Unlocking travel with digital identity: an interview with Annet Steenbergen

The travel industry is undergoing a digital revolution, with digital identity wallets playing a key role in simplifying the journey for passengers. Annet Steenbergen from the EU Digital Wallet Consortium (EWC) delves into the potential of these wallets.

While we have over the last decade seen an uptake of the travel industry using biometrics for boarding a flight, border control, and even hotel check-in, the underlying identity was, except for border control, often based on an OCR scan via self-enrolment. While this has improved the passenger- and guest experience, a digital identity wallet can take this to the next level by making it easier to use in many more aspects of travel, with a higher level of insurance regarding the identity and providing the industry with only the data that they need, thus complying with privacy regulation.

Let me explain from the EU digital identity wallet (EUDIW) perspective. The personal Identity data that forms the anchor of the EUDIW is provided by each EU member state to their citizens who wish to use a wallet, thus giving the identity a high level of assurance. This means that when someone uses their wallet to book and pay for a flight or a hotel reservation, the relying party (the online travel agent, airline, or hotel) can verify that the personal data shared to make the booking is authentic. Furthermore, no need to take a photo of a passport and store that with data privacy implications, because only the data that is needed for the booking is securely shared.

The EUDIW will be available to be used online and offline and supports safe digital identification whereby, and this is new, the user is in control of the identity data that is shared. In 2026 the EU member states will all issue a digital identity wallet to whoever wishes to use it. Furthermore, also private parties will be able to provide an EUDIW if they comply, and of course, they can become a relying (verifying) party. This can bring the travel industry value by being able to provide a real seamless experience.

The European Commission is funding four Consortia that are currently working on Large Scale Pilots to test the wallet and use cases ranging from payment, health care, academic credentials, government services, and travel. The EU Digital Wallet Consortium (EWC) that I take part in has travel as one of their main use cases, next to payment and Organisational Digital Identity (or digital identity for Legal Persons which is also very interesting for the travel industry).

The EWC is preparing several pilots that are typical travel industry use cases. For aviation, we are working on automatically filling the advanced passenger information data that is required for flights and passenger identification. For ferries, Greek ferries, in this case, the EWC will pilot the booking and ticket issuing. Age verification will be done for the Buda Castle entry in Budapest as students enter for a discount. This is also a great example of data minimisation as only the student status will be shared and no personal data.

Sharing only the required and verified data of a hotel guest will also be piloted by using the EUDIW for filling out a hotel guest registration form. This last use case can make a big difference for the hotel check-in experience; no more endless copies of passports that need to be stored, but only a simple, quick, and secure digital sharing of only the data that the hotel needs to have to comply with regulation.

Payment is a part of the EUDIW and of the large-scale pilot! Visa and Worldline are for example partners in the EWC and payment across EU borders will be piloted. Having finance as part of the EUDIW will mean more than a payment. Think for example of online opening a bank account in Spain while in the Netherlands. The high level of assurance that the identification through the EUDIW provides can support the digital KYC process and simplify it. Finance and payment are crucial to the adoption of the EUDIW and on Consortium, called NOBID is fully dedicated to the large-scale piloting of this.

The adoption of the wallet for everyday use is vital to making the EUDIW a success. Crucial for this is the usability, UX for people to use it and many relying parties to use it with. Likewise, businesses can find value in using the EUDIW to create a seamless experience and make it easy to comply with data privacy regulations, but joining as a relying party must not be cumbersome.

Very important to its success is the understanding of the data paradigm shift that the digital identity wallet will give because citizens will now have the power to choose what data they wish to share and have control over their data. We are so used to giving data to third parties all the time, for example, if we want to buy something online, all that data is stored centrally on a server. Whereas, if we buy something in the physical world no data is needed as it is clear that we are a real person and as long as we pay, no data is needed. This is exactly what the EUDIW will provide an identity that we can use online like we are used to in the physical world. To understand this shift in using identity requires advocacy and education.

As already mentioned in 2026 EU member states will have to issue their first wallet to citizens who wish to use one. This is around the corner, and I hope all EU member states will advocate the use of that wallet and support citizens and businesses in the adoption. The EUDIW has the potential to change the way we interact and do business online by creating a secure and trusted way. For businesses, it will reduce the cost of authentication, administration, compliance, improve customer experience, and create many new business opportunities that we cannot think of yet, but in a few years maybe all use every day.

I hope that in the future I have my passport in my wallet, as well as my driver’s licence, health insurance, bank card, etc. When planning my trip, I will use these credentials safely online and add my boarding card, hotel key, car rental voucher, museum ticket, train tickets, etc. as credentials to my wallet and have a seamless travel experience.

About Annet Steenbergen

After many years working in international border management Annet co-founded/co-initiated the Aruba Happy Flow project in 2013, which created the world’s first seamless passenger facilitation uniting the public and private stakeholders at the airport in one identity management system using a single biometric token. Ever since digital Identity and innovation for the travel eco-system have been at the centre of her work. She is currently a consultant for the travel and tourism industry and works on projects with a focus on implementing digital identity and digital travel credentials to create true Seamless Travel while preserving data privacy and data protection. She is a partner in the EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium.

Annet has been actively involved in IATA OneID working groups and task forces and, in 2020, she was awarded the Women in Biometrics Award. She is also often asked as a public speaker and moderator.

About the Digital Wallet Consortium (EWC)

The EU Digital Wallet Consortium (EWC) is a joint effort to successfully leverage the benefits of the proposed EU digital identity in the form of Digital Travel Credentials across the Member States. The EWC intends to build on the Reference Wallet Application to enable a use case focused on Digital Travel Credentials.

We expect this use case to necessitate the use of multiple Electronic Attestation of Attributes and Credentials as well as the involvement of both the private sector and the public sector.