King Willem-Alexander visited cities much more often than regions in 2023

Although King Willem-Alexander has emphasized the region's importance several times in the past year, he visited a lot less in 2023 than in the urban areas. The four big cities were especially popular with the king in 2023. Willem-Alexander visited the Hague ten times, followed by Rotterdam (nine times), Utrecht (six times) and Amsterdam (five times). Of the small rural areas, the king only visited the Wadden Islands and places in the municipalities of Midden-Drenthe and West Betuwe in Gelderland. He did not visit the province of Flevoland. That shows from research done by ANP.

King Willem-Alexander visited 78 places in the Netherlands in 2023. Most of those were close to home. Over a third were in the Zuid-Holland province. All these visits are announced on the Royal Family's website.

The government information service (RVD) has said that they are "looking into spreading and balance, not just in the short term but also the long term." Formal activities, like audiences, are almost always in the Hague or Amsterdam. Due to the traveling time, the RVD says, "it is not always achievable to combine this with a visit to the region." There are also "many kinds of visits, each having their own impact and character. Therefore, the amount of visits does not necessarily equal the attention and reach," the RVD added. "You cannot compare all the provinces with each other. There is a big variance in population and relatedly also in social, cultural and economic activities."

All public visits of King Willem-Alexander in 2023 were counted for the research. Each visit is, in principle, one day and is therefore recorded as one visit. Events that take place in the same place every year, such as Budget Day or recurring meetings at the palaces, were not included in this count.