ADVERTISING INFORMATION

Kortrijk has a fine industrial-archaeological history in an innovative and forward-looking region. Tourist-recreational developments are situated mainly in the field of local and regional recreation and day tourism on the one hand, and business tourism on the other.

In the surrounding area there are various industrial-archaeological sites and museums, which aim at local and regional culture tourism. The quality of the landscape, especially in the area between the rivers Leie and Schelde, is ideal for various kinds of "soft" recreation. These possibilities are even reinforced by a network of footways, cycle routes and riding tracks.

The district of Kortrijk covers twelve municipalities in the south of West Flanders, one of the five provinces of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking community within the Belgian federal state. The Kortrijk district abuts on the Flemish districts Leper and Roeselare and on the Walloon districts Tournai and Mouscron. It is situated near the border with France.

Kortrijk occupies a somewhat eccentric position in Flanders. From a European point of view, however, Kortrijk lies rather centrally and is accessible in many ways. Especially the morphological connection to the densely populated northern French district Lille - at merely 15 minutes by car - increases its force of attraction, so that this "French-Belgian Metropolitan Area" can play a substantial role next to the capitals Brussels, Paris and London.

The district of Kortrijk is situated at the junction of the great European traffic axes and benefits from a full multimode traffic network. The E17 motorway, Antwerpen-Lille-Paris, offers a direct connection to Europe’s most important north-south axe. The motorway network is completed by the A17, Tournai-Brugge, and A19, Kortrijk-Ieper, motorways and the R8 ring road around Kortrijk.

Moreover, Kortrijk is situated along the most important railways Antwerpen-Gent-Kortrijk-Lille and Brussel-Kortrijk. The international transport centre LAR constitutes a multimode platform for combined road and railway haulage. The recent connection of the TGV-network in Lille and the Chunnel gave railway traffic in this region a new impulse.

In recent years, the waterway has become more significant as well, both from an ecological and economic point of view. The Kortrijk district is connected to the most important seaports by way of the rivers Leie and Schelde. The planned widening of the Leie in Kortrijk will be the final link to a full waterway connection with the northern ports and the Seine Basin in France.

The Kortrijk district numbers 279,000 inhabitants, spread over 105,000 households. The population evolution is more or less stable, with a mean increase of merely 0.15% per year. This evolution results from a minor natural increase (+0.20% per year) and a slight negative migration (-0.05% per year). With a population density of 700 inhabitants per km², Kortrijk is one of the most urbanized areas in Northwest Europe. The most densely populated places are situated alongside the river Leie, Menen-Kortrijk-Waregem, whereas the area towards the river Schelde has a lower population density.

The continuous dilution of households - a household numbers 2.65 persons on average - has raised the need for supplementary dwellings. 1,100 new dwellings are built per year in the Kortrijk district. At merely 5 km from the Kortrijk city centre the regional airport Kortrijk-Wevelgem offers all possibilities for civil aviation: taxi flights, business flights, charter flights and instruction.

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