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Canary Islands and UNWTO partner for ‘safe’ flight pilot

The Canary Islands and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) are working together on the world’s first ‘safe’ flight using a digital health passport.

The pilot flight, scheduled for July, will use an app which stores encrypted medical records. It is hoped the test flight will help passengers to travel safely in the future.

Travellers on the flight will have a digital profile on their smartphones, with an accredited health authority appointed to upload medical information. The app will store information and its creator says data will be held securely on individual profiles.

The tourism minister for the Canaries, Yaiza Castilla, said the move was proof “the necessary steps” were being taken to help passengers travel with ease and peace of mind.

Castilla said: “The necessary steps are being taken so that passengers can travel with ease and airlines can, in turn, increase the capacity of their flights, since this application is configured as a digital health passport, covering an expected need for the Canary Islands destination, travellers and airlines, such as having the peace of mind of safely carrying their medical data that certifies them as free of Covid-19.”

It is hoped the Canary Islands can help redesign tourism protocols and share insight with destinations around the world.

Zurab Pololikashvili, director general of the UNWTO said: “In these exceptional times, in which the Covid-19 pandemic has shaken the world economy and threatened our tourism sector, innovation becomes the cornerstone of the recuperation.

“The trips will no longer be as before. Rather, they will become safer and more sustainable to continue providing benefits to nations and communities.”

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