HAKODATE AIRPORT

Hakodate Airport opened in 1961, and it has been used by a lot of tourists not only from other prefectures in Japan but also from many foreign countries as an air gateway to South-side of Hokkaido. A web branding project for Hakodate Airport to support one of the most popular sightseeing cities in Japan started in 2015, autumn. Since the former website had been used for a long time without any renewals, the interface design and web technology had been worn out. Therefore, most of the airport users didn’t even know that there was a website. Our task was to make the website easier to use for all users, and make their trip experiences more attractive.

Firstly, we actually visited Hakodate Airport to research, and knew that a lot of local people were taking it as a starting point to travel all over Hakodate cities. So, we think that how we emphasize the attractiveness of the airport as a first touch point with tourists would be the key to make Hakodate’s whole brand experience more successful. Verifying what the tourists and locals really want, and thinking what would be the most convenient for all users, we decided to give the first priority to make the website easier to know the latest information wherever you are, by adding real-time flight information on website with seamless data coordination across platforms.

By improving convenience for all users, the number of page views of Hakodate Airport Website increased rapidly, and there were so many good responses not only from the tourists but also local people from all over Hakodate who are involved in tourism like hoteliers, taxi drivers, and bus guides. We realized the user-friendly web branding by adding both terminal information and tourism information to the website, and by renewing the symbol mark of Hakodate Airport.