Eindhoven is introducing a wristband from this weekend onwards. You won’t have to show your QR code at bars or restaurants anymore. The Eindhoven hospitality industry and the municipality have agreed on this. The wristbands remain valid for 24 hours.
There will be six points in the city where you can get a wristband with your QR-code and your identity card. You can access all catering establishments and events with that wristband. Ruud Bakker of the Eindhoven branch of Koninklijke Horeca Nederland is pleased that the wristbands can be used from this weekend. “It is going to help in the Marathon on Sunday. We expect big crowds in the city center.”
No long lines
Audiences who only come to watch the marathon do not need a wristband. With the wristbands, the Eindhoven hospitality industry hopes to avoid long queues. “It is actually crowd management. We want to relieve the hospitality businesses.”
The catering businesses can use some extra help, Bakker thinks. “Young people gather at Stratumseind on Friday evenings, from eight o’clock onwards. They first have to stand in line for fifteen or twenty minutes to get in somewhere, with QR codes. They have to queue up again for going somewhere else. It just doesn’t work out.”
Six points to get a band
The containers are placed at six strategic places in the city. On presenting the QR code and ID, you can get a wristband from Friday. The locations are: At the Station, the Stationsplein, the Market, Begijnenhof, the Smalle Haven, and the bridge at the Geldropseweg, at the head of Stratumseind.
The wristband is valid for 24 hours and the color of the band changes every day. It is not possible to remove the wristband without destroying it. This will prevent tampering and fraud. Bakker is convinced that it will work. “The experiences in other cities are positive,” he says.
The municipality of Eindhoven is stepping up its efforts to introduce the bands; according to Bakker, the municipality is putting in 180,000 euros to make the plan possible.
Source: omroepbrabant.nl
Translation: Chaitali Sengupta. She also gives online INBURGERING classes.
