Gulf residents can look forward to buying Samsonite’s Track & Go, described as a sophisticated beacon device built into the company’s suitcases and which allows them to be easily and privately tracked by its owner.

The product will be available across the Middle East, Samsonite said.  

The Bluetooth beacon will use Eddystone Ephemeral Identifiers (EIDs), an open privacy/security protocol by Google. Samsonite aims to launch the first suitcases featuring the Track & Go solution in the European market at the end of 2016, followed by other international markets including the Middle East.

The range will be competitively priced for such a premium technology product in order for it to become a real solution for travellers worldwide. Furthermore, given the potential of this solution, Track & Go may be extended to a broader range of business and travel bags in 2017, the company said.

In 2014, as many as 24.1 million pieces of baggage were mishandled worldwide, meaning they were temporarily or permanently lost. Of these, 85 per cent were returned to their owners within 48 hours. Unfortunately, 5.5 per cent of all mishandled baggage is never reunited with its owners.

“Missing or permanently lost luggage is the nightmare of every traveller. As the world’s largest luggage manufacturer, we wanted to find a way to make this issue a thing of the past and hence we (Google and Samsonite) have come together on this project.” said Shaheen Jamil, business head for the Middle East, Africa, CIS and South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

“Samsonite is known for its innovative and reliable luggage and bags. Hence, we also wanted to work with an equally innovative and reliable technology partner. By leveraging Google’s robust, secure and cross-platform approach, we feel confident that we will be able to offer the best product and service to our customers who too will welcome this new solution,” he added.

The Bluetooth beacon, which has been designed and manufactured by Accent Systems, will be built into the Track & Go suitcase. It has to be registered by the owner through the Travlr by Samsonite app, which has been developed together with mobile agency In The Pocket and is available free of charge.

The Travlr by Samsonite app was launched in September 2015 to offer flight tracking, tips and reminders when travelling. The new Track & Go feature will be built into the existing app allowing users to easily check the location of the suitcase within a distance of 70 m, and also be notified if it is being moved closer or further away from the user.

Should the suitcase go missing, the owner can easily flag it as lost in the app. Once flagged as ‘lost’, the Travlr by Samsonite app leverages its user base to help the suitcase›s owner find it. Should anyone else, using the Travlr by Samsonite app, pass within 70 m of the lost suitcase, an EID-based signal is picked up. This triggers a notification with location and time details of the suitcase to be sent out to the owner.

Both the tracking and notification process take place at no additional cost for the users. 

Samsonite Group is principally engaged in the design, manufacture, sourcing and distribution of luggage, business and computer bags, outdoor and casual bags, and travel accessories throughout the world, primarily under the Hartmann, Samsonite, American Tourister, High Sierra, Gregory, Lipault, Speck, Kamiliant and Tumi brand names and other owned and licensed brand names.