The Emmen Vlinderstad Entrepreneurs Association (OEV) is happy with the way Emmen presented itself to the Netherlands during King’s Day. The club of shopkeepers from the city center hopes that more day trippers and tourists will now also visit the city.
More than 2.2 million people saw on television yesterday how the royal family walked through the center of Emmen. Another 30,000 saw it with their own eyes, along the route in the city center. So there is no shortage of attention.
King Willem-Alexander and his family were presented with various signboards from Emmen and Drenthe during their walk through the city. Sometimes figuratively, with living statues of dolmen builders and peat workers, and sometimes literally, with a homemade croquette from KrokettenKunst.
All in all, according to center manager Laurens Meijer of the business association, Emmen is doing well after King’s Day. “I think people have really gotten a very positive image of Emmen and our surroundings,” says Meijer.
According to the center manager, relatively little was left to be done by entrepreneurs in the city center during the king’s visit. Meijer: “On such a day with so many people, you don’t tend to go shopping anymore. You come for the event. But we hope to reap the benefits of it in the near future.”
At the end of his visit, King Willem-Alexander announced that a seed had been planted in his mind. Emmen and Drenthe have become part of his heart and he quoted singer Daniël Lohues. “Every time I come back to the province or to Emmen, I say: I’m getting away from here.”
So the king seems to have already turned. Now the rest of the Netherlands. Meijer: “I hope that a seed has also been planted in people’s minds,” says Meijer. “So that people who have seen King’s Day will go to Drenthe next summer and take Emmen with them.”
