passport reader Market

The global passport reader market size is projected to reach US$ 310.17 million by 2028; it is expected to register a CAGR of 6.5% during 2022-2028.

The global passport reader market is projected to witness moderate growth during the forecast period. The key factors bolstering the growth of the passport reader market include surging immigrant population, rising adoption of e-passports, and increasing international air passenger traffic worldwide. Moreover, advancements in technologies, including OCR, are expected to catalyze the passport reader market growth. The passport reader market vendors are highly focused on product developments to efficiently compete in the market by offering innovative technologies integrated with passport readers. For instance, in 2019, Access-IS announced the integration of its OCR310e OCR OEM engine with its Aratek Marshall mobile identification and authentication solution. The new solution is capable of reading data from the MRZ for identifying documents, including passports. In 2018, BKC "Bancomzvjazok" JSC, a key systems integrator based in Ukraine, introduced the K. BPT800 portable terminal. The new terminal is integrated with the RF MRZ scanner.

With respect to geography, the infrastructure investments in airports across the African territory are experiencing significant growth. Also, with the expected increase in the air passenger volume of 5.1% by 2035, as per IATA, airport development is surging across the continent. Such developments, coupled with ongoing and planned airport construction projects in developing economies of the Middle East, are expected to surge the deployment of passport readers in the MEA region. Further, the upcoming international events in the region, such as Dubai Expo 2020, Bahrain International Technology Exhibition, Arabian Travel Market, and The Middle East Event Show (MEES), are expected to boost the flow of international passengers. This, in turn, would demand the deployment of passport readers at airports, hotels, and other venue checkpoints.

Saudi Arabia is expected to grow at a fastest CAGR during the forecast period. The country continues to attract notable volume of international tourists, immigrants, students and business professionals across its various prominent cities. As a result, the adoption efficient and technology enabled passport reader across major public and private sectors has significantly enabled the country in seamless management and verification of individual to minimize illegal migrant into the country over the years. Furthermore, the country's substantial investment into infrastructure development to promote tourism and attract migrant for improved business opportunities is anticipated to continue to provide numerous profitable business opportunities for the passport reader market players during the coming years.

Moreover, in 2022, Saudi Arabia announced its plans to develop one of the largest airports worldwide to cater around 120 million passengers annually by 2030 and 185 million passengers annually by 2050, which is one of the major factors likely to generate new opportunities for market vendors during the forecast period. Moreover, the usage of e-gates across the Saudi Airports is also driving the demand for software upgrades across the existing identity verification systems in the region.

The UAE held the largest passport reader market share in 2022. The country continues to attract notable volume of international tourists, immigrants, students and business professionals across its various prominent cities. As a result, the adoption efficient and technology enabled passport reader across major public and private sectors has significantly enabled the country in seamless management and verification of individual to minimize illegal migrant into the country over the years. Furthermore, the country's substantial investment into infrastructure development to promote tourism and attract migrant for improved business opportunities is anticipated to continue to provide numerous profitable business opportunities for the passport reader market players during the coming years.

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Passport Reader Market

In the MEA, the pandemic significantly impacted the countries such as Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The MEA aviation industry was traumatized by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic across the region. The continuously falling number of passengers at airports until airport operations ceased by the governing authorities led the airports to observe a downfall in revenue generation. The region has several airport construction and expansion projects in the pipeline that were expected to be completed by 2020 and 2021. Due to the temporary shutdown of construction activities, the adoption rate of technologies was slower than usual. This negatively impacted the passport reader market growth.

However, with the ease of lockdowns and restrictions in 2021, international travel resumed and boosted the demand for passport readers in the region. For instance, the Middle East saw international arrivals more than triple in January-September 2022, reaching 71% of 2019 levels.

The major players operating in the global passport reader market include Access Ltd; ARH Inc.; Beijing Wintone Science & Technology Co., Ltd.; DESKO GmbH; Thales Group; IER SAS; Regula; Shenzhen Rakinda Technology Co., Ltd.; Lintech Enterprises Limited; and Veridos GmbH.

The overall passport reader market size has been derived using both primary and secondary sources. To begin the research process, exhaustive secondary research has been conducted using internal and external sources to obtain qualitative and quantitative information related to the market. The process also serves the purpose of obtaining overview and forecast for the passport reader market with respect to all the segments. It also provides the overview and forecast for the global passport reader market based on all the segmentation provided with respect to five major regions-North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. Also, primary interviews were conducted with industry participants and commentators to validate data, as well as to gain more analytical insights into the topic. The participants who typically take part in such a process include industry experts such as VPs, business development managers, market intelligence managers, and national sales managers, along with external consultants such as valuation experts, research analysts, and key opinion leaders specializing in the passport reader market.