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<\/a><\/p>\nThe Dutchman arrived with pedigree. He spent six years running Amsterdam\u2019s Heineken Experience, growing it from a modest museum into one of the Dutch capital\u2019s biggest attractions, with more than a million visitors a year. Belgium, he insisted from the start, had even more to work with \u2013 from one beer to over a thousand.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 arguably the finest view in the city \u2014 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s tourist circuit; restaurants and hotels followed. The numbers moved \u2014 from roughly 150,000 visitors in 2024 toward a projected 160,000-170,000 in 2026.<\/p>\n
A \u20ac1.5 million Belfius loan and public scrutiny over the building\u2019s 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\u2019re on the right track, was his steady refrain, and he now hands over an organisation on firmer footing.<\/p>\n
He handed over to Belgian Piet Jonckers, current general manager of the BourseBeurs \u2013 Belgian Beer World<\/a>.\u00a0 Jonckers was previously director of Train World and, before that, Toerisme Vlaanderen, bringing expertise in visitor experience and heritage valorisation. It\u2019s a fitting profile for a site that is as much monument as museum.<\/p>\nAs for Lubbers, the next chapter is a beer lover\u2019s daydream. He\u2019s off to Gibraltar to help with Hollow Rock \u2014 a brewery carved into the limestone tunnels of the Rock itself, brewing craft beer deep inside the mountain, and promoting a similar \u2018experience\u2019. From the Bourse to the Rock: he\u2019s clearly not done telling beer stories yet.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n