(Yicai) April 22 -- Many hotels in Shanghai, including worldwide brands, no longer require visitors who have valid identity documents to have their faces scanned when checking in after the city ended the requirement earlier this month. This should help encourage more overseas visitors to come to the city, industry insiders said.

Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, H World Group have already discontinued the practice at their Shanghai hotels, the global hotel chains told Yicai on April 20.

Tourists who present identification documents when checking in at hotels no longer need to have their faces scanned, Shanghai’s hotel management authority said on April 12.

Hotels and B&Bs in almost all China’s cities have facial recognition scanners, Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy and a member of the national committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at the country’s annual policy setting meetings, the Two Sessions, last month.

And many leisure centers such as ski resorts and theme parks also have these scanners. This not only hikes costs and reduces efficiency, but also can lead to complaints from tourists, Dai said in his proposal called the ‘Overuse of Facial Identification in Tourism.’

‘While this practice might have made sense during the heightened security of the Covid-19 pandemic, now that the tourism industry is picking up, collecting unnecessary personal information only serves to irk tourists,” said senior economist Zhao Huanyan.

“Many foreign visitors are not used to facial scanning. Now that Shanghai only requires valid identity documents to check-in at hotels, this will help inbound tourism recover,” he added.

Editor: Kim Taylor