Share less data in more places: inching towards decentralized digital ID for travel

The travel industry is slowly shifting to a more decentralized model of digital identity. This was one of the key points EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium (EWC) Advisor Annet Steenbergen and NetSys CEO and DIF Travel & Hospitality Working Group Co-chair Nick Price told Dock CEO Nick Lambert about during a webinar on “How Digital ID Is Reshaping the Travel Industry.”

Steenbergen recounted her experience in travel policy, including with the Aruba Happy Flow program and as the country’s representative to IATA.

Price noted during his introduction that he has been leading a seamless travel project with decentralized digital identity in an unnamed country in the Middle East focused on use cases within the country, after arrival.

Digital identities like ICAO Digital Travel Credentials (DTCs) ease regulatory compliance by providing a higher level of assurance than simply sharing a copy of your passport, Steenbergen says. And then there are the privacy concerns that come with shared images or photocopies of a passport.

Price described how digital identities like DTCs that can improve traveler experiences beyond the airport. Hotels often have regulatory requirements to know who their guests are, which lead them to collect their passports. This leads to long lines at check-in.

But beyond compliance, Price says, a different level of service is possible when people can share their preferences with organizations.

“That information needs to be stored somewhere,” he explains. “The only effective place to store it is with the traveller themselves, because they’re the only ones that actually know. And now you have the tools. You have the tools to be able to provide that information at every point, but only just the information that’s needed for that particular interaction that you’re doing. Tick just the hotel information, or just the taxi information, or just the restaurant information.”

Digital identity also has a key role to play in agent-to-agent interactions for travel bookings too, Price argues, physical access control, and a reimagined, modernized version of loyalty programs.

“There are so many opportunities here honestly that we just need the tools in the hands of enough travelers, and loyalty will probably never be the same again.”

EUDI Wallets and IDs for things

Insights from the EU’s large-scale pilots for its Digital Identity Wallets will soon be shared by the EU Commission, as they are wrapping up, Steenbergen says.

One of those pilots involved completing a payment, proof of student status, and receiving a ticket within a single flow, in one of several illustrations of simplified travel interactions.

Phase 3 testing of the EU Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet for the travel industry has begun, meanwhile, with Amadeus and Lufthansa testing an integration for end-to-end seamless travel. The EUDI Wallet is integrated with Amadeus software to support the online check-in process, bag drop, pre-security check and flight boarding, according to a LinkedIn post.

Steenbergen referred to this project during the webinar as an example of how identity providers and the travel industry are working together to operationalize the new way of sharing ID data.

And the EWC is currently inviting people to help it test an online airline check-in process using the digital identity of fictional persona “Hanna.”

Steenbergen also described work with an ISO PhotoID format, which is used in this test. She hopes it will graduate to an official specification soon, to allow selective disclosure with ICAO DTCs, which do not natively support them.

The future of travel may also include digital IDs for things, such as hotels, possibly based on GLEIF. When these change hands the asset management transfer is time-consuming and laborious, Price says.

For digital identity to work for travel, though, Price says, it needs to “scale down.” Small businesses will not be able to participate if complicated back-end systems and major upfront investments are necessary.

Price, Steenbergen and Lambert discussed the importance of making it easy for organizations to verify digital IDs to building up the ecosystem.

A shift in public mindset must also accompany the adoption of decentralized digital identity to replace the centralized systems that hoover up personal data indiscriminately.

Public already concerned with travel data oversharing

But people are already worried about sharing their personal information with the travel industry. Jumio’s 2025 Online Identity Study shows 44 percent do not trust the travel industry to protect them against AI-powered fraud like identity theft or account takeovers.

Half of those surveyed say they don’t feel their data is protected adequately by “sharing economy” businesses, and percentages for those businesses and the industry overall were even worse among Americans, with 60 percent and 55 percent respectively reporting a lack of trust.

There is good reason for this, too, with a report from Wired and 404 Media revealing that data broker Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) sold access to traveler records to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency and blocked it from sharing where the data came from.

ARC is owned by at least eight American air carriers, and representatives of Delta, Southwest, United, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and European airlines Lufthansa and Air France, and Air Canada sit on its board of directors.

Correspondingly, the number of travelers who told Jumio they would pay for more secure identity verification continues to creep up, from 71 percent last year to 74 percent this year.

Article Topics

airport biometrics  |  Amadeus  |  decentralized ID  |  digital ID  |  digital travel  |  digital wallets  |  Dock  |  EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium (EWC)  |  GLEIF  |  IATA Travel Pass  |  Jumio