To further establish Ghent’s position as the Veggie Capital of Europe, Tourism Ghent has launched a special city map Veggie Gent. The map lists over 80 vegetarian restaurants and nine organic shops in the city and also spots them on the map which can help a traveller navigate his way through the city to the restaurant of his choice. The map also lists 5 outlets in the city serving the Belgian specialty- Fries cooked in vegetarian oil as well as hotels and B&Bs that offer an extensive vegetarian breakfast. The map can be downloaded from the tourism board’s website www.visitgent.be.

Ghent, the city located in Flanders, the northern region of Belgium serves the largest number of vegetarian restaurants in the whole of Belgium. It is considered as the organic heaven for vegetarians with dozens of unique little restaurants, shops and even an organic market at Groentenmarkt. In 2009, Ghent also introduced the concept of Thursday Veggieday, a campaign developed by EVA (Ethical Vegetarian Alternative). This campaign made Ghent the first city in the world to officially stimulate people to go vegetarian one day in a week. It is also the first city in the world to have an official veggie day.

With an aim to further assist the vegetarian traveller, Tourism Flanders has listed restaurants across Flanders offering vegetarian cuisine on their menu on its Indian website www.visitflanders.in. “Availability of vegetarian food is an important factor that many Indian tourists seek during their travel abroad. This is one of the strengths of Flanders and Indian tourists can enjoy a wide variety of vegetarian cuisine while visiting Ghent and our other beautiful Art Cities. To make this information available to potential visitors we have included it on our website and on other media platforms.” says Sunil Puri, Managing Director, Representative Office of Tourism Flanders & Brussels, Belgium.