Role of Facial Recognition in the Travel Sector

Facial recognition is changing the face of the travel and hospitality industry by providing cybersecurity and customer personalization at reduced costs

The travel and hospitality industries received a hard blow during Covid-19 wherein people were isolated in their homes and every service went digital and contactless. According to Statista, “the Mobility Market Outlook on COVID-19 reports that the global revenue for the travel and tourism industry will be an estimated 396.37 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 - a decrease of around 42.1 percent from the previous year.” Today these industries are in a revival stage and they need to restructure their operations according to the new normal. Many industries went through digital transformation and have adopted cutting-edge technologies to recoup from the crisis.

Facial recognition is an emerging technology that can benefit many industries including travel and hospitality. In the current contactless scenario, the facial recognition system will have a great impact on the industry and will help in its revival.

Facial Recognition Applications

Security is the foremost significant application of facial recognition in the travel industry. Airports, train stations, and restaurants can identify customers and verify identities that can reduce identity thefts and frauds. Using facial recognition can prevent fraudsters from accessing hotel rooms and other facilities. The internal database can be used to track criminals or unwanted people at different travel destinations and airports.
Using facial recognition and other biometrics will reduce check-in time and customers do not have to kill time standing in long queues. Usually, restaurants use documentation processes to verify the identity of the customers. Facial recognition will eliminate the paperwork involved so that identity verification is easier and not tiring.
The hospitality and travel industry runs on customer experience and hence it is important to introduce robust methods to gain maximum customer traction. Implementing facial recognition systems helps restaurants to personalize their customer services. Restaurants can identify customers from their database to deliver special greetings and provide customer-specific services. Advanced facial recognition systems can detect customer preferences and moods from the face and provide insights into the stay-ins.
Facial recognition is crucial in transactions during travel. People often do not carry cash with them and payment interfaces using facial recognition can reduce the time taken and lag in online transactions and other conventional methods. Authenticating transactions through facial recognition will be easier and convenient. Another development is selfie payments that allow customers to pay through their smartphones using facial recognition apps and this eliminates the need for interaction with the staff of the service-providing platform.
The travel industry works on huge datasets involving customer details and identity which often creates confusion and errors. Facial recognition can provide a clean database for data processing and analysis. Facial recognition can automatically record data and present insights from them which will help service providers to improve their customer experience and business growth.

Looking forward

The future seems to have a completely digital makeover with the development of new technologies every day. Facial recognition and biometrics have already reserved their place in various sectors by providing security and convenience in business operations. Although, it has its flaws. Facial recognition is looked upon with suspicion because of the privacy concerns revolving around it. Facial recognition systems have also been blamed for having biases towards the male gender and white-skinned people.

If all these shortcomings are addressed, facial recognition might be a great contributor to the rising revenue of the travel and hospitality industry.