Gatwick Airport is currently undergoing a near £1 billion investment programme to modernise the facilities and improve the passenger experience. While most of the work is out of sight, hidden behind hoardings, passengers who have downloaded the free stickybits mobile application can now go on a coded ‘Gatwick Discovery Tour’ and take an audiovisual peek behind the scenes to see how their London airport is changing.

The ‘Gatwick Discovery Tour’ launches with social media savvy passengers being invited to scan the barcodes in the North Terminal and view video content showing how the airport is being transformed.

Gatwick is the only UK airport and the first UK brand to use the mobile application to take passengers on a behind-the-scenes audiovisual tour of the airport, taking customer service to a whole new level.

Delivering great service is a top priority for Gatwick. More self-service options at check-in are speeding up the process; innovative assistance lanes at security are providing a tailored service for families with young children and passengers with reduced mobility; and all 1,600 frontline employees are receiving training in customer service excellence through a programme developed in partnership with Tourism South East which leads to a City & Guilds Level 2 qualification.

The ‘Gatwick Discovery Tour’ is part and parcel of the airport’s focus on delivering great service. Gatwick is using social media tools to keep passengers up-to-date with what is going on at the airport, give them a mechanism to feedback on their experiences and improve the overall information flow around the airport.

Samantha Holgate, Gatwick’s Head of Airport Communications said: “The airport is going through a major programme of improvement designed to benefit the passengers but most of this work is hidden behind standard construction hoarding. We wanted to find a fun and interactive way to communicate to passengers about how the money is being invested, what work is going on behind the hoarding and how they will eventually benefit. Many of our passengers are social media savvy so introducing stickybits is a great way to interact with them.

Gatwick is kicking the ‘Discovery Tour’ off at the North Terminal inter-terminal shuttle departure point. Over the coming weeks and months, more barcodes will be introduced at check-in and just after security in the North Terminal as well as the forecourt areas and immigration in the South Terminal. Locations will be changed and the content refreshed to keep the tour interesting and up-to-date.