Australia is finally starting to catch up to the rest of the world with a digital arrival card trial planned to begin soon.
The tourism industry has long called for the government to axe the physical Incoming Passenger Card (IPC) based on concerns the cards can be unnecessarily time-consuming and difficult for those who are not good at English.
On Friday, advocates got the news they were waiting for as the Australian Border Force (ABF) announced a trial program for a digital ‘Australia Travel Declaration’ would take place later this year.
Australian Travel Industry Association CEO Dean Long told The New Daily the trial was a “really good first step”.
“Those passenger cards have had an important role to play previously … but this is really bringing us into the early 2000s with the rest of the world, where we won’t need to fill in paper forms,” he said.
“It’s good that it’s a trial between Australia and New Zealand, where there’s very low risk of things going wrong … and we look forward to being able rolled out to all destinations.”
“A passenger movement charge raises over a billion dollars a year, passports raises over $1.1 billion a year in revenue, [so] it’s good to see some of that money return to the traveller pathway to make it easier for people.”
Transport and Tourism Forum CEO Margy Osmond said in a statement paper cards were “a relic of the past”, and Australia could do much better in the digital age.
“These reforms will improve the airport experience for travellers when they arrive, whilst prioritising border security through a more modern, efficient process, which we’ve long been advocating for,” she said.
How will it work?
Eligible adult passengers travelling on select Qantas flights from New Zealand to Australia will be able to complete the declarations using the Qantas app up to 72 hours prior to arrival.
These will likely include similar requests for information to the traditional arrival cards, such as passport number, origin country and biosecurity risks.
Once completed, passengers will receive a digital pass through the app and to their nominated email, which will include a QR code that can be shown to ABF officers on arrival instead of the physical IPC.
The ABF said in a statement the trial will expand to other airlines as the program progresses beyond the pilot stage.
Further development important
With Qantas transporting the majority of passengers in and out of Australia, Long said it made sense the ABF would partner with the airline in the proof-of-concept phase.
But in the end, the final version of the Australia Travel Declaration should not be dependent on an airline’s ecosystem.
“It needs to be like the rest of the world, where it’s agnostic and it doesn’t matter what airline you’re flying or what cruise ship you’re coming in [with],” Long said.
“It needs to have that standalone system, and we’re sure that Home Affairs and Border Force have got that in the development pipeline.”
Long said the digitisation of the international arrival process could not only remove a burden on travellers, but also give authorities extra time to perform background checks on anyone they hold concerns about.
“If it gives government more time and more resources to track people that they need to track and allow the 99.9 per cent of people who they’re not interested in to travel more easily, that’s the best outcome we can hope for,” he said.