High levels of support for vaccine passports in global Amadeus consumer poll

The GDS and tech giant surveyed nearly 10,000 travellers from nine countries

A global survey of travellers by Amadeus has found high levels of support for digital health passports to support the reopening of travel.

The study for the GDS and European travel technology giant, surveyed 9,055 people finding 91% saying they would be comfortable using a digital health passport.

Amadeus said the finding should act as an incentive to accelerate moves to bring in COVID-19 vaccine passports, with 41% if respondents saying they would book to travel within six weeks of restrictions being lifted.

The survey, conducted by Censuswide, took the views of travellers in France, Spain, Germany, India, UAE, Russia, Singapore, the UK and US.

It did find some areas of caution for travel with 93% of travellers saying they have some concerns around how their health data for travel would be stored.

Key areas of concerns related to sharing data included the risk of personal information being hacked (38%), privacy concerns (35%) and lack of transparency and control (30%).

However, just under three quarters (74%) of travellers surveyed would be willing to store their travel health data electronically if it enabled them to pass through airports faster.

Over 7 in 10 (72%) travellers would be willing to store their travel health data electronically if it enabled them to travel to more destinations .

And 68% of travellers 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.

Asked what solutions might alleviate concerns 42% said a travel app that could be used across the whole journey to improve the experience and reassure them their information is all in one place.

In addition, 41% of travellers agreed a travel app would reduce travel-related stress and  62% would be more likely to use an app to store their health data if a travel company partnered with a trusted healthcare company.

Decius Valmorbida, president, travel at Amadeus, 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 deliveron traveller expectations outlined in this Rebuild Travel digital health survey, deploying the right technology to enable a truly connected and contactless journey.”

Christophe Bousquet, Amadeus chief technology officer added: “This study highlights once more the key role that technology will play in rebuilding travel.

“We’ve seen a shift since our last survey, as travellers now place more focus on mobile and touchless technology, crucial areas that will clearly strengthen traveller confidence.

“It’s also very relevant to see that travellers are open to digital health passports and sharing their data as they move through the journey, once the right safeguards are in place.

“At Amadeus, we’re committed to rebuilding a better industry, together with our customers and partners.”

The latest Amadeus research was the second in a series of traveller surveys to assess traveller sentiment and concerns.

The firm’s 2020 Rethink Travel survey indicated that technology can increase traveller confidence.

In this latest poll, 91% of travellers now say that technology will increase their confidence to travel, up from 84% in September 2020.

When asked which technology would increase confidence to travel in the next 12 months, mobile solutions were a popular option.

The top three technologies included:

• Mobile applications that provide on-trip notifications and alerts (45%)
• Contactless mobile payments (Apple or Google Pay, Paypal, Venmo) (44%)
• Mobile boarding (having your boarding pass on your mobile phone) (43%)