Amsterdam as a

convention
destination
Facts Summary 2014
 Amsterdam as a convention destination |

Amsterdams long term strategy for Meetings &

Conventions
Pro Congress Business Plan supported by assets of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

The Amsterdam Metropolitan Area boasts annually a total of over 750 international
meetings. Each providing multiple days and part of the top 10 cities in the ICCA-ranking.
About a quarter of these meetings are non-corporate. These non-corporate meetings
nevertheless accounted for 58% of the total number of conference participants. This has
become an important stakeholder, which Amsterdam heavily invested in for the last decade.
The non-corporate meetings were visited by 777 participants on average, which is 57% more
than in 2012. With an average of 167 participants the corporate meetings were significantly
smaller.

Amsterdam is part of the beating heart of the Dutch economy and our existing merchant
model shows talent in various serviced and industries (clusters). These clusters are: Health
and Life Sciences; Creative Industries; ICT & eScience; High Tech Materials; Food &
Flowers; Business & Financial Services. Most of these clusters play an important role during
the acquisition process. Besides what we normally provide as meeting assistance and
logistic expertise, clusters add value by providing co-creation. Doing so by sharing
knowledge and experience on the topic of the conference. Amsterdams talent such as local
science centres becomes an international focal point during the congress.

Amsterdams long term strategy has paid off in the past 10 years when the Pro Congress
Business Plan was born to attract large meeting and conventions. Participant days are the
best way to measure the volume of the meeting sector. Due to an increase in the total
number of participant days at non-corporate meetings, the total number of participant days
grew by 26% (compare 2012 to 2013). Between the years 2008 and 2013, the total number
of participant days grew with 845%! Pro Congress focus to attract large city wide meetings
(>5,000 participants per day) was very successful: in 2008 44.600 delegate days were
present and 421,680 delegates days were present in 2013.

Amsterdams Meeting & Convention Market invests and develops further

Amsterdam Marketing (AM) has a large group of partners (members) of which over 100 are
specialized in the Meeting & Convention industry: hotels, conference centres, organizers,
theatres, boat companies, etc., work daily together with AM. Hotels represent a large part of
our meeting partners as over 62% of participants in corporate meetings in 2013 took place at
a 4 or 5 star hotel. Hotels and their bed room capacity in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area
has grown significantly along to support the Pro Congress Business Plan. Amsterdam boasts
over 36,000 rooms and more hotels will be added in the next five years. From 3 star (Motel
One) to large conference hotels (Amsterdam RAI conference hotel and Maritim Hotel with
600 rooms and conference room for 2,500 delegates) are in the pipeline. Also other existing
buildings convert to benefit from this growing market. Amsterdam offers a large variety of
vintage buildings such as the former stock exchange building Beurs van Berlage or the
former gasworks Westergasfabriek which welcome meetings and conventions.

Amsterdams unique selling points such as Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with direct flights
connecting 317 different connections worldwide; excellent local transport offering a new
metro service in 2017 and combined with the cultural heritage makes Amsterdam a strong
contender for years to come.