Millennials and other tech-savvy tourists will soon be able to use their selfies to check into some hotels in Singapore.
A sandbox to allow the testing of a mobile application that uses facial recognition to do away with paperwork will be on trial from this month to December at the Grand Park City Hall hotel, said the Singapore Tourism Board yesterday.
The facial recognition technology, developed by artificial intelligence solutions firm GTRIIP, is expected to shorten the time taken for guests to check-in and allow hotel employees to “focus on higher value-added tasks”, said Ong Huey Hong, STB’s director of hotels and sector manpower.
A spokesperson for Grand Park City Hall said the app serves as a “pocket concierge” by allowing guests to skip the process of queuing and waiting at the hotel lobby to be issued physical key cards to their rooms.
Users only need to upload a photo of their passports, key in their credit card details — which will be authenticated by a one-time password — and take a photo of themselves, said a representative from GTRIIP at Tourism Industry Conference 2018. They will be registered once the details have been verified by the hotel.
The Grand Park City Hall spokesperson said it has been testing the app — which bears the same name as GTRIIP — since May last year.
The hotel is working with GTRIIP and the authorities on the facial recognition function of the app, and only expects the final version to be ready in the third quarter of this year.
In the meantime, guests may use the app to enter their rooms and control the lights, air-conditioner and television in the rooms.
TODAY understands Amara Singapore, Marina Bay Sands, The Fullerton Hotel and The Fullerton Bay Hotel will begin using the app by the third quarter of this year.
The idea came about during discussions with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and is part of a regulatory sandbox created by the STB and Ministry of Home Affairs to test-bed new technologies, said Quek Choon Yang, STB’s chief technology officer.
The authorities will be able to study if it is feasible to relax existing rules and allow all hotels in Singapore to adopt the facial recognition system as a means for guests to check-in.
The conference featured other technologies being used by tourism players to boost productivity.
The Tourism Information and Services Hub, for example, serves as a directory of sorts for registered businesses, which will be able to list their promotions or offerings and view what other companies are doing.
And to help guide its decisions, the STB is analysing data such as visitor arrivals, spending and movement patterns on a new Singapore Tourism Analytics Network. STB chief executive Lionel Yeo said the network will eventually be available to industry players.
Archive
- October 2024(44)
- September 2024(94)
- August 2024(100)
- July 2024(99)
- June 2024(126)
- May 2024(155)
- April 2024(123)
- March 2024(112)
- February 2024(109)
- January 2024(95)
- December 2023(56)
- November 2023(86)
- October 2023(97)
- September 2023(89)
- August 2023(101)
- July 2023(104)
- June 2023(113)
- May 2023(103)
- April 2023(93)
- March 2023(129)
- February 2023(77)
- January 2023(91)
- December 2022(90)
- November 2022(125)
- October 2022(117)
- September 2022(137)
- August 2022(119)
- July 2022(99)
- June 2022(128)
- May 2022(112)
- April 2022(108)
- March 2022(121)
- February 2022(93)
- January 2022(110)
- December 2021(92)
- November 2021(107)
- October 2021(101)
- September 2021(81)
- August 2021(74)
- July 2021(78)
- June 2021(92)
- May 2021(67)
- April 2021(79)
- March 2021(79)
- February 2021(58)
- January 2021(55)
- December 2020(56)
- November 2020(59)
- October 2020(78)
- September 2020(72)
- August 2020(64)
- July 2020(71)
- June 2020(74)
- May 2020(50)
- April 2020(71)
- March 2020(71)
- February 2020(58)
- January 2020(62)
- December 2019(57)
- November 2019(64)
- October 2019(25)
- September 2019(24)
- August 2019(14)
- July 2019(23)
- June 2019(54)
- May 2019(82)
- April 2019(76)
- March 2019(71)
- February 2019(67)
- January 2019(75)
- December 2018(44)
- November 2018(47)
- October 2018(74)
- September 2018(54)
- August 2018(61)
- July 2018(72)
- June 2018(62)
- May 2018(62)
- April 2018(73)
- March 2018(76)
- February 2018(8)
- January 2018(7)
- December 2017(6)
- November 2017(8)
- October 2017(3)
- September 2017(4)
- August 2017(4)
- July 2017(2)
- June 2017(5)
- May 2017(6)
- April 2017(11)
- March 2017(8)
- February 2017(16)
- January 2017(10)
- December 2016(12)
- November 2016(20)
- October 2016(7)
- September 2016(102)
- August 2016(168)
- July 2016(141)
- June 2016(149)
- May 2016(117)
- April 2016(59)
- March 2016(85)
- February 2016(153)
- December 2015(150)