Smart Airport – Al Madinah Smart City

العربية

Smart City Playbook

Tourism

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Smart Airport

The Smart Airport experience is characterized by a wide and large-scale adoption of technology. Since airports are at the heart of the travel experience, the future of airports will be heavily shaped by technological development and advancement. The Smart Airport will employ latest technologies to advance its performance including biometrics to automate identity recognition, AI to streamline crowd movement and logistics’ complexities of backend operations, digital touchpoints such as beacons or kiosks, and airport apps that keep visitors informed, connected and engaged, along with publicly accessible Wi-Fi.

These solutions amongst others will play an integral role in creating a smart airport and seamless experience for Al Madinah visitors.

KEY

CHALLENGES

Visitors have limited access to high-quality, scalable, and flexible city resources and services

Visitors lack smart navigation tools, accessible tour guiding, and effective communication

Authorities are not empowered with the necessary tools and capabilities to devise tourism plans, promote the city sites, and respond to visitors’ needs

KEY EXPECTED BENEFITS

Timely Travel

The flow of travelers will be more organized and uninterrupted, eventually reducing waiting and traffic time

More Efficiency

The airport will be able to do more with less to accommodate increasing numbers of visitors, thus reducing costs and demand for manpower in the long run

Opportunities and Growth

New and potential business opportunities will arise for the private sector in key touchpoints at the airport given the introduction of new services

ALIGNMENT TO SMART CITY OBJECTIVES

Welcoming

Personalized

Pleasant

TARGET USERS

Tourist

Business Traveler

Travelers with Special Need

Pilgrim

Explorer Pilgrim

Resident

USE CASE

JOURNEY

Raghad lands in Al Madinah for a one-day trip. Although she is in rush to get on time to her important business meeting, she also wants to discover the city in her free time.

Given the wide adoption of biometrics across the airport, she moves safely across the airport borders, and has direct access to the public Wi-Fi and all services available in the airport the moment she landed. She browses through the airport app and opts to have her luggage sent directly to the hotel without having to wait at the luggage belt.

While heading to the immigration desk, smart lightings guide her to the least-crowded immigration desk or e-gate, where all of her information is already saved after logging in to the airport app through facial recognition, saving her additional time to leave the airport and get to her meeting.

During her flight, she had already purchased some products from the duty-free zone that were ready for her to pick up. She also scheduled a seat on a shuttle heading to the city center.

After attending her meeting and enjoying her day in the city, she gets a notification about the airport route traffic with recommendations on the best route to take and the optimal time to leave her hotel. Once she arrives to the airport, she drops her luggage at a smart kiosk which uses a tracking tag. Through a self-check-in desk, she issues her boarding pass sent to her phone in no time and heads to the next e-gate where the boarding pass is directly verified by scanning the barcode on her phone.

POTENTIAL SERVICE FEATURES

Indoor navigation and wayfinding

Smart gates

CCTV video analytics

Kiosks for information and services

NFC touchpoints for personalized offers

Smart luggage services to hotels

KEY TOUCH POINTS

Mobile app

Website

Smart Gates

IFE

Lounge

Hologram

AR/VR

Smart Luggage
Kiosks

Implementation
Timeline

Within 6 months

12 – 18 months

Within 6 months

Technology Commercial Viability

Currently commercialized

1 – 3 years to commercialize

5+ years to
commercialize

Regulatory Conduciveness

No New Policies and
Standards

Some Policies &
Standards to be
Introduced

Complex Policies to be
Introduced

Investment Requirement

Low

Medium

High

Use Case Ownership

Government Driven

Piloted by Gov. & Transitioned to Private Sector

Private Sector

Startups & Entrepreneurs

IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS

Internet network coverage and connectivity across the city

Policies and standards for data collection, data privacy and data sharing

Integration and participation of diversified data sources (e.g., hotels, transportation services)

Availability of continuous connectivity to monitor and track movements in real time and in a secure manner

POTENTIAL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

IN THE MARKET

Tourism

Use Cases

City Living Museum

Advanced
Wayfinder App

“Al Madinah Explorer” Digital Platform

City B2B Tourism Marketplace

Smart Airport

Smart District

Platform for Connecting City Residents with Visitors “Diyafah Al Madinah”

Digitally
Augmented Hosts

Rapid Deployable Accommodation System “Hayyak” Initiative

Responsive Crowd Management