The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has released its latest report, titled “Digital Solutions for Reviving International Travel,” which provides a combination of technical and policy recommendations to governments and identifies four key solutions to restore international mobility.
The main goal, according to the report, is to create a “Digital Travel Portal,” allowing travelers to electronically share their digital COVID-19 vaccination or test certificates with their destination before they begin their journey. After booking their trip and before travel, travelers would simply go to the online portal managed by the destination, where their digital COVID certificate would be uploaded, verifying the status online and, in seconds, avoiding confusing processes and long queues.
Following World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, WTTC identified four of the most widely used digital COVID vaccination certificates (E.U. Digital COVID Certificate, ICAO Visible Digital Seal, DIVOC and SMART Health Cards), and is urging governments to accept these major international standards as proof of COVID-19 status, while working towards a single global solution.
With this program, international travelers, whether fully vaccinated or with a negative COVID-19 test, would have a globally recognized digital COVID certificate that would enable them to travel freely and safely anywhere in the world.
The four technical recommendations, according to the report are:
- Issue digitally verifiable COVID-19 certificates
- Activate government digital travel portal
- Implement digital connections (between government and industry)
- Issue digitally verifiable travel authorization certificates
On the policy front, the four recommendations are:
- Develop a policy to manage COVID-19 certificate fraud
- Develop a digitally accessible travel policy
- Implement digital government services and digital healthcare systems
- Identify and monitor implementation and operational lessons learned
Visit www.wttc.org.
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