Virginia Messina, senior vice president WTTC, said: “WTTC is confident the EU Digital COVID Certificate will boost consumer confidence and the wider travel and tourism sector across Europe, which has been in a fight for survival for over a year.”

The certificate is a great example and should aid the return of the safe international travel; help recover jobs and signal the revival of a sector which will be critical to the economic recovery across the continent, she added.

“We’d like to commend the EU Commission and institutions for adopting this swiftly, however, EU Member States must take a coordinated and harmonised approach, aligning polices to avoid fragmentation and confusion among holidaymakers who needs easy to understand rules and regulations to make travel seamless during this difficult time,” she said.

The new Digital COVID Certificate will play a major role in safely reopening a sector that will be critical to saving jobs, livelihoods and economies around the world.