The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has developed a digital vaccine certification system as a trial to welcome back tourists when international tourism restarts. — Photo Việt Nam Tourism

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has developed a digital vaccine certification system, which will be piloted to welcome back international arrivals and ensure safe travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The European-standard system is technically the same as a vaccine passport to help ensure safe travel. It digitally certifies that a person has had two doses of the COVID vaccine. By authenticating the information on a digital platform, it will be convenient in case the tracking process is needed.

This system provides procedures for controlling and updating medical records of international visitors upon their entry into Việt Nam, during their travel and their exit. It is built following European standards and meets regulations on security and confidentiality.

A number of countries and organisations in the world have researched and applied digital certification tools for convenient travel and trade activities.

For example, the European Union has applied the EU Digital COVID certification to facilitate travel within the bloc. The International Air Transport Association  has developed a Digital Travel Pass, and the World Economic Forum and the Common Project have developed a Common Pass.

Việt Nam has piloted the use of vaccine passports for international visitors to a number of tourist destinations such as Phú Quốc in southern Kiên Giang Province. The COVID-19 digital vaccine certification system is considered the most important tool to ensure safe travel.

With the support of the ministries of Health and Information and Communications, the VNAT said it has proactively built a vaccine certification system at the travel pass tourism website to be ready to welcome international guests when international tourism re-opens.

Currently, the vaccine certification system has been integrated into the ‘Du Lịch Việt Nam An Toàn’ (Travel Safe in Việt Nam) mobile app, which makes it easier for users to complete the form online and helps authorities improve the effectiveness of the COVID response.

Users can utilize the app to declare vaccine certificates and at the same time access and take advantage of the ecosystem of smart utilities on the app such as finding safe destinations, updating disease information in localities, safe tourism digital maps, health monitoring, travel insurance, e-tickets, shopping services, tour management and destination discovery.

As travel restrictions and border closure remains in place to curb the coronavirus, international arrivals in Việt Nam in the first eight months of 2021 nosedived 97.2 per cent compared to the same period last year, to just 105,000, most of whom are foreign experts and workers, according to the General Statistics Office. — VNS