This policy sets out how Discovery Travel Holiday Ltd uses and looks after your personal data and any other information that you may provide in using our website, making an enquiry or making a booking (via the website, by email or telephone). It also informs you about your privacy rights and how data protection law protects you.
Data controller
Discovery Travel Holidays Ltd (collectively referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy policy) is the data controller and we can be contacted at:
Named officer: William Ainslie (Director)
Address: Hamilton House, 24 Place Rd, Cowes, Isle of Wight, PO31 7UA
Email: info@discoverytravel.co.uk
Phone number: +44 (0) 1983 301133
The personal data we collect
Personal data means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. You can find out more about personal data from the Information Commissioners Office.
We currently collect and process the following information from our customers:
- Personal identifiers, contacts and characteristics (for example, name, postal address, email address, phone numbers)
- Personal information such as dietary preferences and medical conditions (where customers have voluntarily provided this information to us in relation to their holiday booking)
- Bank account data resulting from payments made to us by bank transfer (though not debit/credit card details, see note below)
- Information provided about the holiday that you have booked with us including feedback from you on the services we have provided
- Photos that you have sent to us with the intention that we may use them on our website or on our social media
- Technical data, for example IP address, browser type and version, location, operating system and platform, other technology on the devices you use to access our website.
Debit and credit card information is not collected or stored by Discovery Travel Holidays Ltd. This is securely collected and processed by our payment processor Worldpay from FIS.
Where we have a legal requirement to collect your personal data or need your data in order to fulfil the contract between us (such as to book your holiday) and you do not provide that data, we may not be able to perform the contract we have entered into with you. In this case, we may have to cancel the contract but we will notify you if this is the case.
How we collect information and why we have it
Most of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you for one of the following reasons:
- In order to deliver the service of booking and managing a walking holiday for you that meets your requirements
- To provide you with information about our services that may be of interest to you
We collect this information via email, via our website contact and booking forms and over the phone.
On some occasions we also receive personal information indirectly from other tour operators with whom we have a contractual relationship to deliver UK walking holidays for their customers.
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:
- Performance of a Contract– this means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract. Most commonly this would be when you are booking a holiday.
- Legitimate Interest– this means in the interests of running our business to ensure we give you the best and most suitable products or services and run the business in a lawful and secure manner. We will make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests.
- Consent– this means we will ask your permission to send you marketing material, including e-newsletters on an occasional basis. We will ensure that any consent requests will be clear and easy to understand and that consent will entail a positive action to opt in by the individual. All newsletters will contain a prominent link to allow you to unsubscribe from further marketing and you have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us at info@discoverytravel.co.uk.
- Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation– this means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.
What we will use your personal data for
We may use your information to:
- Respond to an initial enquiry you have made to us about our services
- Carry out our obligations to you arising from any contracts entered into by you and us (eg process a booking you have made with us and keep you updated about that booking)
- Contact you during your holiday including for emergency purposes
- Seek your views or comments about the services we have provided
- Notify you of any changes to our services
- Contact you with news and information about our products and services (where you have opted in to receive this information)
Who we share your information with
We may need to share your personal data with third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other organisations for the purposes of delivering our contracted service to you. Examples of this are accommodation providers, baggage transfer companies, taxis contracted to move bags for you or to transfer you to your accommodation. When we use such third party service providers we only disclose the information that is necessary to deliver that particular service. We require all such third party service providers to treat your data in accordance with the law.
We will not release your information to any other parties beyond the aforementioned, unless we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime. We will never sell, trade, rent or exchange your personal information to other companies or organisations.
How we store your information
Your personal information is stored on a secure network and only authorised members of staff can access the data.
Where you have booked a holiday with us we keep the personal information that you have provided to us for a period of six years in order to comply with UK tax regulations. We then dispose of your information by deleting any electronic records and destroying any paper copies. Where you have consented to receive electronic updates from us about our products and services we keep that information until you withdraw your consent either by contacting us directly or unsubscribing electronically.
Cookies policy
This website uses cookies which are small text files downloaded onto devices such as a computer or smartphone when you user accesses the website. It allows the website to recognise your device and store some information about your preferences or past actions.
Our site uses essential cookies to improve your browsing experience and enable you to complete our online forms.
Discovery Travel also uses Google Analytics to understand how users engage with our website so that we can improve our products and services as well as your experience using our website. This means that Google will receive a copy of your IP address and a copy of the pages you visit. You can read further details of how Google collects and uses your data here.
Your data protection rights
Under data protection law, you have rights including:
Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.
Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing – You have the the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.
You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.
Links to other websites
Our website contains links to information on other websites that may be of interest to customers. Once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Those sites are not governed by this privacy policy and we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information that you provide while visiting those sites.
Review of this policy
This policy was last updated in November 2023. We keep this policy under regular review and reserve the right to make changes to the policy without notice.
How to complain
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s contact details are:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
https://ico.org.uk/