Sense of Belonging: The Pleasure of Local at the Airport
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APEX Insight: SITA Air Transport Summit Takeaway #1 – Nods to local cuisine, culture and media at various touch-points in an airport provide passengers with a sense of place.
At the SITA Air Transport Summit in Brussels, industry representatives of airlines and airports explored opportunities to enhance the passenger experience by creating a sense of place. Robert O’Meara, director, Media and Communications for Airports Council International (ACI), Europe, explained the three approaches to creating a sense of place for passengers: cultural, geo-location and passenger-first.
>The cultural approach appeals to the senses, using local color, cultural iconography, cuisine, art and history. It capitalizes on architecture, fixtures, objects and experiences which define the region.
>Geo-location is both personal and contextualized, enhanced through the use of beacons and GPS, and lets passengers interact with their surroundings.
>The passenger-first approach puts passengers at the center of the experience, and engages them in a larger conversation about the journey.
“European airports have become very passionate over the past 10 to 15 years about creating a sense of place,” says O’Meara. “I would say that in the last seven or eight years social media has really played a big part in that, in allowing and affording airports to have a direct conversation with the passenger, where previously this didn’t really exist. It was not really possible. The airline had all the information and the airport was more a tunnel that the passenger went through during their airline experience. That’s been completely disrupted now. That’s something that we’ve been really keen to track.”
O’Meara indicates that 289 European airports are on Facebook, which reaches 86.3 percent of passenger traffic. There are 292 official Twitter accounts for European airports, representing 87.1 percent of passenger traffic.
With so much to do at today’s airports, giving passengers a way to enjoy these activities at ease is part of the challenge. New geo-locational insights – functionality embedded in the airport’s app and facilitated by beacon technology – gives passengers a practical sense of where to find what they need, and allows the airport and concessionaires to make relevant suggestions to entice passengers to visit, O’Meara suggests.
Piet Demunter, director, Strategic Development, Brussels Airport Company, and Pedro Casimiro, manager, Ground Product and Processes at Brussels Airlines, explained how they collaborate to imbue Brussels Airport with Belgian culture at various passenger touch-points.
The sense of place at Brussels Airport includes promotion of local events and festivals, exposes travelers to the sights, sounds and flavors of Belgian culture, and references Belgium’s history. “[Passengers] need to see and breathe Brussels. So how do they do that? As a passenger enters the lounge he drinks Belgian water. He eats Belgian bread. He has a wide variety of Belgian chips. He has all forms of Belgian newspapers available. He sits on Belgian-made chairs, uses Belgian-made tables,” says Casimiro.
Belgian icons, both historical and cultural, decorate the terminal. Tintin’s whimsical red rocket shows pride of place at the heart of the airport’s new terminal connector. This timeless adventurer, an icon of Belgian popular culture, is recognized around the world. By selecting the rocket, Brussels Airport puts Tintin’s fanciful world in the context of aviation and aerospace, and communicates the best aspirations of intrepid travel.
There are also many opportunities at Brussels Airport to enjoy local cuisine at restaurants and bars, and a chance to bring back a bit of Brussels from souvenir and duty-free shops – including the fine Belgian chocolate on offer at every turn.