BEHIND THE SCENES
CHRIS TIRARD
Visit Britain Manager Brussels & President Union

By Viviane Vogels

CHRIS TIRARD,
A BELGIAN BRIT OR A BRITISH BELGIAN?
Chris, 41, is a typical English Gentleman on one hand but in a conversation he also exhibits surprising Belgian traits. All is explained of course by the fact that he has a Belgian father and a British mother and was born and bred here in our little country. As a matter of fact, Chris is probably the only VisitBritain Manager who never actually lived or resided in Britain!

THE EARLY YEARS
Although Chris studied Tourism at Isalt he was not quite convinced that that was his future and he spent some time working with his father in the textile industry. Actually he had a slightly more glamorous idea of the industry than it turned out to be and the novelty soon wore off. AS his Mum was working at the Brussels BTA office and as they were looking for somebody to work “a computer” he decided in 1990 to put his studies to good use and joined the BTA office. He remembers fondly “the good old DOS systems” and concentrated on learning all about data management and the more technical side of computers.
Because of his language skills he was asked on a few occasions to man an info desk and so grew into travel trade marketing.

At the time ‘Mum’ was the then Business Travel Manager Harry Meade’s assistant, so when in 92 Chris was asked to replace Harry he realized he would actually get ‘Mum’ as his assistant…but as their relationship was a good one, the mother-son team thrived and followed the good standards set by his predecessor.

1995 was somewhat of a pivotal year with the arrival of Bruce Taylor (hmm…have we heard that name somewhere else?...)as new manager of BTA. First there was …’Mum’ who helped him over having to make his own mother redundant by suggesting that enough was enough and wanting to retire to her countryside. Chris is 29 by now and is questioning his future; he even applies for another job with Galileo. Bruce, sensing his hesitation, proposes…no…not more money….after all this is a government institution, but more and more interesting responsibilities to do with consumer marketing. Chris becomes the resident specialist in Consumer Relationship Marketing; one of his campaigns even wins an award and the figures boom!

THE CHANGING YEARS
In 1999 a major restructuring means that Brussels now reports to Amsterdam and again Chris has some decisions to take. He decides to take on the job of local Manager for Belgium & Luxembourg and continues on the path that he had set out since a number of years.
There comes a moment in many young men’s lives that they question a number of things in their lives and so Chris decides in 2003 to take a sabbatical year to think and decide what he wants to do with the rest of his life. The first three months he lives the life of Reilly or as he puts it ‘the life of a retired person: get up late, hang around, and watch daytime television. In springtime he dusted off his motorbike and went to travel around in France and discovered Ireland. He also spent time with a professional life coach who through a number of tests and long talks made him go through the process of looking at his goals in life. It allowed him to focus on certain things and the conclusions were as varied as they were interesting: although he is very comfortable on his own, he also likes to feel needed.
He started thinking along the lines of becoming a consultant and used the remaining 6 months of his sabbatical to work for a small advertising agency to learn the ropes from the lowest level. A bit of shock it turned out not be the manager anymore, so he decided that if he would become a consultant he should strike out on his own, start his own agency and in his own industry. Of course there are many of us (yours truly included) in the tourism industry and – very cleverly – he decided to go back to what he knew best.

That 1-year sabbatical saw a totally refreshed Chris take up his old job again but with a fresh view, a better attitude and definitely a more positive outlook on life and the job at hand. Chris had realized that there is more to life than a job and he totally subscribed to the new corporate culture which is more about the individual and which teaches that a career should be seen as a small enterprise; a major difference from when he started out 15 years earlier.
Chris calls himself a better-adjusted person, which makes him a better team leader with a more private business attitude and definitely with greater aptitude for office politics. “I have my plan B all worked out and it gives me a positive feeling and a more relaxed attitude to the job, “says Tirard with an impish smile.

THE CREATIVE YEARS
The enthusiasm with which Chris approached his job again was first of all channeled in preserving a British presence in Belgium and not have everything transferred to Holland as was planned. “Changes must happen but leave us a representation with the available resources.” The same enthusiasm shifted to all the other foreign tourism offices in Belgium and in 2006 Board of Directors of the “Union” (the Association of all Tourism Offices represented in Belgium) unanimously decided that Chris was the best man for the job, and the General Assembly of 2007 confirmed Chris in his Presidency. In a small market such as Belgium, definitely a great peer recognition factor!
His vision for the Union: “Make sure as National Tourism Offices to continue to bring added value to the market”. His goal: assemble as many countries in the world represented in Belgium as possible!

Representations are rapidly changing our world and in many cases countries are no longer represented by a national tourist office. Chris dreams of evolving the Union to the point where representations are accepted as equal members.
He predicts that in another 15 years most National Tourist Offices will not exist in the form we know today. As we all know Tourism is a major industry and therefore we must ask ourselves the question how long must a national government support its own industry, knowing that the Regions within the Nations of Europe are growing in importance. This change obviously implies a “devolution” of autonomy in terms of economic development, which includes Tourism. Privatization therefore seems to be a possible way forward.

