Samenvatting

This research was created as a contribution to the internationalization strategy of RAI Amsterdam. The company wants to bring more international conferences, and exhibitions to Amsterdam. One of the objectives of this strategy is to create an ‘international standard’, which complies with the basic services, and features a convention center should provide to its international clients. The goal of this research was to create unique selling points with an international focus, which can be used to define the international standard of RAI Amsterdam.
To create an all-encompassing analysis, it was essential to understand the MICE industry, and to investigate if the Netherlands is an attractive market. To establish the current value proposition of RAI Amsterdam, and to point out its strengths and weaknesses. An analysis of academic articles on the needs, wants and demands of the international customer when visiting a venue, resulted in a checklist with the most important rated services and products. The checklist was used for a comparative research of the direct competitors of RAI Amsterdam: Messe München, ExCel London and Fira Barcelona. The comparison showed wether the current value proposition of RAI Amsterdam complies with these features, and how the competing venues score on satisfying the needs and wants of the international customer.
The MICE industry stands for the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibition industry, these events have different objectives, such as employee trainings, company sales, education, or displaying products. The developments of technology are important for the industry as it changes the way meetings are held, think of hybrid events, virtual communities, and the use of applications. The findings presented that the Netherlands is an attractive country to host international events, the Netherlands and Amsterdam are ranked in the meetings top 10. The Netherlands is an open-minded and welcoming country, with an excellent infrastructure. RAI Amsterdam is perceived to be an innovative company, with a main focus on sustainability. The checklist showed that there are 4 important categories: the building, the facility services, catering, and staff. RAI Amsterdam scored high on the building, staff, and in-house catering, it lost points, however, on the execution of the social webcare. It lacks extra information on local foodservices, tourism information, and a unique feature of RAI Amsterdam, the hotel and travel service, is difficult to find on the website.
This research shows that the RAI can differentiate itself from the competitors by improving its social webcare, providing brochures, and by engaging the visitors by telling the ‘story’ of the city. This can be done by combining the technological developments of the industry with the popularity of Amsterdam. The creation of an application, or a local information guide will add value to the customer experience.