Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy & Data Protection

At The Travel Village Group our motto is “we give you more”, which is why we believe in being open and up front with you. New European laws will come into effect on 25 May 2018 which affect the way your data is stored and used, not just by us, but by everyone. It’s important to us that you know we’ve already made changes to our privacy policy promise, which explains how we manage your information and who we share it with.

Our Privacy Policy Promise

We promise that we’ll tell you how we use your data and we’ll use it to keep your travel arrangements safe, easy and affordable. Plus, we’ll make sure we collect and store your data securely.

Your holiday matters as much to us as it does to you

We have to collect and keep a little data about you, like your name, email address, payment details and passport information. We also have to share your data with our trusted partners, like cruise lines, airlines, tour companies and ground handlers to make sure your journey runs smoothly. Some of this information will also be shared with border control and airport security. This is to help them keep you and your fellow travellers safe.

Keeping you in the know

We can use the contact details you share with us to let you know if there are changes to your flights, cruise itinerary or other things happen that might affect your travel plans, like hotel improvement works. Plus by listening to what our customers tell us, we can make changes, to make things easier where we can – such as introducing an app where you can easily keep up to date with all changes specific to your holiday bookings with us.

We use your data to offer you the best travel experiences

If you choose to receive email marketing from The Travel Village Group, we can let you know when new itineraries, ships, tours are on sale, and when there are special offers. We work with many operators to put together exclusive offers that we think are right for you, but we will never pass your data to them for marketing purposes and you will only hear from us about their offers. Remember you’re in control and you can manage your preferences at any time.

You’re in control

You can review your preferences at any time and if the information we have is wrong, let us know and we’ll correct it. Plus, we’ll always get your permission before we use your data for marketing.

If you would like to stop receiving marketing from us please email us at optout@travelvillagegroup.com with the subject “Unsubscribe”. If the information we hold on you is wrong, you can email us at dataprotection@travelvillagegroup.com, let us know what needs updating and we will correct it.

What to know more?

The Travel Village Group is committed to protecting your safety and privacy, and takes its responsibilities regarding the security of customer information very seriously. This privacy policy explains what personal data we collect about you, how and why we use it, who we disclose it to, and how we protect your privacy.

Who is responsible for your data

Our Privacy Policy applies to the personal data that The Travel Village Group collects and uses.

References in this Privacy Policy to “we”, “us” or “our” mean The Travel Village Group (registered office at 298 Highfield Road, Blackpool, Lancashire. FY4 3JU). We control the ways your personal data are collected and the purposes for which your personal data are used by The Travel Village Group and are the “data controller” for the purposes of the UK Data Protection Act 1998, Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection and the Ordinance and other applicable European data protection legislation.

Personal data we collect about you

When using the term “personal data” in our Privacy Policy, we mean information that relates to you and allows us to identify you, either directly or in combination with other information that we may hold. Your personal data may include for example your name, your contact details, information relating to your travel itinerary (e.g. your booking reference number) or information on how you use our website and app or you interact with us.

We collect some personal data from you, for example when you book a cruise through us or use our website, use our services or contact us. We may also receive your personal data from our suppliers who provide services to you on our behalf (for example when you provide feedback on our services), our partners when you purchase their travel related products. If you book a flight on behalf of someone else, you must have their consent to use their personal information.

For more information on the parties who may share your personal data with us, please see below.

Categories of data we collect

We may collect and process the following categories of information about you:

Your name and surname and your contact details. (email address, telephone number and postal address).

When you make booking through us, whether over the phone or online. When you take part in our competitions, or when you choose an offer we make available on our website

Information about your bookings and your travel itinerary, if you require special assistance or if you have specific dietary requirements. This information may include any changes to your bookings and travel products that relate to your booking (for example if you purchase allocated seats or additional luggage or if you rent a car or book a hotel/flight along with your cruise booking).

When you book or manage your travel arrangements

Information about your health, if you have a medical condition that may affect your travel arrangements (please see section “Sensitive personal data” below for more information).

When you provide us with this information before you depart

Information about other passengers in your booking, and the age range of any children traveling with you.

When you make a booking on behalf of other passengers

Information about your transaction, including your payment card details..

When you purchase travel arrangements through us

Advance Passenger Information. This information includes your full name, your nationality, your date of birth, your gender (where required) – the number and type of your travel document (e.g. passport or ID), its expiry date and country of issue.

When you book or manage your travel arrangements

Information about your health, if you have a medical condition that may affect your travel arrangements (please see section “Sensitive personal data” below for more information).