Chris also makes a stand for the return or at least the continuation of the brochures for the clients: “The web is a great fulfillment tool but not for direct marketing. People still like to look into a brochure, the less brochures we have, the smaller Britain’s voice becomes and that is a shame, especially now when the competition of the emerging middle European countries is heating up.” As with every novelty, Chris feels the email has been overused for B-to-B actions and notes that for real important communications there is a definite return to the good old printed matter. As far as B to C is concerned that may go back to print but then probably with less text and more pictures.

CHRIS TIRARD UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL
Chris Tirard, although his gregarious disposition makes you feel you have known him all your life, is a man with many hidden facets.
He would not like to be called a confirmed bachelor but at 41 his standards are high and he is –still - looking for “the one”! Actually, he is very good at coming up with that little enigmatic smile when pushed on the subject…

Chris calls himself a bit of a loner and sometimes – definitely where relationships are concerned – a little immature but that only accentuates his “Tintin” image: he is intrepid like our reporter, gregarious and adventurous but has “safe” relationships, in Chris’s case his motorbike!  A Triumph, British of course, states Chris with the pride of a father. His motorbike is his passport to the world, his escape, he travels on his own or in a small group of maximum 2 others, clubs and formations are definitely not his thing!

His artistic streak found an outlet in accordion playing…yes that stopped me also in my tracks. The story gets funnier when he tells me how he used to exercise in the BTA office during his lunch break and how colleagues would leave a quote on the door; one can only imagine the comments, Bruce can tell us!

Chris describes his main hobby as going to restaurants with friends and exploring the wine list. He started on French wines but now is into Italian wines and even the occasional British wine…which, upon seeing my slightly raised eyebrow, he defends as suits the VisitBritain Manager!

FAVOURITE RESTAURANTS
He does not have to think long to come up with “De la Vigne à l’Assiette” in Ixelles or La Caneva, a small Italian restaurant.
Restaurant Kolya at the Manos Hotel deserves a mention as good value for money, “Bocconi” at the Amigo Hotel caters to his Italian tastes in an elegant way. When Chris feels like real traditional Belgian cuisine he goes to “Chou de Bruxelles”.

MUSIC
After the story of the accordion I expected other musical revelations…and I was not disappointed. In a sense one can follow Chris’s youth and later stages through his taste in music which one can call eclectic to say the least! He started with the Glenn Miller Big Band records his Mum listened to but soon graduated to the charts: the Rubettes, the Beegees. Chris also went through a heavy metal phase but has now safely landed in world music of the Latino type but also likes the occasional British Pop such as Oasis. A special mention was also made of the classical music used for the score of the film “Barry Lyndon”. And let’s not forget Chris was raised in French speaking Belgium and not only the French classics such as Brel, Aznavour, Piaf but also young French singers such as Benabar have caught his attention. His latest discovery is Damien Rice.

BOOKS
Chris Tirard describes himself as a pragmatist: he learns by trial and error and that he does not find in the academic field. What he really says is that he is not a big reader but when pushed about his favourite book he quotes “Portrait of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde as he admires the epicurean approach to life of the main character.

SPORTS
 “When I was young…”says 41-year-old Chris” I did a lot of jogging and played a lot of squash.” He now feels guilty about his lack of exercise and has decided to take up tennis this summer – he is looking for a good partner – and later maybe golf. As he lives in town Chris does make long walks in the city. He often walks to an appointment, and he gets a great kick out of discovering nooks and crannies of Brussels one usually just drives by.

TRAVEL
His favourite country? (…Other than the UK of course..) France, without hesitation as it is his favourite destination for his long rambling tours on his motorbike. He also expresses the ambition to discover Scandinavia on his motorbike.
When not traveling on his motorbike, Chris is attracted to South America and he would love to see Antarctica. “I love the cold; I like to do my hikes and exploring in a mild or cold climate, no big heat for me”!
An ultimate dream? Oh yes, crossing Europe, Mongolia and Northern Asia on his motorbike or maybe in a 4 x4. “I think I got all this imagination about traveling from reading the Jules Verne novels when I was a youngster” he smiles.

THE FUTURE
For the moment – as described above – Chris still has his hands full with VisitBritain but he does have a plan B: he likes the idea of having a place in the countryside to offer accommodation to visitors looking for quality of life, a change of pace, a place to come to peace. This could be in the Belgian Ardennes or in the South of France. What he does know that it will be a place where he sets the pace and not the other way round, he will not be a slave to it!

I have the impression that young Chris still has many stories in him; in the mean time Tintin continues his travels and adventures in the beautiful city of Brussels.

Christopher can be reached on
Visit Britain
Christopher.Tirard@visitbritain.org

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