Two of New Zealand’s event ticketing companies Eventfinda and iTicket have streamlined the process surrounding Covid-19 passports.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has recently introduced a COVID pass and traffic light system, with businesses able to choose whether or not they require a COVID passport. The new traffic light scheme is due to come into force once the country hits a 90% vaccination rate, with vaccine passes available from mid-November.
Eventfinda will enable ticket holders to upload their ‘My Vaccine Pass’ to their ‘My Eventfinda’ account, which customers can also do during the purchasing process, to allocate their vaccine pass to their tickets. This can be done using a PDF, photo or a screenshot of the COVID pass.
The ‘My Vaccine Pass’ will be available soon through ‘My COVID Record’ from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health. The pass will consist of a QR code that will need to be shown wherever proof of vaccination against coronavirus is needed.
Scanning apps from Eventfina will verify both the Eventfinda tickets and ‘My Vaccine Passes’, with the mobile ticket scanning apps for iOS and Android available for promoters and venues next week.
James McGlinn, chief executive of Eventfinda, said: “There’ll be many events people can’t attend without proof of vaccination provided by the Ministry of Health. We wanted to make the verification process as streamlined as possible for venues and promoters, as well as ticket holders.”
Fellow event ticketing company iTicket has also worked to integrate pre-verification for events using the New Zealand COVID pass.
Working with MATTR, an Auckland-based identity provider, which is also the New Zealand Government’s technology provider for the COVID-19 vaccine pass and verifier app, iTicket has secured an integration license. This means that ticket holders will be able to pre-verify their pass before heading to events, where only tickets will need to be scanned, further streamlining the entry process.
Managing director of iTicket Reece Preston said: “It was important for us to reach out to MATTR quickly to ensure delivery of this offering in advance of the NZ COVID pass rollout later this month. Providing promoters with options now, and being able to minimise wait times on arrival for customers with streamlined verification is imperative to delivering a great event experience.”
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