strategic plan 2016-2020

Amsterdam Marketing Strategic Plan 2016-2020 | 1

Strategic Plan 2016-2020

2 | Amsterdam Marketing Strategic Plan 2016-2020


Amsterdam Marketing has been operating in three years. The merger of the Amsterdam Tourism & Convention Board, Amsterdam Partners and Amsterdam Uitburo has made it possible to streamline city marketing for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area1 and make it more effective. More than 1,100 paying partners have joined us. All of this provides a solid foundation for progress.

The original vision is still the starting point: that Amsterdam Marketing is THE city marketing organisation for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and its activities contribute to the city’s economic prosperity by attracting and retaining residents, visitors and businesses.

New steps are needed as a result of changing circumstances in our environment. The number of visitors to Amsterdam will increase further in the coming years, the municipality is cutting spending on city marketing and the needs and requirements

of residents, visitors, business people and partners in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area are changing.

Therefore it is time to redefine our strategy and to look ahead to the coming period: 2016-2020. The emphasis will move in the coming years: we will invest more in targeted activities and less in general marketing. Even more so than before will we be the authoritative guide for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. And we want to manage the reputation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area better than before. We will strive for more balance by focusing our attention, resources and activities on residents and businesses more. Corporate and ‘quality visitors’ will be given more priority.

This is the strategy plan that will serve as a ‘timetable’ for the period 2016-2020. It sets out what Amsterdam Marketing wants to achieve, and describes our ultimate goals. It is the starting point for our annual activity plans.

1. INTRODUCTION

1 In this strategic plan we use different definitions for the term ‘Metropolitan Area’ for each target group. It is the largest area for foreign visitors, the direct environment of Amsterdam for foreign companies and the city for residents.


A good strategy for the coming years builds on what has been achieved so far. A detailed overview of the results can be found in the annual reports. The results below are from the 2014 annual report.

• Every day we have almost 80,000 unique ‘contact moments’ with residents (and Dutch visitors) about the cultural offering; people who want to use our function as a guide. Via the UIT-Krant, each year we reach more than 1.5 million people interested in culture - mainly Amsterdammers.

• The number of international hotel stays by visitors rose by more 11% to over 12.5 million. In the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area this concerns more than 18 million hotel stays. As a result of our campaigns, we have managed to increase this number.

In 2014, 139 foreign companies started operating in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area - creating more than 1,300 jobs. The foreign companies already established within the region generated over 1,600 new jobs.

• Amsterdam Marketing works with more than 1,100 partners: provinces, municipalities, hotels, shops, restaurants, large Dutch companies, cultural organisations, museums and event organisations. They gladly use our marketing power, knowledge and expertise to communicate local and international projects.

In the period 2016-2020 we are going to place more emphasis on indicators that say something about the city’s image. For example, we’ll be looking at figures on the distribution of visitors, the pride of residents and at data from foreign companies in the Metropolitan Area.

2. RESULTS WHAT HAVE WE ACHIEVED?


Amsterdam is a very attractive city for residents, visitors and businesses. We have an enormous amount to offer in terms of cultural activities, we receive a great many visitors from the Netherlands and abroad and Amsterdam is comfortably one of the best places in Europe for businesses to operate.

Amsterdam Marketing wants to continue making a positive contribution to economic growth and thus also employment opportunities in the Metropolitan Area. An attractive Metropolitan Area for international residents, visitors and

businesses. Not only do we want to maintain this position; we also want to strengthen and build on it - with specific attention for liveability based on the distribution of visitors and business activity in the city and Metropolitan Area.

We do this by combining the crème de la crème of local authorities, the business sector and knowledge institutions. Public-private collaboration and funding in an independent foundation is essential for the effectiveness of Amsterdam Marketing.

3. THE AIM WHAT DOES AMSTERDAM MARKETING WANT TO ACHIEVE?


The Metropolitan Area has a lot to offer. Residents, visitors and businesses come to the city - even without marketing. Well-thought-through city marketing is needed to create a healthy and balanced combination of residents, visitors and businesses. This balance is key to the satisfaction of the various target groups. Which in turn is a precondition for the growth of the Metropolitan Area, with all its functionalities.

This doesn’t happen by itself. Therefore Amsterdam Marketing employs an integrated approach to city marketing and city branding for the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. For the short term, but in particular for the medium term. Because this produces the best results, efficiently. The value added by Amsterdam Marketing is to be found in a number of functions:

1 We safeguard and manage the reputation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. Not by thinking up new activities, but by emphasising aspects of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area that otherwise rarely receive attention. A ‘city’ with such a rich cultural offering that has much more to offer than the Red Light District and coffeeshops alone. Its reputation relates to the city, with all its different neighbourhoods and the Metropolitan Area beyond.

2 We showcase what the Metropolitan Area has to offer. We use its unique aspects as a magnetic and spotlight lesser known activities. This means that our choices are guided to great extent by quality, distinction and uniqueness. We position ourselves on the basis of culture, architecture, history, freedom, diversity, open mind and business activity.

4. POSITIONING WHY IS AMSTERDAM MARKETING IMPORTANT?


3 We are the guide for people who want to discover and learn more about the city. We are the authority on what the Metropolitan Area has to offer and can illustrate its importance and background.

4 We are the red carpet of the Metropolitan Area. We guide visitors, amongst other things via our visitor centres, we speak to them via webcare and social media and we work closely with other organisations that are active in the hospitality industry in our city and region. We do this by actively facilitating and supporting these organisations.

