Insights
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Aug 1, 2025
Digital identity is increasingly becoming the cornerstone of modern travel. With the rollout of the EUDI Wallet underway, the convergence of security, privacy and convenience has never felt more urgent, or promising.
To explore this intersection, we spoke with Annet Steenbergen, a seasoned leader in digital identity to unpack the lessons from her work, where the EUDI Wallet stands today and how seamless, secure travel could become a reality sooner than we think.
Q1: Annet, you’ve been a leader in digital identity for years. Can you share how you first got involved in this space and what continues to motivate your work?
A: I started my career at the Dutch Government with the Immigration and Naturalization Services, working on border control oversight at Schiphol. I wasn’t the one stamping passports, but I was deeply involved in the operational side, managing court cases, working with airlines and helping decide whether someone should board a plane.
Later, when I moved into policy roles and served as an attaché abroad, I carried that operational insight with me. My real shift into digital identity came in Aruba, where I co-initiated and led the Happy Flow project, a first-of-its-kind system that used a biometric token to serve public and private stakeholders at the airport. From there, I got involved with IATA’s One ID early on and the WTTC and three. For the last few years I have been taking part in the EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium (EWC).
What continues to motivate me today is the urgent need for a secure, privacy-preserving digital identity that individuals can control themselves. In a world increasingly shaped by AI and digital fraud, we need tools that allow us to be real, verifiable people online.
Q2: You previously already mentioned the Aruba Happy Flow Project. What was the vision behind it and what were some valuable takeaways from that initiative?
A: The Aruba Happy Flow project, launched in 2012–2013, was designed to create a seamless passenger journey using a biometric token that connected all touch points at the airport. Although the system was centralized and local at the time, it already implemented principles like data minimization and selective data sharing.
Each stakeholder, from immigration to airlines and airport security, only received the data they needed. This approach anticipated many of the privacy-preserving features we now associate with decentralized identity systems. The project was also a real-world example of effective public–private collaboration in the travel space. It showed that you can achieve both efficiency and security when identity is managed thoughtfully.
Q3: At the moment you work as an active member of the EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium (EWC). What are the most important lessons or emerging challenges you’ve observed so far?
Working with EWC has made it clear just how urgently we need a trusted, government-backed digital identity system. As more fraud surfaces and AI advances, the importance of a verifiable, high-assurance identity grows by the day.
One of the biggest challenges is that we’re essentially building a new digital ecosystem from the ground up. For most people, the concept of a self-sovereign identity wallet is still unfamiliar, meaning that there’s a major gap between what technologists understand and what the public and institutions are ready to adopt.
We need a shared understanding to foster trust and drive adoption of the wallet.
This means that beyond technology, education and advocacy are key. Governments and businesses alike need to explain not just how these new systems, like the EUDI Wallet, work but why they matter.
As the promise of digital identity becomes more tangible, it’s clear that implementation won’t be without obstacles.
Q4: So how do you see digital IDs (including EUDI wallets) impact the travel industry in the coming years?
Digital identity has the potential to finally deliver on a long-standing goal in the travel industry: a truly seamless passenger journey. While various parts of the flow, like biometric boarding or automated border checks, already exist, they’re often disconnected. What’s missing is a unified, end-to-end experience that works across all touch-points.
With a secure digital ID, travelers could move through the airport at walking pace, using their device or biometrics for verification, without repeatedly presenting documents or entering data. That shift not only increases efficiency, but also improves security by enabling high-assurance identity checks in advance.
“It’s always 50:50. It’s about efficiency and ease, but also about security.”
Done right, and with privacy protecting pre-conditions, decentralized digital IDs will allow travel to be faster and more secure. We just need to find the right balance.
Q5: While digital IDs promise a more seamless and secure travel experience, they also raise new challenges. Where do you see the biggest friction today between privacy, security and convenience in travel identity systems?
A: The main friction point lies in the use and storage of biometrics, which are considered highly sensitive personal data, particularly in regions like the EU with strict privacy laws. While biometrics are essential for creating a secure, seamless travel experience; they also pose risks when stored centrally or used without proper legal safeguards.
Striking the right balance between security and convenience requires close alignment between regulation, technology and public trust.
“It’s a complex dance, but one that’s essential for the future of trusted digital travel.”
Q6: Beyond the technical and legal friction points, what do you see as the biggest challenges the travel industry faces in adopting digital identity?
A: A key challenge is that we’re dealing with different privacy laws and regulatory environments across countries. In the EU, for example, we have strict rules around biometrics and data protection but when you cross a border, you often enter a completely different legal landscape. That makes international alignment extremely difficult, yet absolutely essential.