When you check in for your cruise, flights and any further travel arrangement that requires this information

Information related to your travel arrangements and services in connection with your those arrangements (e.g. airport lounges, port parking)..

When you make a booking with us

Information about your purchases of our partners’ travel related products and services.

When you purchase such products or services

Information about the purchase of products available on board.

When you pre-order these products or purchase them on board

The communications you exchange with us (for example, your emails, letters, calls, or your messages on our online chat service).

When you contact The Travel Village Group or you are contacted by The Travel Village Group

Your posts and messages on social media directed to The Travel Village Group..

When you interact with us on social media

Your feedback.

When you reply to our requests for feedback or participate in our customer surveys

Your preferred departure locations.

When you choose to provide this information through managing your preferences

Sensitive personal data

In the course of providing services to you, we may collect information that could reveal your racial or ethnic origin, physical or mental health, religious beliefs or alleged commission or conviction of criminal offences. Such information is considered “sensitive personal data” under the UK Data Protection Act 1998 and other data protection laws. We only collect this information where you have given your explicit consent, it is necessary, or you have deliberately made it public.

For example, we may collect this information in the following circumstances:

For your safety, when you have a specific medical condition, you will need to inform us of that and – where required – provide us with a medical certificate.

If you request special assistance during a flight/cruise, this could reveal information about your health (for example if you ask for a wheelchair). If you inform us about specific dietary requirements you may have, this could potentially indicate that you have specific religious beliefs. Also, when you provide us with your travel document details, your nationality may imply your racial or ethnic origin.

By providing any sensitive personal data you explicitly agree that we may collect and use it in order to provide our services and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

If you do not allow us to process any sensitive personal data, this may mean we are unable to provide all or parts of the services you have requested from us. Please be aware that in such circumstances you will not be entitled to cancel or obtain a refund of any price you have paid.

How and why we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

1. To manage your travel bookings and provide our services to you.
When you travel on a holiday booked through us, we use your information to perform our services in relation to your travel arrangements, for example to confirm your cruise, issue your flight tickets, secure car hire, book transfers that take you safely to your destination. We also use it to change your travel arrangements if you request such changes.

2. To communicate with you and manage our relationship with you.
Occasionally we may need to contact you by email and/or SMS for administrative or operational reasons, for example in order to send you confirmation of your bookings and your payments, to inform you about your travel itinerary, to notify you when check in is available or to advise you of disruption and changes to your travel arrangements. If you are using our mobile app, we may also send you app notifications for these purposes. Please be aware that these communications are not made for marketing purposes and as such, you will continue to receive them even if you opt-out from receiving marketing communications. We will also use your personal data if we contact you after you have sent us a request, filled in a web-form through our website or contacted us on social media. Your opinion is very important to us, so we may send you an email or SMS to seek your feedback. We will use the communications you exchange with us and the feedback you may provide in order to manage our relationship with you as our customer and to improve our services and experiences for customers.

3. To personalise and improve your customer experience.
We may use your personal data in order to tailor our services to your needs and preferences and to provide you with a personalised customer experience. For example, if you inform us about your preferred departure airports we will be able to send you offers relevant to your location. We may also collect information on how you use our website, which pages of our website you visit most, which cruises/tours you search for and what products you buy, in order to understand what you like. We may use this information to tailor the content and offers that you see on our website and, if you have agreed to receiving marketing communications, to send you relevant messages that we think you like.

4. To inform you about our news and offers that you may like.
We may send you marketing communications, if you have indicated that you are happy to receive these. If you are happy to receive marketing communications, we will provide you with news from us such as new itineraries that you may be interested in or offers that you may like. Please note that we do not share your contact details and other personal data with other companies for marketing purposes, unless we have obtained your consent to do so. If you do not want to receive marketing communications from us, you can simply tell us so. You can also choose to opt out from receiving marketing communications at any time, by clicking on the relevant unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing related email you may receive from us. You can at any time opt out from receiving marketing communications, by sending an email to optout@travelvillagegroup.com with the subject “Unsubscribe”.

5. To improve our services, fulfil our administrative purposes and protect our business interests.
The business purposes for which we will use your information include accounting, billing and audit, credit or other payment card verification, fraud screening, safety, security and legal purposes, statistical and marketing analysis, systems testing, maintenance and development.

6. To comply with our legal obligations.
For example, our obligation to provide your information to border control agencies.

Requesting access to your personal data

You have a right to request access to the personal data that we hold about you. This could include booking information relating to flights you have taken with us.

If you would like to request a copy of your personal data, or have questions in relation to your personal data, please contact us at: dataprotection@travelvillagegroup.com.

