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LOCAL Monday 3 april 2023

Aruba streamlines travel procedures with new Aruba Happy One Pass

(Oranjestad)—Last week Thursday, the minister the "Seamless Travel Experience" is to enhance
of tourism, public health, and sports for Aruba, the traveling experience by transforming it to a
Dangui Oduber, announced the successful trial fully digital and hassle free to and from Aruba.
of a pilot program for a new mobile application The project builds on extensive trials of verifiable
called the Aruba Happy One Pass (HOP). The digital credential technology in Aruba from 2021
app is the first of its kind for travelers, designed onwards that were conducted by SITA and Indi-
to hold and share personal travel data in a way cio to manage traveler health data from Covid
that preserves their privacy while delivering a testing and vaccination. The design of Aruba
frictionless, seamless travel experience when hop was based on principles set forth by One ID
coming to Aruba. and from the DTC standard from International
Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and was built
The underlying digital travel credential (DTC) on Hyperledger Foundation open-source tech-
technology was developed jointly with the Aru- nologies for maximum interoperability.
ba Tourism Authority (ATA), Immigration Aruba
(the Aruba Immigration), SITA, and Indicio, and “The Aruba Happy One Pass is intended to trans-
represents a ground-breaking development in form the traveler experience, creating a more
travel where passengers will be able to avail of efficient security process where travelers have
seamless verification for embarkation, immigra- everything they need right on their personal de-
tion, and border crossing–all before boarding vices,” said Ronella Croes, CEO of Aruba Tour-
their flights. ism Authority. “Aruba is proud to be a trailblazer
in innovation within the tourism industry, deliver-
The Aruba HOP enables a passenger to turn ing an exceptional experience for visitors from
their physical passport into a digital credential our airport and accommodations to our world-
whose authenticity, integrity, and ownership class beaches and vibrant culture.”
can be automatically and repeatedly verified Jeremy Springall, SITA’s Senior Vice-President,
with the passenger’s consent. The new app SITA AT BORDERS, said: "The Aruba Happy One
streamlines the arrival and border control pro- Pass is driving forward the use of digital identities
cess at airports, while reducing the risk of error, in travel, to ensure secure and seamless jour-
identity theft, or fraud. The resulting efficiencies neys, in a privacy-preserving way with arriving
will cut wait times and create a seamless trav- travelers pre-cleared and ‘ready-to-go’. Digi-
el experience for passengers, getting them to tal identities will enable travel from anywhere
their destination quicker. to everywhere – by air, land, or sea – without
What makes the Aruba HOP unique is that it is needing to show our physical travel docu-
designed to eliminate third-party data storage. ments. The Aruba HOP project brings this vision
With the Aruba HOP, passengers hold their own closer to reality."
data and share it by consent. They do not need
a third party to manage access to their data. “Biometrics and verifiable credentials are the
This “privacy-by-design” approach simplifies key technologies for a secure and seamless
data privacy compliance and provides pas- traveler experience,” said Heather Dahl, CEO
sengers with assurance that they control their of Indicio, a global leader in verifiable data
personal information. This is a significant devel- and decentralized identity technology. “SITA
opment on current technology and represents and Aruba’s commitment to privacy-preserv-
a “passenger-first” approach to travel. ing innovation means that passengers can
store information on their devices and share it
Minister Oduber has always strived towards in- as needed for a truly touchless and happy ex-
novative projects and processes, and as such, perience. This is a clear market indicator that
has made it the focal point of his strategy and technology built on open standards and open-
his vision. His aim is to foster cooperation and source code produces the contactless passen-
partnerships with different stakeholders to en- ger journey that the travel industry needs and a
sure that this project reaches the whole Hospi- seamless experience that passengers expect.”
tality Industry on Aruba, giving all participants
within this industry the opportunity to benefit To see how Aruba HOP, using the SITA DTC,
from this project while offering a more efficient creates a secure travel credential, watch this
service to their guests. The main objective of video. q