Recommendations to help accelerate travel recovery in Asia Pacific

Asia Travel Technology Industry Association (ATTIA) is launching a Recommendation Paper around “The Building Blocks of Digital Health Passes” as a part of its 2021 Travel Recovery Thought Leadership Series.

The Recommendation Paper highlights the importance of a trusted means of safe travel documentation, which is a promising development in the journey to travel recovery. ATTIA gathered stakeholders from key departments of the travel, technology, and policy sectors to discuss the challenges and arrive at the set of recommendations captured in the report to outline the development of aligned government and industry priorities and vision for Digital Health Passes (DHPs).

Speaking about the Recommendation Paper, Richard Andrew, executive director of ATTIA, said: “The barriers to universal deployment and adoption of a Digital Health Pass is trust between governments, industry stakeholders and travellers. Given how varied the technical, geographic, political, economic developmental, regulatory and cultural considerations are; the Recommendation Paper gives stakeholders in APAC an opportunity to understand the practical steps to make DHPs a reality and how they can play an active role in travel recovery.”

According to the report, ATTIA and its members recommend working on three key areas to ensure trust in the issuance of DHPs:

• Data privacy and security: Providing travelers with effective control over their DHP data is essential to increase access and inclusiveness. These measures will increase travellers’ willingness to share health data that is normally kept private.
• Interoperability: The solution lies in adherence to standards and creating a framework for interoperability that can be incorporated into existing digitally based systems that operate across international borders
• Verification: Point-of-Arrival verification will involve the traveler showing the verifier (e.g. immigration officer) their DHP for the verifier to verify and Pre-Arrival / Contactless verification will involve the traveler approving the submission of their DHP to airlines and travel agents.

While Data Privacy and Security; Interoperability; and Verification are the three main recommendations, the Paper also highlights key considerations for industry and government stakeholders involved in speeding up travel recovery in the region, such as diagnostic testing, accessibility, and creation of a trusted network and strict frameworks.

ATTIA pulled in organisations from different parts of the value chain for a closed-door eRoundtable and a public ePanel discussion to better understand the fragmented landscape and formalise the Recommendation Paper.

It recognises that international travel may only resume in a safe and responsible manner, when countries have assurance that cross-border travel will not result in further virus spread; therefore, ATTIA intends to contribute to the ongoing conversation for furnishing more insights in the coming months.