Thailand, a major global tourist destination, will launch a blockchain-based Electronic Visa-on-Arrival (eVOA) system. With the eVOA, travelers will not have to carry their tickets, photos, etc. nor wait in long queues at airports for entering Thailand.
In the holiday season, airports at major tourist destinations witness the familiar sight of bored passengers, some groggy with long hours of travel, some standing in long queues to get their documents checked. Travelers are compelled to go through cumbersome processes which cause great inconvenience to them.
Initially, the eVOA will be available to only travelers from India and China. After studying and fine-tuning the system, the number of countries will be increased. After full implementation eVOA will be made available to 5mn travelers from 20 nations.
Gateway Services has a license to operate eVOA in Thailand. For implementing eVOA, Gateway Services is collaborating with Australian travel firm ShareRing.
ShareRing will integrate with Gateway, its self-sovereign ID technology OneID, which combines Optical Character Recognition (OCR) with blockchain technology to cut the time taken at airports for document verification. Blockchain being very secure, the details embedded on it cannot be accessed by anyone.
CEO and co-founder of ShareRing, Tim Boss said,