Global The Hague - Business

City of many Faces

A partnership between the Chamber of Commerce for The Hague, Stichting Binnenstad Den Haag (a business association for the city centre), and the City of The Hague, Bureau Binnenstad is the main point of contact for businesses, residents and business owners in The Hague’s city centre. These members of the local business community have joined forces to make The Hague’s city centre even more attractive in every aspect.

‘Freedom within the boundaries of responsibility’

Art lover John Fentener van Vlissingen is the founder and owner of BCD, one of the world’s largest travel organisations. His longstanding passion for art inspired him last year to establish the Van Vlissingen Art Foundation, which supports one talented contemporary visual

‘Most artists know how to create beautiful art but they don’t always know how to sell it – they often need help from gallery owners and art fairs such as the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) and the PAN art and antiques fair. I was involved for some time in both those events, with the objective of establishing these organisations. The Van Vlissingen Art Foundation allows me to personally contribute to the process of helping artists raise their proﬁ le.’ It was as a young boy attending the experimental Kees Boeke School in the Dutch town of Bilthoven that Mr Fentener van Vlissingen ﬁrst developed an interest in the art world. Later, while a student at an English boarding school, the creatively inclined youngster learned to work within strict rules and boundaries. In fact, ‘Freedom within the boundaries of responsibility’ is one value instilled in him during that time that has remained with him for all these years and that he occasionally still likes to use in speeches. ‘I admire the underlying principle; I feel it can be applied to many different aspects of life. In the art world, too, it is artists’ curiosity that leads them to explore the boundaries of art time and again.’

Sports city on the sea

Sander Dekker is Alderman for Education, Youth and Sport in The Hague. For Global The Hague’s sports section, we asked him a number of questions in order to gain a better understanding of what makes The Hague a ‘sports city’.

How are you raising people’s awareness of The Hague as a sports city?
‘If you’re looking to perform well, you must first know what your strengths are – that is obviously true for individual athletes, but it applies to cities as well. The Hague is the only city in the Netherlands that is located on the sea, which gives us a huge advantage. The largest sports and games arena in the country – the beach and the sea – is a gift of nature. Being blessed with that gift has defined our objective of becoming a beach and water sports paradise. We feel that a city has a good chance of achieving those objectives that are the most realistic, and so that’s what we’re focussing on. You can certainly see that it works.’

What sports take priority in your campaign?
‘Beach volleyball is definitely high on the list — we’re trying to create the best possible conditions for players. The beach stadium [on the Scheveningen beach] shows just how serious we are about promoting the sport. We raise the standard a little bit each year in terms of performance in the stadium; that means we must also improve the conditions each year in order to facilitate such high performance levels. We have managed to attract top Dutch beach volleyball players to our city, both in summer and winter. They play in an indoor arena with heated sand, so that they feel right at home in The Hague even in wintertime. They play an important role in communicating our international aspirations, which will be fulfilled this year now that the Beach Volleyball World Tour, one of the world’s largest and most important tournaments, will be held in our city.’