The World Travel and Tourism Council has approved eight strategic priorities for unlocking growth in the travel sector, and placed biometrics and digital standards at the top of the list. The first priority, enabling safe and seamless journeys through digital standards and biometrics, frames identity and traveler-processing technology as the leading lever for a sector the council says is held back by fragmented journeys and cumbersome border and visa steps.
The priorities came out of a broad consultation with industry leaders. The council developed them from more than 200 interviews with chief executives and senior figures across the travel and tourism industry, conducted over several months, and its executive council approved the resulting list. Putting digital standards and biometrics first, ahead of priorities on sustainability, connectivity, and workforce, signals where the sector’s leadership sees the most immediate friction.
That friction is described in identity terms. The council identifies complex, fragmented traveler journeys, challenging visa procedures, and uneven digital identity systems among the barriers to growth, the points where a traveler is repeatedly re-verified or slowed by paperwork and incompatible systems. Biometrics and common digital standards are positioned as the way to smooth those handoffs across airlines, airports, and borders.
“These priorities reflect the breadth, diversity and expertise of our membership,” said Gloria Guevara, President and Chief Executive Officer of the World Travel and Tourism Council, describing them as a statement of what the sector believes is needed to unlock growth, resilience, and opportunity. The biometrics-and-standards priority aligns the council with an air-travel industry already moving toward identity-based processing.
That direction is visible in parallel industry work. The airline body IATA has reported proof-of-concept results confirming that biometric digital identity for international air travel is interoperable at scale, and has launched a global directory to accelerate airport biometric adoption, the kind of standards-and-biometrics infrastructure the council is now prioritizing.
Sources: World Travel and Tourism Council
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
