Airport impressions
Every month, find an article by our ONLYLYON Ambassador and Lyon blogger Eric Dupin, who will give us his accounts and impressions on local-area marketing. To begin, here is his account of airports as “ambassadors” of their city!
People often say that you rarely get a second chance to make a good first impression. This holds true as well for places you visit for the first time, and that you discover first through their… airport.
Las Vegas and Berlin are two radically different cities. On one side, tinsel and glitter, and on the other side, history, art and a certain form of disciplined thinking. But these two metropolises have one thing in common: their airports.
I am not referring to the architecture or design of their infrastructure, but to their relatively antiquated look. Or, in any case, the gap between the size and economic and “cultural” scope (the quotation marks are for Vegas) of the two cities, their modernness, and the obsolescence and provincial feel of their respective airports.
McCarran Airport Las Vegas
Surprises on the runway
Travelers arriving in Berlin or Las Vegas for the first time have a big surprise in store for them. McCarran Airport in Las Vegas for example, located practically in the center of town, within easy reach of the famous Strip and of the main casino hotels, is as small and quiet as the city it serves is huge, hectic and flamboyant. The feeling is about the same when you arrive at Tegel Airport in Berlin, whose old-fashioned ambiance contrasts sharply with the vitality of this magnificent and enchanting city.
The reasons for these discrepancies can be found in the history and development of the two cities. Both airports were built and inaugurated during the same period, after World War II (and the reconstruction for Berlin), between 1942 and 1948. The incredible economic expansion of Las Vegas saw the traffic of its airport multiplied by forty-five in half a century, going from one million travelers in 1960 to nearly forty-five million in 2008, which ranks MacCarran as the fifteenth busiest airport in the world.
Tegel Airport, also located close to the city center (eight kilometers away) benefited from the reunification, and then the transfer of the German government from Bonn to Berlin. However, it is not in the ranking of the thirty busiest airports in the world in terms of passenger traffic. The airport in Frankfurt represents German airports with dignity, occupying eleventh place in the world’s busiest airports by passenger traffic 2010.
They share another point in common: obsolete, and seeing their traffic continue to grow, both airports are set to undergo profound transformations in the coming years. McCarran is going to be completely renovated and considerably enlarged as part of the McCarran 2020 project, which will make the site more like the city it serves. As for Tegel, it is living its last moments, because it will simply be closed in 2011 or 2012, leaving behind Berlin’s other airport, Schönefeld, which will be renamed Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport.
Tegel Airport Berlin
Ambassadors in reinforced concrete
Beyond the numbers and the historical context, it is amazing to what extent the airport is a city’s or country’s first ambassador. It’s when travelers disembark from an airplane that they get their first impression of a place, a culture, a civilization; even if – thanks to globalization – most places end up looking alike. However, as everyone knows, the first impression is often the one that conditions and shapes opinions in the long term.
My job requires me to travel outside of France frequently, and discovering a city through its airport has become one of my favorite rituals.
So I could add my personal score, according to criteria that are probably subjective, but which often reflect those of other travelers with whom I discuss this topic. For example, the airport in Seoul is absolutely impressive for its modern look and cleanliness, and the one in Sao Paulo contrasts in its concrete and almost “Germanic” rigidity with the idea most people have of Brazil. In the end though, this serious approach is consistent with the vastness of the Brazilian economic capital, where you realize that you are not in a city of samba, but of business.
In Europe, I especially appreciate the rapid, practical and cheap link that takes you from the airport in Madrid to the center of town in twenty minutes… for two euros.
If a city wants to be more inviting and enhance its image, it should start by taking a look at its airport.
