INTERNATIONAL. Nine out of ten travellers would be comfortable using digital health passports to help restart travel, according to new research.
The Rebuild Travel study, commissioned by travel tech company Amadeus and delivered by Censuswide, also reveals that 41% of travellers are keen to book international travel within six weeks of restrictions lifting.
Amadeus argued that its research provided an incentive to accelerate plans for digital health passports that will help to address traveller concerns.
However, the survey of 9,055 travellers from France, Spain, Germany, India, UAE, Russia, Singapore, the UK and the US, also contained a note of caution for the industry with more than nine in ten (93%) of travellers having concerns around how their health data for travel would be stored.
When asked about their receptiveness to storing and sharing digital health data, survey results showed that just under three quarters of travellers surveyed would be willing to store their travel health data electronically if it enabled them to pass through the airport faster with fewer face-to-face interactions.
“There is no doubt that COVID-19 will continue to shape the way we travel for the months ahead, just as it influences so many other areas of our lives. Yet while there are still uncertainties, research like this reinforces my optimism that we will build back travel better than before” – Amadeus President Travel Decius Valmorbida
More than seven in ten would be willing to store their travel health data electronically if it enabled them to travel to more destinations. Meanwhile, 68% agreed they would be more likely to share their health data if the airlines they most frequently travel with offered a way to store their travel health data.
However, the three main concerns travellers had were security risks and personal information being hacked (38%); privacy concerns around what health information needed to be shared (35%); and lack of transparency and control over where the data was shared (30%).
Amadeus also repeated research it performed six months ago into how technology can help to increase traveller confidence. It found that 91% of travellers now said that technology will increase their confidence to travel, an increase from 84% in September 2020.
When asked which technology would increase confidence to travel in the next 12 months, mobile solutions were highlighted as a popular option, with the top three technologies including mobile applications that provide on-trip notifications and alerts (45%); contactless mobile payments (44%); and mobile boarding (43%).
Amadeus President Travel Decius Valmorbida said: “There is no doubt that COVID-19 will continue to shape the way we travel for the months ahead, just as it influences so many other areas of our lives. Yet while there are still uncertainties, research like this reinforces my optimism that we will build back travel better than before.
“Collaboration across governments and our industry is the key to restarting travel, as we deliver on traveller expectations outlined in this Rebuild Travel digital health survey, deploying the right technology to enable a truly connected and contactless journey.”