Security of your personal data

As described in this Privacy Policy, we may in some instances disclose your personal data to third parties. Where The Travel Village Group discloses your personal data to a third party, we require that third party to have appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to protect your personal data; however in some instances we may be compelled by law to disclose your personal data to a third party, such as border control agencies, and have limited control over how it is protected by that party.

The information that you provide to us will be held in our systems, which are located on our premises or those of an appointed third party. We may also allow access to your information by other third parties who act for us for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy or for other purposes approved by you. Your personal data may be accessed by and processed outside the European Economic Area (the European Economic Area being the European Union and Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, also referred to as the “EEA”) – including by staff operating outside the EEA who work for us or for one of our suppliers or agents (this includes staff engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of your booking, ground handlers, and the provision of support services). Where your personal data are transferred outside of the EEA, we require that appropriate safeguards are in place.

We will retain your personal data for as long as we need it in order to fulfil our purposes set out in this Privacy Policy or in order to comply with the law.

Cookies or other tracking technologies

In order to improve our services, to provide you with more relevant content and to analyse how visitors use our website, we may use technologies, such as cookies, pixels or tracking software. Please be aware that in most cases we will not be able to identify you from the information we collect using these technologies.

For example, we use software to monitor customer traffic patterns and website usage to help us develop the design and layout of the website in order to enhance the experience of the visitors to our website. This software does not enable us to collect any personal data. In addition, in order to understand how our customers interact with the emails and the content that we send, we use pixels that allow us to know if the emails we send are opened or if the content of our emails is displayed in text or html form.

We also use cookies in our website or in our emails. Cookies are small pieces of information stored by your browser on your computer’s hard drive. They enable you to navigate on our website or app and allow us to provide features such as remembering aspects of your last flight search to make subsequent searches faster. You can delete cookies if you wish; while certain cookies are necessary for viewing and navigating on our website or app, most of the features will be still accessible without cookies.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data may be shared with other companies within our Group. It may also be disclosed to a third party who acquires us, a member of our Group or substantially all of our assets.

We may also share some of your personal data with, or obtain your personal data from, the following categories of third parties:

Cruise lines, Airlines, car hire or transfer providers, government authorities, law enforcement bodies and regulators when this is necessary to get you to your destination or is required by law. For example, for specific travel routes we are required by law to provide border control agencies with information that relates to your travel documents and to your travel itinerary. This information is known as Advance Passenger Information.

Other companies through which we book your travel arrangements
Suppliers providing services to us in order to help us run our business and improve our services and your customer experience. We may for example share your personal data with the companies who provide coach services to Southampton cruise terminals, or chauffeur transfers between your house and the airport. We may also disclose your information to our contact centre or the companies who help us get your feedback on our services. At The Travel Village Group, we select very carefully our suppliers who process your personal data on our behalf and require that they comply with high security standards for the protection of your personal data.

Credit and debit card companies
The Travel Village Group shares some of your personal data, which includes information about your method of payment and holiday booking, to the credit or debit card company that issued the card you used to make your booking. In order to ensure the security of your transactions and prevent or detect fraudulent transactions, we may also share your information with our fraud screening partner.

Our partners who we use to offer you travel related products and services
From time to time, we make certain third party offers available through our website or we publish competitions co-organised by third parties. If you choose to purchase products or services offered on our websites by third parties (for example Hotels in Southampton, Shore Excursions, Port Parking), accept offers or participate in a competition, some of your personal data, such as your contact details and your billing information, may be directly collected by or disclosed to that third party. Our partners have their own privacy policies and terms of use over which The Travel Village Group does not have control. Whilst The Travel Village Group carefully selects these partners, it has no responsibility or liability for their privacy policies, terms of use or the way they process your personal data. Please ensure that you review the relevant privacy policies and terms of use of these partners prior to purchasing their goods or services, using their websites, apps or services or providing any personal data to them.

Authorities, including the Civil Aviation Authority
We may also disclose your personal data to the Civil Aviation Authority (“CAA”), for the purposes of ensuring compliance with and the enforcement of ATOL regulations. In addition to the parties listed above, we may disclose your personal data when this is required by the law of any jurisdiction to which The Travel Village Group may be subject. Through our website we provide links to third party websites which are subject to separate Privacy Polices. Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to such websites and The Travel Village Group is not responsible for your information that third parties may collect through these websites.

Updates to our Privacy Policy

We may make changes to this Privacy Policy from time to time, including as part of the new European data protection legislation which will start to apply on 25 May 2018 (the “General Data Protection Regulation”) – we will update the Privacy Policy and we will publish on our website any new version of this Policy.

Contact information

Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to dataprotection@travelvillagegroup.com.