5 We connect businesses, local authorities, institutions and organisations that act in the best interests of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. An example of this is the work we do with 32 different local authorities in the region and a multiplicity of cultural organisations and businesses. We also bring together different worlds that have all made a significant contribution to Amsterdam but don’t always speak each other’s language. An example is the collaboration between culture and tourism and between events and conferences.

6 We are a centre of knowledge when it comes to city marketing for and about the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and a pillar for our stakeholders. Amsterdam Marketing carries out unique research into visitors, residents and businesses. This data is an important basis for our city marketing.

This choice of functions will give direction to our marketing activities in the coming years. Average wealth is rising and travel is becoming cheaper. The number of foreign visitors the Netherlands receives is expected to increase from 12 million in 2012 to almost 16 million in 20252.

This has started to become noticeable in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in recent years. Amsterdam Marketing is therefore altering its strategy. We will of course continue to entice visitors, but these activities will be more targeted, different and more effective. Now it is about the balance between the positive effects of more visitors on the economy and employment on the one hand, and the interests of residents and business activity on the other. This means that Amsterdam Marketing is specifically taking into account the interests of these groups in its strategy and activities. We provide more information on this shift under the heading ‘strategy’.

2 Future Prospects for Destination Holland 2025 by Dutch Bureau for Tourism and Conferences (2015)


Amsterdam Marketing is known to many because of ’I amsterdam’. Our challenge for the coming years is to maintain the sense of pride that is felt about the city. We are moving from a ‘sales’ to a ‘guide’ function, focusing on reputation management.

We will adapt our strategy accordingly in the coming years. This will lead to a more balanced division of our work between our three target groups (residents, visitors and businesses) without losing sight of the picture as a whole. Increasingly we will take on the role of a guide in our work. This will enable us to emphases different aspects in our marketing activities that benefit the balance in the city. We also want to better

underline the value we add as a city marketer (see section 4) to municipalities. Together with the Municipality of Amsterdam, we play an active role in the balance discussion. We help facilitate the distribution of visitors in time and space, with a focus on a different type of visitor. At the same time visitor distribution and the sense of busyness among residents depends on a number of preconditions. For example, the intensification and enforcement of laws and regulations, interventions in public spaces and public facilities like public transport. The preconditions are the task of the government. As Amsterdam Marketing, we will ensure that the need for the right preconditions continues to be highlighted.

5. STRATEGY


In the coming years this strategy will be developed in annual activity plans. Below we detail which of our plans will play the main role in the period 2016-2020:

1 We will guide residents through the cultural offering and to unknown gems and areas in the city. We will tempt visitors to visit unknown neighbourhoods in the city and the Metropolitan Area. We will guide conferences to the right location, with the right offering. In addition we will facilitate Amsterdam in Business in their acquisition of enterprises.

2 We will contribute to the sense of pride that Amsterdammers experience in relation to their city and its diversity. And we will help them feel that they have enough living space in the busy dynamic that is part and parcel of a world-class city.

3 ‘Discover your city’ will form the inspiration for drawing residents’ and potential residents’ attention to well-known and, in particular, lesser known initiatives that make the city and the Metropolitan Area what they are.

4 We will actively infl uence the reputation of the Metropolitan Area by liaising with media that write about Amsterdam and organisations that organise trips to the area.

5 In our visitor marketing will place even more focus on quality visitors (national and international; tourist and business). As regards returning visitors, we will focus on distribution by raising awareness of tourist highlights and culture in other neighbourhoods than the centre alone and on the gems of the Metropolitan Area.

6 We will focus our international consumer marketing on cities in Europe and the United States and seek cooperation with city marketing colleagues. We will exploit the countries’ markets together with partners from the business sector and NBTC. We will facilitate them per market with the same message. We have also chosen this approach within trade marketing.

Amsterdam Marketing Strategic Plan 2016-2020 | 15 Amsterdam Marketing Strategic Plan 2016-2020 | 15


7 We will focus our international visitor campaigns and media liaison on distribution in time and space. In addition, we will highlight unique, high-quality events and locations (icons) in our regular communications.

8 We will invest in our hospitality function in the coming years. Not only visitors but also residents will be tempted to discover more about the city. Visitor centres in the city and region, operated by us or third parties, and the I amsterdam Store complement this - as do social webcare and quality products like the city card and ticketing.

9 We will place business marketing higher on the agenda. This will concern attracting not only conferences but also foreign investors, companies and talent. The focus for these activities will be on business visitors. They spend more and place less burden on the city centre.

10 We have chosen to use digital media to build the reputation of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area and for our function as a guide. We will be active on more digital platforms and have chosen to use video because of its effectiveness.

11 We will actively make the knowledge on city marketing and city branding that we collect, process and develop available to our stakeholders and, as a responsible organisation, share it within our networks.

12 I amsterdam will continue to be our motto. Innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship are and will remain the core values of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. This is being recognised and adopted by all parties within the region.


Amsterdam Marketing is an authority on responding to the experiences of residents, changes in the visitor market, to the development of the conference market and the needs of local businesses and multinationals. We do this with the help of our partners in a public-private model. Our data and expertise enable us to keep a sharp eye on the balance between various

interests. Thanks to our city marketing approach, we can also make any adjustments that may be necessary. To restore this balance, so that Amsterdam Metropolitan Area is and remains an attractive place to visit, invest in, work, have conferences and above all be and live. In the coming years too.

6. CONCLUSION

Amsterdam MarketingPO Box 33311001 AC Amsterdam

Visiting address De Ruyterkade 51013 AA Amsterdam

T (020) 702 6100F (020) 702 6105M [email protected] www.iamsterdam.com

strategic plan 2016-2020

Documents