It's 3am and I'm at Inchon airport, South Korea. The place is packed with people arriving from everywhere in the world. After 14 hours in the air I'm trying to find an airline representative for a hotel voucher.

It sounds like the usual nightmare we associate with airports. With increased security measures we're all spending more time in these non-places. However, unbeknown to me, I am in one of the world's leading aerotropoli.

John Kasarda, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina, has published widely about the concept of the aerotropolis. He's also involved in turning several airports into aerotropoli, including Brisbane airport.

His argument is succinct. Big airports are driving business and urban development just as roads did in the 20th century, railways in the 19th century and seaports in the 18th century.

It's clear that our road and rail infrastructure is stuffed. If I had any money to invest in a holiday property it would not be in the Jervis Bay region of the NSW south coast. The three-hour road trip will triple in the next few years due to increased population and poor road quality. No, I'd go to Agnes Waters, north of Bundaberg in Queensland, another beautiful spot with a big advantage: an airport is promised by 2008, which would make it a three-hour trip from my doorstep in Sydney.

In the May edition of The Next American City, Kasarda defines the aerotropolis as "similar in shape to the traditional metropolis of a central city and its commuter-heavy suburbs, consisting of an airport city core and an outlaying area of businesses stretching 15 miles (24km) along transportation corridors". That doesn't sound very pretty but, especially in Asia, aerotropoli are increasingly aesthetic as well as efficient.

Singapore's Changi airport consistently comes in tops in the Skytrax world survey. The London-based airline and passenger research firm measures people's satisfaction with comfort, entertainment, dining options and other subjective criteria.

Changi is amazing. On one trip I had about four hours to kill and took myself off to the airport pool. After doing laps, I sat with a drink and watched the planes overhead. If you're more adventurous you can go on a cultural tour of Singapore and marvel at the beautification of the airport express road, with its gorgeous tropical flowers.

Inchon airport officially opened in 2001. The Winged City, as it's called, is a work in progress but the developer, James von Klemperer of the New York-based Kohn Petersen Fox, promises to draw on "the Sydney Opera House, the canals of Venice, the shopping streets of Boston, using them as models of scale and function put together with Korean zoning precepts and matched to Korean culture".

Although I didn't get to stroll along the seawater canals of his plans, I did benefit from the integrated hotel-airport complex. Once I finally found a Korean Air representative, minutes later I was in my hotel room, which was decorated with beautiful Korean fabric artworks.

The aerotropolis concept is all about connectivity. Kasarda argues for the advantages airports provide to businesses in "the new speed-driven globally networked economy". Logistics companies were the first to move in. Manufacturing companies have joined them. Proximity to the airport combined with a planned ground-to-air shipping network allows for quick turnaround from manufacturing to delivery. In Kasarda's terms it also provides "novel inputs for custom products that create additional value". That seems to be business-speak for the capacity to quickly tailor to emerging markets.

In addition to the more traditionally aligned businesses, increasingly hi-tech industries want to be based in the aerotropolis. Apparently, hi-tech professionals travel 60 per cent more than the rest of us, and easy access to hub airports is essential.

It's reinforcing what Kasarda describes as knowledge networks in tune with air travel networks. While the business and tech side of the aerotropolis is pretty much assured, it is going to be crucial to have the input of creative and cultural industries.

As I wandered around Inchon I was shocked at the lack of Korean culture on offer. Most of the shops consisted of global brands I could have bought anywhere had I'd been able to afford them. Where was local culture?

It's here that the business of aerotropoli needs to meet with creative and cultural research.

Queensland University of Technology's Stuart Cunningham argues that we need to reconceptualise the creative and cultural sector as an integral partner in new economic phenomena such as the aerotropoli. In his Platform paper (Currency House) What Price a Creative Economy?, launched this week, Cunningham defines his vision of creative industries.

Far from being the handmaiden to big business, the creative industry sector is central to the economy as we know it and even more important in developing new economic avenues.

Cunningham's ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation is working with Brisbane airport to develop the leading aerotropolis in Australia.

As with Melbourne's airport, Brisbane is involved in supporting several cultural events. But the trick is to make the airport a driver of cultural innovation and representation. In addition to housing International Trade Centre industries in the aerotropolis, why shouldn't we think about how to showcase indigenous and local art, or having tastings of regional wine and foodstuffs?

Imagine a space where for a couple of hours you could learn about the history and flavours of a locality, whether you lived there or were just passing through. Perhaps you might spend some time in an eco-zone displaying the flora of different parts of the state, with interpretations by Aboriginal communities as well as Western scientists. Or watch a performance piece by local or visiting artists. Or buy Aboriginal art after having talked to the artist or community representative about its story. And of course you could also just watch the planes taking off.

Elspeth Probyn is professor of gender studies at the University of Sydney.