Brussels (AFP)

The Atomium, an emblematic monument of Belgium and a must for tourists in Brussels, 70% depends on foreign customers. So its reopening to the public on Monday does not dispel all questions about the post-coronavirus.

In mid-May, the site assessed the annual shortfall due to confinement at 3 million euros, which required two and a half months of closure.

"A catastrophe" potentially "fatal" for the operators, as they pointed out in a press release. They recalled that the Atomium lives at 90% of its ticket office and receives very few subsidies.

Two weeks later it was a sigh of relief for all the fans of the "most Belgian of buildings", and for its forty employees who were on partial unemployment.

The public authorities authorized the reopening on June 1, with the necessary security measures in circulation spaces and inside giant steel balls. Five of the nine are accessible to the public, offering several exhibitions.

"It is really great news that life will resume," said Zoubida Jellab, the elected representative of Brussels who chairs Asbl Atomium, the managing association.

At reception, yellow adhesive strips have already been placed on the ground to mark the distances to be respected in the queue, the route is now signposted with no U-turn possible, and access to the elevator limited to six people at a time.

However, the recovery is only partial. The panoramic restaurant will initially remain closed. And above all, the return of foreign tourists will depend on the reopening of the borders, not yet decided in Belgium.

At the Atomium, out of the approximately 600,000 annual visitors recorded on average in recent years, 70% come from abroad, mostly from Europe, but also from the United States or Brazil.

Only 30% are Belgian. It is this national clientele that will have to be won over in the first place, as well as "the French, the Dutch, the Germans", underlines Ms. Jellab.

- Official inauguration bis -

"We will have to reinvent ourselves, be creative", continues this assistant (Ecolo) to the mayor of Brussels, "it's a challenge".

A statement shared by the director of the Brussels Tourist Office, Patrick Bontinck, who says "sailing in the fog" on what will be after Covid19 for a tourism and culture sector weighing "15 to 20% of GDP" of the capital.

In Belgium, a country of 11.5 million inhabitants where the coronavirus has killed more than 9,400 people, shops, schools and museums have gradually reopened since mid-May. However, no specific date has yet been set for coffee shops, cinemas or theaters.

And, notes Mr. Bontinck, "we have no idea what the consumption habits of the Belgian tourist will be" after confinement. "Will there be a revival of national tourism, will the Belgians dare to go abroad or not?"

In addition to the uncertainty on the land borders, it is "very complicated" to plan "without knowing how the international trains and the airlines will revive their activity", for the moment in neutral or almost, says this expert of the tourism.

Proof that the Atomium is indeed a national emblem, Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès and Princess Astrid, sister of King Philippe, are announced at the reopening ceremony scheduled for Monday morning, presented as an "official inauguration".

The national anthem will sound and the Belgian flag will be hoisted above the so-called "panoramic" ball, the highest, which offers visitors one of the most beautiful views of Brussels, 92 meters high.

The Atomium has never been closed for so long since 2006, when it reopened after two years of renovation work. History of shining steel again half a century after the construction of the building designed for the 1958 World Fair.

© 2020 AFP