overwhelmingly Dutch site were available in English. The office is now considering the possibility of adding a German and a French version. Certainly a logical continuation, since German and French are some of the most commonly heard languages in the streets of Maastricht.

The city website reports that a total of 18.6 million tourists visited Maastricht in 2006. A large majority of those, 10.1 million, came to shop or dine, while 6.5 million were “proper” tourists, 0.5 million took part in a conference and 1.4 million in other various events. Most of the tourists were Dutch, followed by the British, Germans, Belgians, North Americans, French and Asians.

As I was taking pictures of brochures and souvenir-stands on my way out of the building, which took me about seven minutes, I counted two tourists. Good score for a Thursday afternoon?

Maastricht’s appeal
Stephanie Hameleers, who works at VVV Maastricht’s marketing and communication department, explains that Maastricht’s attraction lies mainly in its international image and its historical assets – after all, it’s the oldest city in the Netherlands (or second oldest, as Maastricht and Nijmegen still disagree on the issue) and the famous European Treaty of Maastricht was signed here in 1992.

“Moreover, the city is quite compact,” says Hameleers. “There are many things to see and to do, even though the city itself isn’t too overwhelming in size”. The “high life”, “wine and dine” images are other incentives for visiting. This explains why VVV Maastricht’s main strategy targets the DINKs (“Double Income, No Kids”) group. “It’s not about age groups anymore,” says Hameleers, “but about shared interest for food, shopping and cultural events like TEFAF (The European Fine Art Festival).” And of course about spending money on these interests.

The promotion also focuses on convincing the DINKs group to increase the length of their visit to Maastricht. “We would like to see people stay not just for the weekend but for longer. That’s why we offer a discount on hotel prices for mid-week arrangements from Monday till Thursday”.

In practise, however, it seems to me that those who turn out to be available for these packages are people who don’t have to work anymore, such as pensioners. In my experience, not so many young tourists can be spotted in the streets of Maastricht.

Hameleers doesn’t fully share my perspective. “Again, it’s not about age groups,” she insists. “We’re not trying to specifically target retired people. We are also trying to convince the successful 30-something-year-olds to take a few days off to enjoy the posh life in Maastricht.”

For Dutch visitors, another appealing factor lies in Maastricht’s geographical location. Being situated so down south, the city makes them feel already a little abroad. The inhabitants of Maastricht speak a dialect which is quite different from the standard Dutch, they are more relaxed than their fellow countrymen in the Randstad area (around Amsterdam and Rotterdam) and they enjoy life a bit more.

I cannot help wondering to what extent Hameleers is objective in her description of the inhabitants of Maastricht, being born and raised here herself. But this is another interesting factor – I have come to discover that true Maastrichters are usually very proud of their culture, which all adds to this “Maastricht feeling”.

Tourist events and activities
The fact that there are easy connections with most major European cities is certainly a plus for Maastricht. It is easy to participate in the city’s most popular events: last year the biggest hits were the summer concert of the Maastricht born and world famous violinist André Rieu, the TEFAF arts and antiques fair, the “Preuvenemint” culinary fair, and the “Winterland” Christmas market. These being all annual events, Hameleers can easily predict that they will again bring many visitors to Maastricht in 2008.

An exceptional highlight this year however is going to be the dinosaur exhibition which will take place at Centre Céramique from 8 February until 27 April. A collection of dinosaurs’ skeletons, eggs, foot prints from the Natural History Museum of Beijing will for the first time be displayed in Western Europe and a large number of dinosaur lovers are expected to visit the exhibition, which will last for an unusually long period of six weeks.

Apart from taking part in specific events, tourists obviously go sightseeing. For first time visitors, VVV Maastricht offers guided city tours: the standard city walk including the Vrijthof square and the historical area around it, or a walk with a little twist – focusing on Maastricht’s fortifications, the Wyck neighbourhood (the oldest borough of Maastricht), religious landmarks, vineyards, bridges, etc. These walks are available in Dutch, Maastricht dialect, English, French, Spanish or German.

Moreover, the tourist office’s special R-Team can organize pretty much anything. “Our daily business consists of putting together tailored packages, programmes and activities and making all sorts of arrangements and agreements,” claims the “Maastricht for groups” brochure. How about trying to find your way in the dark caves of Mount St. Pieter with only a few torches and reflector lights on the ground? Or learning to bake a typical Limburg fruit pie in a vlaai-baking workshop? Or discovering the Casemates, the city’s underground fortifications, under the guidance of D’Artagnan, the famous musketeer who lost his life in Maastricht?

