How Can You Protect Your Travel Documents While Abroad? – According to Reuters, the global travel industry will return to pre-pandemic levels next year, posting an annual average growth rate of nearly 6% from 2022 to 2023. While travelling in a post-pandemic world may look and feel different, people still need to take the precautions they always have while abroad, including protecting their travel documents. Here are a few ways to do this.
#1: Make Several Copies of Your Passport
Losing your passport when travelling is everyone’s biggest fear. It’s the key that gets you in and out of a country’s doors, and without it, you must jump through several hoops, beginning with contacting the government. The government will then mark your passport invalid so criminals can’t use it. But, even if you don’t lose your passport, you never want to put yourself in a position where this is possible, which is why people should make copies of their passports to carry around with them rather than the original.
Uploading copies of your passport to a flash drive is one way to do this, and this is just one of many important documents you should carry in your bag. According to ExpressVPN’s tech kit article, your flash drive should also contain other important documents like your birth certificate, license, and insurance information. The latter is especially important if you are travelling to countries like the United States, where you want to take out medical insurance in case of emergencies.
#2: Buy Travel Locks for Your Bags
Many people take flying for granted and the safety that comes with it. We store our bags in the overhead compartments on aeroplanes and fall asleep, go to the bathrooms, or zone out on our devices. We forget, however, that anyone could open these compartments and go through your bag if you’re not looking. Because of this, experts suggest purchasing travel locks for your bags so that no one can steal your travel documents and any else you’ve packed. According to Do It Yourself, travel locks are good ideas for any international travel. This could be because when you’re travelling internationally, you’re more likely to be on planes or trains for long periods, increasing your likelihood of falling asleep and leaving your bags unattended.
#3: Use Clear Plastic Bags
Accidents happen, and that’s why it’s so important to keep all paper copies of your important travel documents inside clear plastic bags. This allows you to protect them from spilling liquids on them, and it also lets you keep everything together in one space. That way, you’re not running around frantically trying to find something at the airport.
Travel is both exciting and stressful, and in many countries, the pandemic has resulted in a new set of hoops people have to go through to enter and exit a country. For instance, as per MLT Aikins, Canadians have to complete ArriveCan whenever they re-enter the country. As a result, you should try to make your life a little easier by keeping all of your documents together in one bag and bringing flash drives with you containing these documents in case something happens to the paper copies. Buying travel locks for your bags will also reduce your chances of theft.
Poppy Watt