Enhancing customer experience in Geneva International Airport through Augmented Reality

Nowadays, airports are striving to offer a great customer experience within their infrastructure. Because of that, there is a need for airports around the world to diversify their revenue to offer the best infrastructure possible and accommodate the increasing growth of passengers travelling by air. Thus, airports are using technology to support their operations, to facilitate passengers’ journey, to increase in efficiency and to enhance customer experience. In 2017, Geneva Airport has seen an increase in the number of passengers by 4.95% from the year 2016. Thus, the airport welcomed 17,4 million passengers and the number of passengers’ increases yearly. The Aeronautical Infrastructure Sector Plan (PSIA) has forecasted that passenger numbers would reach 25 million by 2030 at Geneva Airport. Hence, it seems important for Geneva Airport to find solutions to accommodate the increase in arrivals passenger while considering the opinion of the different stakeholders. Augmented Reality is promising to change the travel experience, to improve airport operations and to enhance passengers journey. Thus, the main purpose of this research paper is to assess if customer experience at Geneva Airport can be enhanced with Augmented Reality technology by the formulation of two hypotheses. The end goal is to make recommendations to Geneva Airport on enhancing passengers’ experience through Augmented Reality during their journey at the airport. Thus, there is a need to determine passengers’ satisfaction about their last experience at the airport and find if the implementation of AR technology can be a solution to increase travellers’ satisfaction. The research methods include data collection through interviews, observation days and an online survey, to collect various information on travellers’ demographic, behaviours, travelling profile, knowledge on Augmented Reality, technology profile and to test the two hypotheses on the passengers of Geneva Airport to assess their interest and see if it can enhance their experience. The results of this study show that travellers of Geneva Airport have an interest in Augmented Reality and have the willingness to use it. Passengers mostly use their phone during their journey at the airport and the majority uses it for entertainment purpose. The recommendations are for Geneva Airport to create a mobile prototype of the Treasure Hunting game to be tested during summer holidays among travellers and create a partnership with Geneva Tourism, to extend the game to different areas even inside Geneva city and offering new episodes