RAI Amsterdam and Koninklijke Jaarbeurs closed 2025 with roughly 3.8 million visitors, by our own tally of their annual reports. Neither report explains what happens at the door: you don't get into a trade fair with an ordinary ticket.
What the two reports say
RAI Amsterdam published its results on 30 April 2026: €172 million in revenue, the highest in its history for an odd-numbered year — odd years host fewer events than even ones — and 14% above 2023. EBITDA of €29.7 million, net profit of €9 million, more than 280 events and almost 1.5 million visitors.
The Jaarverslag 2025 from Koninklijke Jaarbeurs counts 2,364 trade fairs, congresses and meetings and 2.3 million visitors — the same as in 2024. Net revenue rose 29%, from €92.9 million to €120.1 million, and even so it's not a record: in 2023 it was €134.8 million. EBITDA fell from €87.4 million to €20.0 million, which the report attributes in part to income from the sale of a 70% stake in VNU Exhibitions Asia, closed in February 2024.
The 3.8 million figure is our own combination of the two reports, not a published statistic: these are visits, not distinct people, and they're not limited to trade fairs — RAI counts all its events, and Jaarbeurs counts congresses and meetings too.
How you get in: the Horecava case
Horecava, the hospitality trade fair organised by RAI Amsterdam, runs from 11 to 14 January 2027. Its tickets page barely sells anything: entry is free for the target audience — hospitality, fast service, catering, accommodation and leisure. The organisers send an invitation code in mid-November to anyone who fits that profile; anyone who fits but doesn't receive one can request it, or get it through an exhibitor that supplies them.
The registration FAQ spells out the rest. The invitation card isn't the ticket: it has to be confirmed on the website with the code, and only then do the confirmation and the e-ticket arrive by email. It's issued in the visitor's name, it isn't transferable, and a valid ID is checked at the door. It's valid for all four days of the fair. For anyone who doesn't fit the profile, the FAQ puts the ticket price at €95.00 excluding VAT, but that paragraph still refers to previous editions, so it isn't a confirmed price for 2027. This is the case we've verified, not the model for every trade fair.
Why it matters
The system doesn't sell tickets: it filters visitors. Almost everything happens before the door — building the visitor list, handing out codes, validating profiles — and at the door only identity is checked. The distribution channel isn't a checkout, it's the exhibitors. And the unit isn't a one-day ticket, it's a four-day pass. It's professional event ticketing taken to the extreme. In July 2025, Jaarbeurs launched its own platform, Visit, which brings together planning, communication and registration for its clients' events. A tool built for concerts doesn't fit here as it stands.
What to do with this
Three checks:
Codes with an owner. If exhibitors are handing out access, you need to know how many each one has, how many were used, and who came in.
Change of holder. A personalised ticket checked against ID at the door forces you to deal with the visitor sending a colleague instead. That's an access control policy, not a checkbox.
Four-day pass. The same code scanned on four different days can't be read as a duplicate or block re-entry.