For better or worse, recent events have raised the profile of airports, particularly those that function as hubs, on the world stage. Hong Kong is in the midst of a roiling political crisis, where the international airport served as center stage for protest demands. Lost in the drama is the fact that the Hong Kong International Airport is responsible for approximately 5% of the island city’s economy.
Farther south, Singapore recently upped the ante in the soft power arms race with the opening of its gleaming, five-story indoor garden with the world’s largest indoor waterfall nested in a stunning shopping and dining center fittingly named The Jewel.
Closer to home, Salt Lake City prepares for the opening of a new international airport — one of the few in the United States in recent years (a story that drew the interest of the The New York Times in 2018), and a strategic move that positions Salt Lake City to leapfrog cities of a comparable size with the benefits of a regional hub.
As a professional historian who researches the impact of travel and tourism development on local economies, I recently had the opportunity to visit Singapore, where I worked on a study of the origins of airport-based tourism (hub-tourism) and how the city-state’s airport steadily grew into a reflection of its ambitions to develop a world-class hub as well as a shopping and leisure destination whose past provides some insights into how Salt Lake City may leverage its new airport for greater economic development.
Here are three lessons that Salt Lake City might consider.
Something old, something new
The amazing thing about Singapore’s Changi International Airport (consistently voted the best in the world since 1989 — only eight years after it opened) is that it has lovingly maintained its existing terminals while strategically building for the future. They have recently completed Terminal Four, a gleaming palace of video screens advertising shopping and dining and next generation self check-in kiosks. Yet, Terminal’s One and Two remain well maintained and functional. They have not been overlooked as the airport builds for the future. Hopefully, Salt Lake City will maintain all its airport — both old and new — as it looks to the future. Efficiency and well-planned procedures matter more in some cases than advanced technology. It is all of Singapore’s airport that qualifies it as the world’s best, not just its Jewel.
Moving from hub to home mentality
In the mid-1980s, Singapore’s Changi International Airport deliberately targeted transit passengers as potential destination tourists by offering them discounts to local hotels and shopping outlets on the famed Orchard Road (nearly one mile of solid shopping malls). The airport authority and Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce might consider how to stimulate passenger arrivals to Salt Lake City for tourism here from passengers that are simply passing through. This is the essence of “hub” tourism — making transit passengers into future visitors to Salt Lake City.
The sounds of silence
Finally, there is the often-overlooked advantages of space and silence that distinguish the best airports from those that are frenzied gauntlets that seem to breed chaos and high blood pressure. Increasingly, the best airports (mostly outside of the United States) have gone silent — with no overhead announcement systems constantly barraging passengers with needless messages that only heighten anxiety (and are rarely helpful, given the number of times they are repeated). Dubai. Istanbul (with its new airport). Singapore. Except for the most vital announcements, they trust that passengers will find their way to flights without helicopter announcers polluting the airwaves with unnecessary noise.
Similarly, something might be said for the grandeur of open space and vistas of the natural world featured in the spaces around an international airport. The new designs for the Salt Lake City airport appear to have taken this to heart, with grand canyons of aesthetically appealing rock formations soaring to the ceilings, as well as floor-to-ceiling windows that allow little boys and girls to dream about far-flung travels of their own.
Salt Lake City is poised to ride its airport to greater prominence in the aviation sector and might do well to consider lessons from other world-class destinations to nose ahead in a competitive field.
Evan R. Ward is associate professor of history at Brigham Young University.