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The Canary Islands has been chosen as the place where the world's first Covid-19 free flight from Madrid lands . Or what is the same, the first with a digital health passport that certifies that its passengers do not carry the coronavirus and, in this way, guarantee safety between tourists and inhabitants of the fortunate islands.

The autonomous community has been chosen by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to launch this pilot project in July. The passengers of this flight between Madrid and the Canary Islands (it is not yet decided which island airport) will thus test the so-called digital health passport, which will monitor them through an application on their mobile phone from the moment they board the plane in the capital. Spanish to their various tours of the islands as tourists.

Technology developed in the Canary Islands

The app, called Health iCard (hi ​​+ Card) and free of Covid-19 and developed in the archipelago itself, will be used on four pilot flights worldwide, although the origins and destinations are still unknown, except in the case of Madrid -Canary Islands. The application seeks to guarantee the health security of both the tracked people and those who have contact with them, accrediting their state of health. For this, the traveler will have a digital profile on their mobile that stores encrypted health information related to the coronavirus.

The app will work as a form of validation between the health system of the tourist's country of origin and that of the place where they are on vacation, in this case through the Spanish Ministry of Health . In this way, you will have direct access to the health status of the traveler in question at all times.

A plane during landing SHUTTERSTOCK

In turn, the objective of the hi + Card, developed with Blockchain technology, is to re-boost the tourism sector so badly hit by the global crisis of Covid-19, uniting different agents such as airlines, travelers, restaurateurs, businesses and hoteliers.

A boost to tourism

The place to put it into practice is not fortuitous, since Spain is the second country in the world with the highest income from tourism , only behind France, which represents 12% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2019, our country broke the record of foreign visitors, reaching 84 million , who spent 92,000 million euros, according to the INE.

For his part, the Canary Islands Tourism Minister, Yaiza Castilla, in statements to Onda Cero, assured that the app will be tested "to see how it works and determine if it is continued or if it is necessary to use alternative applications ". Everything, in order to reactivate the much-needed tourism. According to Castilla, this pilot project in terms of tourist security protocols, "consists of analyzing all the points a tourist passes through ", from the time they board the airport until they land in the Canary Islands, enjoy their vacations on the islands and return to his country.

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  • Canary Islands

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