Long time industry executive, Tim Morgan, had some interesting information for us. There is so much confusion around testing, quarantines, vaccinations and all the government regulations, says Morgan, “it’s quite wild.” He’s been working in an advisory capacity with a company called Chronomics, who are involved in developing COVID testing that they hope will help travel get started again.

Chronomics has been around since 2017, they started out in what’s called epigenetics. Morgan explained that when it comes to genes, people generally think of 23andMe test, Ancestry.com and DNA testing. What those tell you is more about your past, your history, the history of your genetics. But epigenetics tells you more about your present and potential future – more at the nurture side of your genes. How your behavior in life – your drinking, your smoking, eating, all that kind of thing affects your genes. That’s how the company started out.

They began with a saliva-based test. “So fast forward to early 2020 when the pandemic started,” he says, “and of course, and they then start to look at, ‘how do we test for COVID?’ They realized, based on a study that was done at Yale, that the test method that they were using for epigenetics could be used for COVID testing as well.

One of the interesting things about this test in particular, says Morgan, is that it’s saliva based.

“So, whereas most companies have PCR testing, we call it a brain tickle, you have to swab deep into the recesses of your nose, Chronomics is one of the few that has a saliva-based test – you just spit in a tube. So that’s how they got into the COVID testing sector.”

Morgan was asked to come on board because Chronomics realized that the travel industry was crucial to getting people moving again and they wanted to understand how all the various sectors of travel and tourism could potentially help clients travel safely by using this test.

While the company is looking at this on a global basis, Morgan explained, right now, differing and stringent health regulations in each country, means it takes a long time for individual governments to approve testing of any kind, so for the moment, Chronomics is just working in the UK. Anyone arriving in the UK, or anyone departing from the UK. It could be travellers leaving Canada, going to the UK or returning to Canada, or it could obviously be UK citizens, for example, leaving the UK.

“But it’s interesting to think about,” mused Morgan, “say for Canadian travellers, thinking about Europe for the summer. If Canadian travellers are going to the UK, when they land right now, they need to quarantine for 10 days. And with a test, a UK government authorized test, you’re able to shorten that quarantine to as few as five days. And then when you come back from the UK to Canada, right now, you’d need a negative PCR test on the return. And so that’s something that would take a couple of days before leaving the UK, to be able to get that certificate to be able to return to Canada.”

Morgan says, “Currently the test takes a minimum of, from when you drop it into the Royal Mail to when you get your results – between 24 and 36 hours to get the result back. Chronomics is working to shorten that time and to have a priority service as well, for those who’d like a quicker return. But that’s the standard.”

Chronomics is working with a combination of sectors. Recently there has been a lot of conversation about vaccine passports and how that’s going to be the future of travel, but the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has said it will not to be just vaccine passports. There needs to be testing as well as vaccine passports. It can’t be a one-or-the-other. And it will either be an ‘And’ or an ‘Or’ says Morgan, “and really that’s because with vaccinations, we don’t know enough yet to understand that even if people are vaccinated, can they still carry and transmit the virus?”

So in all likelihood, he says, for the near future at least, probably at least till the end of 2021, there will be a need for testing. Chronomics will continue to operate in the UK, but it is also beginning to work with partners in the US and is looking at Canada. The unfortunate thing with Canada is that it’s a little bit behind with the government’s authorized testing companies for this type of travel. He’s hoping that things will speed up a bit, but it’s still a little bit behind the UK and behind the US.

“So that’s why the US will probably be the next market. And then it will come to Canada so that eventually, there will be ability to have the end-to-end solution. So that if you need a test in Canada before you leave, Chronomics would be able to offer that as well.”

We asked if they were looking to partner with big pharma, or with the airlines, to try and get some push from them to the government, or lobbying groups?

Morgan says they are really looking at who that can use testing – which, these days, is pretty much everyone. But for travel, it’s any company involved in the travel sector.

He declines to names any specific companies at this time, but says, “There are airlines that Chronomics is speaking with right now, so that if the airline wants to either include a test with their product offering, they can do that. Say, you get off the plane in London, and the airline gives you a test to take with you as you leave, or they are talking with a number of hotel partners, so that if you stay at a hotel in London, there’s a test kit waiting for you in your hotel room.

Travel agencies are a big part of the equation. Travel agencies can add this as an itinerary item included in the stable of products that they’re offering, and it can be commissionable.

“Think about it in terms of travel insurance,” says Morgan. “The components that you have on a trip – you have your air, you have your hotel, you have your travel insurance and you have your PCR test. And so, again, the idea is that it could be a whole package that is commissionable for travel advisors. Because if the hotels are selling them, if airlines are selling them, there’s no reason that travel advisors can’t also sell them as the full-service provider that they are.”

“In terms of the opportunity, from a financial standpoint -the Chronomics test in the UK is £99 ($174.40) and if you have a corporate traveller, they need a test to land in the country and one for the return, you’re talking of £200 ($352.30), for example. There’s a double-digit commission that a travel advisor can make on that, which is a fair amount.

“And then if you’re looking at a family, that number can be quite substantial. So, the opportunity is quite good. And as we know, for travel advisors in particular, any sort of opportunity for commission is a good one these days.”

As for the accuracy rate on the tests, it’s over 99%, and it’s important says Morgan, when looking at testing to make sure that it’s government authorized, because there are many that say they are, or that say they have a certain accuracy rate, but it’s only the government authorized ones that people should be looking at.

Currently Morgan notes that there are thousands of tests being done with Chronomics on a daily basis in the UK with these test kits and he has high hopes that the tests will soon be available in the US and then Canada.

Tim Morgan is a member of the Advisory Board of Chronomics.