📋 Tender Overview
When I presented on Digital Travel at ICAOs TRIP 2022 Symposium and Conference in September the buzz around the industrys digital directions was palpable. ICAO with its Digital Travel Credential DTC is one of the driving forces for universal and interoperable solutions for digital identities which bring with them secure and seamless journeys across the world enabled by mobile and biometric technologies. Digital identities mean we will be able to travel from anywhere to everywhere by air land or sea without needing to show our physical travel documents such as our passport visa health forms boarding pass or drivers license. They will be the master key for unlocking every stage of the journey from the earliest intention to travel all the way to destination activities and the return journey.Unstoppable momentumThe travel industrys digital transformation continues to accelerate unabated a process sped up by the pandemic. The momentum is unstoppable as Digital Travel harnessing digital identities begins making its move towards the mainstream. This is great news for everyone. Digital Travel is essential for the travel industry to tackle the trends and challenges it faces such as the phenomenal growth in traveler numbers reliance on physical documents staff shortages rising expectations for joined up intermodal journeys government austerity and more.The advantages are well recognized. Passengers get secure and stress-free travel with the ability to complete processes securely off-airport meaning fewer queues and the industry gets pre-cleared ready-to-go travelers with faster approvals and risk assessment before departure. The resulting major efficiencies will not only deliver new levels of seamless and secure travel but will also significantly relieve the pressures on travel industry infrastructure resources and costs while encouraging the economic benefits of travel and tourism.Passenger positivityWe know that passengers are eager to embrace digital journeys. SITAs Passenger IT Insights 2022 survey spotlights two stages of the journey seeing the biggest increases in positive passenger emotions since 2016 identity control up 11 and bag collection up by 9. Both have witnessed the greatest rise in tech adoption over the last five years or so. The survey also shows that passengers average 7.3 out of 10 for comfort levels with biometric identification across the journey where 10 is the most comfortable.IATAs recent Global Passenger Survey echoes SITAs findings. Over 80 of passengers would share their immigration information to speed up the airport arrival process 66 want to obtain a visa online prior to travel and as many as three quarters want to use biometric data instead of passports and boarding passes.Pioneering Digital TravelSo the advance of Digital Travel is inexorable with digital identity at the helm. At SITA it remains a critical area of our strategic focus. We currently provide the next-generation of self-service technology infrastructure on which digital identities rely with integrated data-driven mobile and biometrically-enabled self-service touchpoints for check-in bag-drop border control boarding and more.Our digital border solutions enable Digital Travel at the border for over 70 governments and all G20 nations while our passenger processing solutions offer biometric and mobile-driven digital journey experiences for travelers which can be untethered from fixed points in the airport.A community approach is essentialBut clearly there is much work to be done before Digital Travel becomes a universal reality. As we develop and innovate in this crucial area we recognize the necessity for the industry to adopt a community approach. There is the need to evolve to a universal digital identity for travel not parochial standalone initiatives for one airport or transport operator covering just a single journey.All of us in the travel industry must ensure that digital identities become reusable for travelers for every trip across all of the worlds airports cruise hubs railway stations and more. This is especially important as we see the rise of intermodal services such as in the Netherlands KLMs AirTravel for instance and in France for example the Train Air service offered by SITA customer SNCF Voyageurs.SITA stands together with industry bodies such as ICAO IATA and ACI advocating for global standards and initiatives like ICAOs DTC. We are honored to play our part in the development of the Safe Seamless Traveler Journey SSTJ initiative of the World Travel Tourism Council WTTC.It is vital to work collaboratively with airlines airports border agencies industry bodies and other partners across the world. It is why we continue to undertake collaborative trials and Proofs-of-Concept PoCs with customers to evolve digital passenger processing and border solutions for the future. And it is why we continue to identify partners and potential PoCs to advance the digital cause for the travel industry.Putting theory into practice in ArubaSITA has a number of initiatives underway. One that I can reference here is our Digital Travel work with the Government of Aruba and tech partner Indicio.tech which has piloted the preclearance of travelers visiting the Island using a mobile app and a secure SITA Trust Network. With a verified durable and privacy-preserving digital identity on their mobile devices travelers can enjoy fast-tracking entry on arriving at Arubas airport as well as access to many of the islands participating venues such as restaurants shops and clubs.SITAs work with Aruba will be expanding to include ICAOs DTC enabling airport authorities airlines and the government to give travelers the ability to securely share their biometric and biographic information to automate their journey.
