The travel and tourism sector is the most affected segment by the pandemic. The pandemic almost wiped away all the travel plans, the states closed their borders and the idea of travelling and exploring a destination was limited to mere thoughts. Almost a year have passed since WHO declared COVID 19 a pandemic, and the whole world is shrunk to their own homes.

So what changes has it brought in after a year..?

We have slowly learnt ways to overcome the crisis. Masks have become mandatory and vaccines for COVID 19 has been developed. The restrictions are slowly uplifted by the government, this makes way for International tours and travels. But how can you take up international travels? What is the one thing that’ll enable you to do so?

A vaccination certificate is a mandate to get you back on flights and even let you in on the local travels in train in the future. A vaccination certificate is also termed a vaccination passport or an immunity passport.

So what is a vaccination certificate?

A vaccination certificate is a document validating your successful completion of the vaccine course. These are kept in digital form as well as a hard printed document. The vaccination certificate is a must-have to travel..

So how can people get their vaccine certificates/vaccine passport?

Once a person receives their jab, a message is sent to his/her registered mobile number containing a link to download the vaccination certificate. In Kerala, the vaccination certificate will be issued by the District Medical Officer. Once your vaccination is done you’ll get the document that will help you to travel.

The state and the world over are trying to develop a smartphone app that will help to validate the vaccination status of the individuals who are travelling. The App will help in minimizing the time and effort to find the travelers status and ease the travelling process.

What are the contents of the vaccination certificate?

The vaccination certificate contains the person’s name, date of birth, the details regarding their identification proof used (the last 4 digits of his/her Aadhar card number- if Aadhar card is used), vaccinated date, vaccine brand name and the batch number of the vaccine.

We highly recommend you to use your passport as your identification proof for vaccination as it opens up a list of benefits for your international travels in the future. This will help avoid chaos and confusion on your international tours, events, hotel check-ins and even your cruise trips. Linking your passport helps you ease a lot of processes.

The Indian vaccination certificate is approved and can be used to travel to UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia and most of the European and South Asian countries. The world is slowly opening up for International travels for students and businessmen for the time being. The leisure travels will be next on the list once things get better.

So if you are a person who’s bored and craving a vacation right after the lockdown, be ready with your vaccination certificates/ vaccination passports. If you are wondering how to get your jabs in the first place, log in to the CoWIN portal with the necessary credentials, get your slots booked and jabbed on the due date.

The travel and tourism sectors are going to be back within some months. We have always made ways to live through the darkest days. So now for the time being let's enjoy our time at home with our loved ones enjoying every moment, helping the needy and dreaming about all our travel bucket lists.