COVID-19 ‘vaccine passports’ will be a prerequisite to international travel

Travel industry bodies say app-based COVID ‘vaccination passports’ will be a mandatory requirement when international tourism resumes.

Travel industry bodies say app-based COVID “vaccination passports” that trace a traveller’s risk level and immunisation history will be a mandatory requirement when international tourism resumes.

Australian Tourism Export Council managing director Peter Shelley said it was actively exploring options for app-based, digital passports that would record health information and traveller movements — providing the modern answer to paper immunisation records.

“We just feel there’s going to need to be something more than the old yellow card, where data is kept very short term just to allow that process to take place,” he said.

Qantas has thrown its support behind the proposal, after the airline announced a “no jab, no fly” policy when international travel resumes —which could be in July.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said travellers had to be able “to show you’ve had those vaccinations” and an electronic system was required to monitor this to fly in the modern era.

“We already have countries that require you to have a yellow fever or a polio vaccination to enter the country… the little WHO yellow book that people have had,” he said.

“The research we’ve done (shows) 89 per cent of our customers are saying they support the vaccination requirement on those flights, and that would encourage them to travel internationally if they knew that requirement.”

Australian company GoPassport is developing an app-based health passport, joining a crowded international marketplace that includes prototypes from IBM, British tech company VST Enterprises and the World Economic Forum. GoPassport chief executive Matt Mckinley said the company was in discussions with state and federal leaders about the app’s potential, with the product on track for release next month.

“For people to travel in future, they’ll have to demonstrate their health status … and this is going to be a very complex thing for an individual to do on their own,” he said.

“GoPassport’s job is to unravel the complexity of travel in the new era.”

He said the app, which would hold significant health and travel information, would comply with “privacy regulations in Australia and Europe” and would find acceptance much like the stringent security measures imposed after 9/11.