It has to be noted, however, that not all these activities are offered in English. An elaborate list of over 40 various trips, some of them to places outside of Maastricht such as the American Cemetery in Margraten, can be found on VVV Maastricht’s website within a mouse click, but the available languages are not indicated. “This is a part of our strategy,” Hameleers reveals. “We want people to call us. If it turns out that the trip is organised only in Dutch we try to encourage them to register for a similar activity which is also offered in other languages. If we only stated Dutch as an option, people could get easily discouraged from trying something else.”

For those who prefer to experience Maastricht without any guides or tours, the tourist office has prepared three brochures which can serve as a starting point for individual explorations: Maastricht for groups (free), Maastricht on your own (EUR 2.20), and Maastricht Wining and Dining (free). The brochures are available in Dutch, English, French, and German and can be picked up at the office. Even though most of the information is also available on the website, the brochures cannot be downloaded yet (although it’s the plan). Further plans for the website include extending the booking system (from hotels to all the activities on offer) and a newsletter in Dutch and English.

VVV Maastricht and the City Council
Even though VVV Maastricht has no official vote in the decisions made by the City Council (Gemeente Maastricht), it does have an advisory function. The relationship is cooperative and VVV Maastricht receives a subsidy from the Council. However, it is not allowed to make any profit and therefore all the revenues need to be re-invested in promotional activities for the city.

The tourist office is also financed by membership fees from organizations or companies which want to be included in promotional projects (e.g. hotels, shops, restaurants), and other projects funded by various organizations.

An interesting project of the City Council which has the moral and promotional support of VVV Maastricht is the re-development of the former industrial area of Belvédère (borough in Maastricht). The masterplan is expected to be finalised in the next 20-25 years but results will be seen gradually. Relocating industry to the outskirts of cities is a general trend and Maastricht is working on it as well. The general goal is to transform the Belvédère area into a mixture of cultural and commercial ventures, with apartment complexes, theatre, cinema, shops and offices. City planners hope that the project will improve the overall match between Belvédère and other parts of Maastricht, and further contribute to the posh image promoted by both the City Council and the tourist office.

At the provincial level VVV Maastricht cooperates with other tourist offices in Limburg as well as with the provincial authorities. At national level, all the VVV offices in the Netherlands are connected and the NBTC (Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions) which is in charge of the Holland.com internet campaign for the whole country also provides support by promoting Maastricht as a tourist destination. Beyond the borders, Maastricht has established links with the neighbouring cities of the Meuse-Rhine euroregion, such as Aachen, Hasselt, Heerlen and Liège.

What kind of tourists in Maastricht?
If one fits into the target group of the tourist office’s promotional activities Maastricht is probably a tempting destination. This became especially clear to me when I recently came back from a one-day trip to Amsterdam: there were no drunk English chavs in the streets of Maastricht. And the city centre didn’t have more tourists than locals, maybe also because it was almost deserted and it was only midnight.

Maybe there is some sense in keeping heterogeneity between tourists: Amsterdam for those who are looking for the time of their party life (often also in combination with a variable dose of cultural undertakings), and Maastricht for those who’d rather explore caves and sip nice wines, or admire ancient churches and city walls. Diversity.

But if I was the Program Director of the tourist office in Maastricht I think I would try to spice up the city’s posh image. Organising concerts or festivals could be a good start in trying to lurk younger people into the city. By “concerts” I mean performances of artists who also represent other genres than the music of André Rieu. An open-air jazz festival would go well with the image Maastricht wants to project and would probably also appeal to a wider audience.

To my slight disappointment at the lack of a more visible presence of entertaining loud tourists (and by tourists I am not referring to those who ask: “Excuse me, where is Mississippi?”) Hameleers responds: “When people come to the Netherlands for the first time they will probably choose to go to Amsterdam. But on their second visit, or when they are tired of all the obvious tourist destinations and would like to see the “undiscovered Netherlands” Maastricht has its charms”. And so it does – in the case of this conclusion, we both agree.

By Hania Piotrowska

Hania Piotrowska is a Polish student at University College Maastricht.

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Maastricht tourist office, photographs by Hania Piotrowska

Views of Maastricht from the Dinghuis tower, photographs by Hania Piotrowska