And of course, there’s the need for deep collaboration between public and private sectors. You can’t talk about digital identity in travel without involving all stakeholders; airlines, airports, governments and solution providers.
Q7: One challenge you mentioned is international alignment. So, how do you think interoperability can be addressed most effectively in the context of cross-border travel?
A: Interoperability in travel identity can’t be solved by technology alone, it also requires legal recognition across countries. We have a very important standard available already to create a digital file of your e-passport which is the ICAO Digital Travel credential (DTC). This is a crucial standard because passports are essential to travel internationally. However, this standard is only designed for use by border authorities and thereby limits a broader application like at hotels or airline check-in, where selective disclosure of passport data is crucial to comply with privacy regulations
There are also promising developments, like the ISO photo ID standard that the EWC has piloted in prototype, which includes the DTC and enables selective disclosure from these verified travel credentials. But for any of these solutions to work, they need to be officially recognized by governments. Without that legal backing, even the most elegant technical solution won’t be usable in practice.
To move forward, we also need neutral spaces for open discussion, like the Global Digital Collaboration (GDC) event that was held in Geneva this July. These forums allow governments, industry and standards bodies to come together without the pressure of formal negotiations.
Q8: Beyond solving interoperability, adoption remains also a hurdle. What are the main barriers you see in the acceptance and adoption of digital IDs?
A: The biggest barrier is lack of widespread understanding. Digital identity, especially in the form of decentralized wallets, is a complex concept if you’re not immersed in it every day. And without understanding, there’s no trust. People won’t adopt what they don’t feel confident about, and institutions won’t implement what they can’t fully explain.
That’s why we need killer use cases that show the real value of digital IDs. When someone sees how it can simplify check-in at a hotel, or protect their child online by verifying age without oversharing data, it becomes tangible and trusted.
Q9: Talking about killer use cases: Which travel use cases are most ripe for a digital identity transformation and where is the urgency greatest?
A: Some of the most immediate and promising use cases are already being piloted by EWC like check-in with Lufthansa using the EUDI Wallet, or hotel registration in Spain, where the wallet can automatically fill in all required fields to comply with local regulations. These may seem simple, but they demonstrate how digital identity can remove friction from everyday travel interactions.
Another area with huge potential is payments and business verification, particularly in B2B travel. The business wallet could allow platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com to instantly verify whether a hotel is licensed, registered and part of a tourism organization.
While use cases are already taking shape, the success of digital identity in travel ultimately depends also on the EUDI Wallet.
Q10: With the EUDI Wallet rollout underway: What do you see as currently missing in the EUDI Wallet spec to be fully adopted in the travel industry and how do you see it impacting the overall customer journey?
A: For the EUDI Wallet to fully support travel, we need a recognized standard for selective disclosure that preserves the integrity of the ICAO DTC, as that is the core standard for crossing international borders. We all use our passport in many more situations outside of border control and need that to be translated to a digital and more privacy preserving system. Solutions like the ISO Photo ID show promise, but without legal recognition, full adoption in travel will stall.
When implemented properly, the wallet can make travel more seamless; streamlining processes while giving users control over their data. But to truly unlock these benefits, we’ll need to see widespread adoption, interoperability, and mutual recognition of credentials between countries and service providers.
Q11: Assuming those standards are put in place, what kinds of internal process changes will companies need to make to actually integrate the EUDI Wallet into the travel experience?
A: The first step is for companies to fully understand the concept of the EUDI Wallet: what it enables, how it fits into their ecosystem and where it adds value. From there, organizations should begin identifying specific use cases relevant to their operations.
"It's happening whether you like it or not, in Europe. So get ahead of the game and prepare now rather than catch up later.”
Q12: We talked a lot about where we are right now. Looking ahead, what do you hope the travel identity landscape will look like in the coming years?
A: I hope to see a future where decentralized identity is widely adopted — enabling people to travel faster, more seamlessly and move through each step of the journey at walking pace, without the need to constantly hand over data. That would make the experience of traveling not just safer but also more enjoyable.
And anything that reduces friction benefits everyone: the passenger, the airline, the airport and even the image of the destination itself. A better passenger experience creates value across the board.
Q13: We’re now halfway through 2025. As the vision you just described begins to take shape, what major trend in digital identity do you see emerging right now?
A: For over a decade, we’ve been talking about seamless travel but now, for the first time, we’re beginning to see the conditions emerge to make it truly possible.
"The big trend is that seamless travel is finally moving toward real implementation and my hope is that it becomes true seamless travel, not just scattered pieces of it."