The Canary Islands will be the destination of the first pilot flight, with passengers monitored by a secure health application called Hi+Card and free of Covid-19. This was conveyed this Friday by the Director-General of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Zurab Pololikashvili, to the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla, who thanked him for this "great news", which occurs within the framework of the collaboration initiated between both institutions to share and develop measures that support the tourist recovery of the Canary Islands as a safe destination.
"The necessary steps are being taken so that passengers can travel with peace of mind and airlines can, in turn, increase the capacity of their flights, since this application is configured as a digital health passport, covering a need expected by the Canary Islands destination, travelers and airlines, such as having the peace of mind of safely carrying their medical data that certifies them as free of Covid-19", Castilla pointed out.
"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 recovery. Travel will no longer be the same as before. On the contrary, they will become safer and more sustainable to continue providing benefits to nations and communities," said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili.
The travelers of this pioneering flight in the world, which will take place next July, will carry, thanks to this application, a unique digital profile on their smartphones, where a health entity accredited by the Ministry of Health uploads the medical information. "This avoids the possibility of creating false profiles or manipulating medical records," explains Antonio López de Ávila, co-founder of hi+Card and CEO of TDDS. Users ask these entities to store the information directly, in an encrypted and secure way, in their profiles.
Collaboration of the UNWTO with the Canary Islands
The Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands, Yaiza Castilla, thanked the Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization for this "important support to its strategy of tourist reopening in the face of the crisis caused by Covid-19".
This commitment materialized after a telematic meeting with the Secretary-General of the UNWTO, Zurab Pololikashvili, to present the project in which the Islands are working to recover tourism as soon as possible and which involves "turning the Canary Islands into a laboratory for redesigning processes throughout the value chain of tourism activity, creating and verifying protocols for each service and minimizing any risk in order to transmit health security to tourists", according to the regional Executive.
Castilla, who was accompanied at this meeting by the director of the laboratory project, Cristina del Río Fresen, received from Zurab Pololikashvili the support of his organization to this strategy, as well as his collaboration for which he has made available to the Canarian project the Department of Innovation and Digital Transformation and the Department of Communication to share and develop measures that support the tourist recovery of the Canary Islands.
The highest representative of the UNWTO, conveyed to the Minister of Tourism of the Government of the Canary Islands that it is the first region to address them to present a project for the recovery of the activity so complete, of which he also said that it seems "very interesting for any destination because it takes into account the entire tourism value chain". In this regard, Yaiza Castilla informed the international representative that the intention of the Canary Islands is to become a world laboratory for redesigning tourist safety protocols, applying them in the islands and sharing them with the rest of the tourist destinations in the world.
Zurab Pololikashvili also informed that the Department of Innovation and Digital Transformation of his Organization is working on a project for the minimization of risks against the disease by travelers through traceability systems and technology, whose pilot experience they planned to launch shortly and finally the Canary Islands has been chosen to carry it out worldwide.
Hi+Card
Hi+Card is part of the solutions that the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) is supporting based on the commitment acquired with the Government of the Canary Islands to help the recovery of tourism in the world.
It is a Canarian initiative, of global scope, linked to Turisfera, the Innovation Cluster of Canarian Companies, and launched by Air Institute and Tourism Data Driven Solutions (TDDS) in collaboration with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
