Flying into Grand Rapids, Michigan anytime soon? You might be greeted by iPad-wielding “ambassadors” ready to help you.

This week, the Board of Directors of Gerald R. Ford Airport approved a one-year, $87,500 contract with Experience Grand Rapids, a local visitors' bureau, to hire customer support personnel to patrol the airport terminal building using iPads.

The point is to assist travelers with airport questions such as directions, finding hotels, restaurants, local attractions, car service and more. Experience GR workers will staff the “ambassador” program and cover all IT costs. The program, operating out of Experience GR's information booth in the airport, will see workers (one during off-peak hours, two during peak-hours) operating from 9:00 am to 10:00 pm.

Lucky them…once upon a time, people had to memorize this stuff!

According to MichiganLive, the program will begin June 1, and the contract has a two-year renewal option. Both airport and Experience GR officials said the program’s first year will decide whether it will be classified as “an experiment” or a “new airport mainstay.”

“[This airport] has been about, as much as it needs to be, airplanes and all the facilities needed to support that activity,” said Ford Airport spokesman Bruce Schedlbauer. “That’s what the airport is essentially about, getting people on and off the airplanes, in a safe and efficient manner. With that said, there has been a growing desire by the board and staff to enhance the level of customer care or customer service at the airport.”

The program is essentially an outgrowth of Experience GR’s information booth already at the airport, said its president, Doug Small, during airport board committee meetings last week.

“Right now, we’re pretty much planted firmly behind an information desk providing services — it’s very reactive,” he said. “Our organization is a very proactive organization.”

The program was modeled on existing iPad ambassador programs operating in Calgary International Airport in Alberta, and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona.