Visit.brussels thrilled after Russell Crowe posts video in Grand-Place

The Grand-Place in Brussels has received another celebrity shout-out, this time from New Zealand actor Russell Crowe.

Crowe posted a 26-second video of himself in the Grand Place on Twitter to his followers, asking if any could identify the place where he was.

He is not the only celebrity to pay the Belgian capital a visit, either. Rapper Lil Nas X was spotted cycling through the streets of Brussels recently, and before him Brad Pitt paid a visit to the Musée Horta and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones was in the Marolles.

All the celebrity appearances have been welcomed by Visit.brussels, which sees them as a sort of worldwide promotional campaign, completely free of charge.

“Russell Crowe has almost three million followers on social networks, so he's quite a big 'influencer', a bit like Brad Pitt in March 2021,” said Visit.brussels spokesman Jeroen Roppe.

“It's spontaneous and unexpected publicity that would be totally unaffordable.”

Not all celebrity visits are free of cost, however. The Brussels tourism sector sometimes works directly with influencers to reach certain tourist 'targets'.

This was the case a few years ago with Anushka Sharma, an Indian film star. Followed by 107 million followers, she was invited to Brussels for a photo shoot.

“As soon as the first photos were published, fans came from London in trainloads to try and catch a glimpse of her, and the photos she posted had more than five million likes,” Roppe added.