Verifiable digital credentials and digital wallets took center stage at the recent Phocuswright Europe conference in Barcelona, with professionals from the biometrics and digital identity sectors convening to explore how digital ID and decentralized self-sovereign identity (SSI)  is changing the global travel industry.

In various panels from the event, executives from Indicio, Amadeus, the EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium, Neoke, Travlr ID and host PhocusWire, among other organizations, address some of the major challenges, opportunities and technologies powering the radical changes in how we travel and speculate on what the travel experience might look like in 2035.

Paradigm shift puts the traveler in charge of their data

Annet Steenbergen, advisor to the EUDI Wallet Consortium, calls the current swing toward digitization and digital ID “a paradigm shift in how we deal online” that is “providing us with the missing identity layer in the digital world.”

“And the traveler is in charge. Usually you have to give a lot of data and then you get something back. This time you’re in charge of the data you share. The trust factor has a huge potential because that is a very different way of connecting with a business.”

By 2035, say experts, digital wallets will be ubiquitous, search and shopping features will be personalized, bookings will be linked to a traveler’s digital travel credential, and airports will be fully contactless thanks to the wide deployment of biometrics.

Francois Blanc, managing director of Amadeus’ Traveler ID, offers a novel metaphor for how biometric ID enhances the travel experience. “A lot of people say digital identity is the cookies of the future – a very respectful cookie because travelers decide to share it with travel players to get a benefit. And if they do that, you have a very respectful way to track travelers along their way because they accept to do that for a tangible benefit.”

It is among the more advanced iterations of the great twenty-first century tradeoff of data in exchange for benefits. And given the agitation some people experience at the mere thought of an endless airport queue, the sales pitch is not hard to make.

Indico and SITA’s Aruba deployment makes paradise even better: CEO

Heather Dahl, CEO of Indicio, makes a convincing case for the pre-check system Indicio and SITA have deployed at Queen Beatrix Airport in Oranjestad, Aruba. The system lets travelers create a digital travel credential from their passport, which can pre-populate their required embarkation and debarkation cards, and share only the relevant information needed to enter the country legally.

Dahl says the system is “functioning beyond what I ever could have imagined. I couldn’t believe how fast it performed.”

“Ultimately, will the traveler know they are using SSI? Probably not, and that’s OK. We want them to think, ‘Wow I never expected to blow right through that checkpoint,’ or ‘I never expected that I wouldn’t have to wait in a line’ or ‘I never expected I’d be off the plane and sitting on the beach in 30 minutes.’ That’s the traveler and customer experience that I think ultimately they’ll have.”

Startups showcase digital ID infrastructure for travel

Two firms at the conference have been included among PhocusWire’s Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2024. Travlr ID CEO Gee Mann describes the firm’s product as decentralized travel identity infrastructure. He believes “the travel identity is broken” in that it requires repeated verification –  the costs for which ultimately find their way back to the customer – and fails at interoperability.

The Travlr ID solution is “a decentralized network of digital identities powered by privacy-centric blockchain powering AI agents,” which Gee concedes is “quite a mouthful.” It means “you can own your identity forever, you should be able to get rewarded for sharing your data, you can manage all your profiles in one place, you can leverage crossborder sharing and you should be able to utilize permission-based AI agents.” In offering these things, Travlr ID aims to create an end-to-end credential management tool that travelers can customize for uses from pre-trip to pre-trip and return.

Neoke CEO Vikas Bhola calls the potential use cases for digital ID and wallets “profound,” and says consumers will embrace digital ID once they see the benefits. “There are too many things that can be solved with digital identity – the main point is how do we start, where’s the infrastructure, how can businesses get ready, how can they deploy this at scale. This is the piece that we’re working on, to kind of build the infrastructure that can be easily integrated but is built on standards that really truly unlocks the interoperability that we all dream of.”

On YouTube, you can find full versions of the panel Digital Identity is (Nearly) Here, the executive interview Digital Identity in Action, and the Five Minutes of Fame session with Travlr ID.

Article Topics

Amadeus  |  biometrics  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  digital travel credentials  |  digital wallets  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium (EWC)  |  Indicio  |  Neoke  |  self-sovereign identity  |  SITA  |  Travlr ID