Travel typically requires carrying identification like a national ID, a passport, and travel tickets to check in at hotels or book activities. The future envisions a European digital wallet that stores all personal data in one place, enabling a smoother travel experience. Benidorm is being used as a testing ground for the travel portion of this wallet, with a European Union rollout expected to begin in 2026.
The city has joined a pilot program led by Visit Benidorm with the collaboration of the hospitality association Hosbec. The European Digital Wallet project will be tested in the tourist hot spot, where it will be explored not only in the early stages but also through practical scenarios that show how the wallet can handle hotel check-ins and interact with other tourism offerings. It will also serve as the place where travelers consolidate all their identification documents for travel.
Leire Bilbao, the head of Visit Benidorm, spoke during a Madrid event that addressed the challenges of deploying the European wallet and that was attended by national bodies such as the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the National Police. Visit Benidorm has been advancing this pilot with SICPA Spain, a leading multinational provider of anti-fraud and anti-counterfeiting solutions. SICPA is a member of the European Wallet Consortium, a public‑private European group working on these pilots for the future wallet.
What is the European digital wallet?
So what exactly is this European digital wallet? Today, many people already use mobile wallets linked to private companies to store bank cards and other credentials. The emerging plan envisions the wallet’s governance shifting to a public framework, coordinated by the European Union, which would gather citizens’ identity documents under a privacy‑first regime that follows current data protection rules across Europe.
This digital identity would enable Europeans to prove who they are and securely store, share, sign, and certify important digital documents. The wallet is expected to start operating in 2026, as explained by officials and industry partners involved in the project.
The tourism application will span several use cases. Citizens would have a digital version of the national identity document, passport, transport tickets, hotel vouchers, excursion tickets, health documents, and, alongside them, their Personal Identification (PID) to carry out all travel tasks. Europeans will have it at hand, while visitors from other countries, such as the United States, could enter Europe and generate their own identification to travel more easily, according to Leire Bilbao.
The Benidorm pilot experience
So what role do Visit Benidorm and Hosbec play? Both organizations will participate in the travel portion of the wallet trial, presenting the challenges they encounter and proposing solutions, while coordinating with national authorities to ensure compliance with Spanish law. The city will apply its Smart Office DTI to guide this effort, using Benidorm’s expertise in tourism and hotel management to shape the wallet’s design and deployment.
The Visit Benidorm manager noted that the team, together with the developers, will first outline the solutions and map the initial processes. The next step is to put those ideas into practice by conducting hotel tests to verify day‑to‑day viability for travelers and establishments. At check-in, a QR code tied to the wallet would reveal the traveler’s identity and could direct the appropriate authorities when needed for security purposes.
Among the benefits are shorter wait times at hotel receptions and easier data entry for travelers. Following the Real Decreto 933/2021 on traveler registration, the data collection process has proved lengthy. The wallet is expected to streamline this workflow and more for both travelers and service providers.