Airport Cities 2012 will be taking place at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel - Denver, Colorado, USA, April 25-27, 2012.

"Airports in the 21st century are experiencing a new and distinct evolutionary stage - the 'airport city'. What started out in the 1990s with a handful of international air gateways, substantially notching up their duty-free and traditional terminal retail and eateries has become a worldwide phenomenon of airport commercial expansion and diversification. In the process, commercial airports are assuming roles few before anticipated.

Major airports now serve as regional multi-modal surfacetransportation nodes and as magnets for businesses, trade, information exchanges and leisure activities. As their terminals transform into shopping malls and artistic venues, airports are also spawning aviation-linked clusters of hotels; convention, trade and exhibition facilities; corporate offices; and retail complexes along with culture, entertainment and recreation centers. Air gateways, in short, have become as much commercial destinations as places of departure; they are urban realms in their own right, driving and shaping the very fabric of the new cities they are creating."

Prof John D Kasarda
Conference Chairman
Director, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise,
University of North Carolina, USA