Waqas Hassan spent about six hours in Mumbai airport, enjoying a feel of ‘India’, checking out the retail options, the art pieces on display and getting a taste of Mumbai by biting into a (“spicy!”) vada pav, washed down with that ubiquitous Mumbai street drink, the cutting chai.
Entrepreneur Hassan’s sojourn, albeit within the airport only as he was transiting from Singapore onward to Saudi Arabia, hit headlines this week because he was a Pakistani passport holder who otherwise would’ve found it difficult to get even a tourist visa into India.
But what it inadvertently has ended up doing is garnering attention to something frequent travellers and those in the travel trade have known for long, and something airport operators are paying increased attention to—airport tourism.
Or, the value and boost a well-set-up airport contribute to the appeal and attraction of a city and country as a tourist destination. Not to forget, the added revenue the airport itself can make.
Global airports, as well as India’s own big private airport operators like GMR and Adani, have been increasingly looking at ways to increase the money they can make from not just flight operations, but from what is generally referred to as ‘non-aero’ revenue. In other words, giving enough options and attractions that a passenger can spend on while waiting for his flight.
Or, as in Hassan’s case, while waiting for his connecting flight (Hassan flew IndiGo from Singapore to Mumbai and then another IndiGo connecting flight from Mumbai onward to Saudi), a prospect that wouldn’t be as less common as it is now in India, with its hefty airlines IndiGo and Air India hoping to increasingly turn the country into a hub where people transit going from one country to another, east to west or west to east.
The attraction is understandable. In the last financial year, non-aero revenues (primarily the retail, F&B, spa, lounge, parking and advertising income, though in some cases non-aero revenue also includes income from cargo) of Delhi Indira Gandhi was a little over ₹3,000 crore—three times higher than the actual flight operations revenue which was 1,062 crore rupees.
The average spend inside the airport of a passenger flying out of Mumbai was ₹737, while at Delhi Indira Gandhi, this was ₹566.
However, this amount is way lower than the spends recorded at global airports like London Heathrow. No wonder, airports like those run by Adani are increasingly looking at ways to increase their non-aero revenue—looking at further money they can make by increasing shopping, restaurant, bar and spa options (Both GMR, which runs Delhi and Adani which runs Mumbai, have applied to the authorities for an increase in the user development fee chargeable per passenger from next financial year onward).
Now, what if this includes a slice of the country itself, which passengers can experience on the go? Globally, many airports are looking at this option—ranging from Singapore’s Changi Airport having fountains and a tropical garden within the airport terminal, while Istanbul gives you a massive shopping experience that almost feels like you are in a Middle Eastern Souk, while Chicago O’Hare has museums.
In India, Mumbai has a collection of art installations across Terminal 2, but there is a lot more Indian airports could do.
“Novel and interesting tourism products are created constantly to position destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai as attractive tourist destinations,” pointed out a recent study by the World Travel & Tourism Council, adding, “Academic research has shown that the arrival airport is the first place that tourists evaluate the service quality of a destination and significantly influences its image.” Time to move from Incredible India to Incredible Indian Airports, perhaps.
