From the Bourse to the Rock: Dirk Lubbers on Belgian Beer World

The Beer Idiots interviewed Dirk Lubbers Lubbers in July 2026 about his two-year term as general manager at Belgium Beer World, and his next venture: helping promote Hollow Rock Brewery and its development of an immersive historical experience inside Gibraltar’s Rock.

A year after the grand reopening of Brussels’ 1873 Bourse in September 2023, 1.3 million people had passed through the doors — but only around 150,000 found their way to experience Belgian Beer World, far below expectations. Dutchman Dirk Lubbers joined Belgian Beer World in September 2024 to up those numbers. His two-year term as general manager ended in July 2026.

The Beer Idiots interviewed Lubbers in July about his term at Belgium Beer World, and his next venture: helping promote Hollow Rock Brewery and its development of an immersive historical experience inside Gibraltar’s Rock.

The Dutchman arrived with pedigree. He spent six years running Amsterdam’s Heineken Experience, growing it from a modest museum into one of the Dutch capital’s biggest attractions, with more than a million visitors a year. Belgium, he insisted from the start, had even more to work with – from one beer to over a thousand.

In our video interview, Lubbers looks back on a term defined by patient, unglamorous work rather than grand gestures. He points to two things above all. The first is the Skybar on the roof of the renovated Bourse — arguably the finest view in the city — which he brought back under in-house management, turning a rented-out terrace into a genuine draw and a revenue engine. The second, and the one he seems proudest of, is the team he built to carry the project into its next stage.

Between those bookends sat a steady campaign to make the museum visible and connected. Bourse-styled banners and street billboards went up, ambassadors began working the pavements, and a network of partners spread outward to spread the news. A combi-ticket with the Atomium and Design Museum Brussels, tastings included, tied Belgian Beer World into the city’s tourist circuit; restaurants and hotels followed. The numbers moved — from roughly 150,000 visitors in 2024 toward a projected 160,000-170,000 in 2026.

A €1.5 million Belfius loan and public scrutiny over the building’s costs made headlines in 2025. But Lubbers never wavered from his line that a healthy cultural attraction takes at least two years to build. We’re on the right track, was his steady refrain, and he now hands over an organisation on firmer footing.

He handed over to Belgian Piet Jonckers, current general manager of the BourseBeurs – Belgian Beer World.  Jonckers was previously director of Train World and, before that, Toerisme Vlaanderen, bringing expertise in visitor experience and heritage valorisation. It’s a fitting profile for a site that is as much monument as museum.

As for Lubbers, the next chapter is a beer lover’s daydream. He’s off to Gibraltar to help with Hollow Rock — a brewery carved into the limestone tunnels of the Rock itself, brewing craft beer deep inside the mountain, and promoting a similar ‘experience’. From the Bourse to the Rock: he’s clearly not done telling beer stories yet.