Samenvatting

Individual cities across the globe are profiling themselves as attractive cities. Their aim is to attract groups such as tourists, new inhabitants, businesses and students; that will result in a growth of economy (Kotler, Economic development, 1993, p. 75). City marketing is an excellent tool to use in profiling a city's attractiveness. It enables a city to communicate its unique selling points that are part of its identity to attract target groups. This paper focuses on attracting international students to engage in a full-time study programme at a higher level of education in
The Hague. Students add value to a city a city that has a high availability of skilled people is a success factor (Russo, 2003, p. 254). Currently the visibility of students in The Hague is quite low, therefore, The Hague's objective is to increase the number of international students in higher education to become a large scale internationally orientated knowledge area by 2020 (DenHaag, 2010, pp. 124-125).
A new approach for The Hague can be developed after answering the main research question:
How can The Hague use city marketing to attract more international students to engage in a full-time study?
The answer will provide the municipality of The Hague with practical advice that will assist in realising their objective by 2020. The opinion of current international students studying in The Hague is essential in drafting a new strategy, as they form an important target for city marketing. In the first place it is important to make sure that the inhabitants are proud of their city as they are the representatives of the city. Philip Kotler's model of the six winning characteristics of a city forms the basis of this paper. The cohesion and correct implementation of these key characteristics should benefit a The Hague's image positively, attracting the selected target groups. The Hague can use city marketing to attract more international students to engage in a full-time study by improving the real quality and efficiently communicate the quality. An important factor to achieve this, is determining how The Hague wants to be perceived by the international students. Once this has been determined The Hague can work on identifying its unique core qualities and develop a tailored strategy that focuses on attracting more international students.