The government of the Brussels-Capital Region said that since the bombing of Brussels airport and Maalbeek metro station in March 2016 it was “doing its utmost” to help the most affected sectors - such as tourism - and bring visitors back to the destination.

The ‘Where will Brussels take you?’ campaign launches today (May 2) across several major European cities.

Rudi Vervoort, minister-president of the Brussels-Capital Region said: “Numerous actions were undertaken immediately after the attacks and have yielded positive results. We have witnessed a very clear recovery of tourism in Brussels at the beginning of this year.

“The campaign represents an additional effort and aims at revealing our region’s hidden secrets—the best and most remarkable of what Brussels has to offer.”

The authority said the campaign would invite visitors to “discard preconceived notions and traditional clichés of our capital” and would take advantage of a new online platform www.takemeto.brussels with which tourists can create “personalised and tailormade stays” in the city based on their preferences data.

The campaign will use cartoon characters The Smurfs as part of its marketing drive and a competition will also be run to win a weekend in Brussels.