Continuing concerns about COVID-19 contagion may not be enough to stifle commerce and the itch to travel.
The McKinsey-World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) report, Adapting to Endemic COVID-19: The Outlook for Business Travel, forecasts that business travel may return faster in Asia compared to other markets. The projected recovery may likely be in phases and headed by dominant industry sectors such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and construction.
As travel restrictions and ever-changing policies continue to bring economic uncertainty, the travel and tourism industry is doing everything it can to increase safety and reduce friction for travellers.
“Travel & Tourism is working hard to bounce back from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. WTTC’s Safe & Seamless Traveler Journey is central both in aiding a swift recovery and defining a new normal for the industry,” said Helena Bononi, vice president for the Americas of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
She emphasized the importance of the initiative as it enables mobility and increases safety and security, while always putting the passenger at the centre.
“We’re encouraged by efforts from governments and industry to make this a reality. The new Entrust Seamless Travel Solution and all initiatives focusing on seamless travel are welcome additions to all current efforts,” she continued.
The combination creates opportunities such as Entrust’s Seamless Travel Solution, a fully digital travel service that enables a touchless and seamless experience for travellers by minimising contact points, while bringing simplicity and greater security for border control, immigration and travel service provider operations.
Targeted at airlines, train operators, cruise lines, airports, border agencies, and other key operators in the global travel and tourism ecosystem, the Entrust Seamless Travel Solution is a significant step toward a travel experience in which the traveller no longer needs to present travel-related documents such as boarding passes and passports multiple times to a variety of stakeholders at different checkpoints in their journey.
Rather, travellers opting in will experience less hassle due to the solution’s implementation of contactless biometric corridors that employ facial recognition technology to confirm the traveller’s identity, removing friction from touchpoints.
The Seamless Travel Solution follows all GDPR regulations, does not retain personally identifiable information and encrypts all data in transit and at rest for maximum user security. Each traveller using the service receives the option to store their Digital Travel Credential on their personal mobile device, but this is not required.
