New Visitors Centre for Port of Ghent

Flemish transport minister Hilde Crevits officially opened the new visitors centre for the port of Ghent yesterday. The centre is located on the Rigakaai north of the city centre.

The new facility is intended to form a single meeting place for the 15,000 visits to the port every year by companies, organisations, schools and foreign embassies. The centre, a striking construction in glass and wood, includes a main auditorium for more than 100 people and a terrace looking out over the harbour’s main dock. The location is “a symbolic place because this is the frontier between the city and the contemporary port,” said port affairs alderman Matthias De Clercq, who also chairs the port authority.

“This is a visiting card for the port and an important addition to the port infrastructure,”  Crevits said. The centre cost €2 million to construct.