Data Protection

Visit Kent is delivered by Go To Places, and we are pleased to share our privacy policy with you.

ABOUT THIS POLICY

Go To Places Limited is committed to ensuring that it will take all reasonable steps to ensure that personal data will be handled in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) which came into force on 25 May 2018. Go To Places is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office number ZA511886 and Visit Kent is registered with the Information Comissioner’s Office number Z1011534.

We want to inspire you to visit our beautiful destinations and to keep you informed of travel ideas, offers, exciting events and updates from our destinations to make your next visit here as fun as possible. But we are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you remain in control of your personal information.

We will hold your data securely – with your consent - and agree to only ever share your data when you expressly agree for us to do. When you share any preferences for data with us, we will use this to make sure you get the information that you want and to make our services better all round.

This policy covers how we collect, use, disclose, transfer and store your data. It applies to all Go To Places web pages, newsletters, discussion forums and opt-in announcement lists owned and operated by us, including:

Visit Kent
Visit Herts
Kent Big Weekend
Herts Big Weekend
Wine Garden of England
Golf In Kent

In addition to these websites the Go To Places website platform also collects and shares relevant content with other websites, this includes but is not limited to:

Enjoy Dacorum
Visit Ashford and Tenterden
Visit Medway
Visit Sevenoaks
Visit Swale
Visit Thanet

Where access to the Go To Places content management system has been provided a data processing agreement is in place.

Please note that this privacy policy does not cover any external websites that any Go To Places site links to. Please read the privacy statements on any other websites you visit.

WHO ARE WE?

Go To Places (GTP) is the trading company that delivers the destination management organisations Visit Kent and Visit Herts, as well as thematic campaigns in destinations across the UK.

Visit Kent is the Destination Management Organisation for Kent (the Garden of England), welcoming 65 million visitors a year, championing the county’s £3.6 billion tourism industry and supporting more than 72,000 jobs. It is a public/private sector partnership supported by Kent County Council, Medway Council, district and borough councils, and the leading sector tourism businesses in Kent.

Our websites aim to inspire and inform users of the best things to see and do in our destinations, and share news about niche and thematic partnerships, and how to enjoy more short breaks and adventures here.

HOW WILL YOU COLLECT MY INFORMATION?

We use e-newsletter sign-up requests, competition entries, website log files, cookies, digital analytics (Google) and heat mapping software, and registration to gather user information and to learn more about how people use our websites.

REQUEST E-NEWSLETTERS

We send out regular newsletters to keep interested parties informed of news, events, seasonal promotions, competitions and activities they might enjoy on their next visit to our destinations. To provide these newsletters, we request contact details including but not limited to - your email address, name, and postcode.

We only collect this data when we have your consent and retain it on a secure database. If you withdraw consent it will be deleted within one calendar month.

COMPETITIONS

When you enter a competition, we may collect your name, email address and postal address. You are also given the option to consent to future marketing from us and also from our competition partners. We process this data as part of our contract to you and we retain it for three months after the competition has closed. After this point, it will deleted until you have consented to receive future marketing communications from us.

If you consent to future marketing, we will continue to process your data on that basis and in accordance with this privacy policy. We may use this data to tailor the communications we send and improve our service to you and others.

If you consent to marketing from our named partners, we will share your data with them.

All competitions will include detailed terms and conditions, a hot link and URL to which will be clearly displayed on any sign up page or promotional material.

REGISTRATION

Go To Places runs campaigns throughout the year, giving users access to exclusive offers or promotions. Some of these campaigns, such as Big Weekend or 2for1, require registration. We may use your registration contact information to send notifications to you regarding products and services directly related to the relevant campaign by email and/or postal mail. We will not share that information with any third party, unless we are required to do so by law or other applicable statute. Your name and email address may be shared with any business or attraction that is part of the promotion/competition you have entered or registered for, only if you have consented for us to do so.

We may also request your email address or mailing address for the purpose of conducting surveys or to provide additional services (for example, announcement lists or information about conferences and trade shows). Whenever we request the identity of a visitor, we will clearly indicate the purpose of the inquiry before the information is requested. We maintain a strict policy on the protection of our data, which means that we do not sell, rent, or otherwise give your email address to a third-party, without your consent or as permitted by this Privacy Policy.

PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES

If we, or someone on our behalf, take photographs or videos for social media or marketing purposes, where the image focuses on individuals or groups of individuals, for use by ourselves or a third party, we will inform you that these are being taken and provide you with information about the context that the images would be used in.

You have the right to object to having your image taken beforehand, in which case you will not be included, or if you raise concerns immediately after the image is taken, the photographer will delete the images immediately.

If we believe that you will be identifiable eg by your face, we will ask you to sign your permission on a ‘model release’ consent form. The details on this form will be kept confidential and not shared with any third party.

For images with an associated model release form we shall keep the image and model release form until such time that it is no longer required for the purposes it was taken. A review of all images will be taken on a yearly basis.

IP ADDRESSES

Every computer connected to the internet is given a set of numbers that serve as that computer's "Internet Protocol" (IP) address. When a visitor requests a page on any website controlled by Go To Places, our web servers automatically recognise that visitor's domain name and IP address. The domain name and IP address reveal nothing personal about you other than the IP address from which you have accessed our site. We use this information to examine our traffic in aggregate and to investigate use of our network, its users, or to cooperate with law enforcement activities and enquiries. Information can include what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you clicked on.

The information collected helps us investigate whether our websites meet the need of users as well as to evaluate how each website can be improved. But we do not collect and evaluate this information for specific individuals.

Go To Places will disclose an IP address, when required by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to:

Cooperate with the investigations of purported unlawful activities and conform to the edicts of the law or comply with legal process served on Go To Places websites
Protect and defend the rights or property of Go To Places or visitors to our websites
Identify persons who may be violating the law, our terms and conditions of use, the rights of third parties, or otherwise misusing our websites or the computer equipment on which it is hosted (whether owned by Go To Places or a third party)
Fulfil a user's order or request

COOKIES

From time to time, Go To Places may send a "cookie" to your computer. A cookie is a small piece of data that is sent to your internet browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. A cookie can't read data off your computer hard disk or read cookie files created by other web sites. Cookies do not damage your system. We use cookies to identify which areas of Go To Places owned or operated web sites you have visited or customised, so the next time you visit, those pages may be readily accessible.

You can choose whether to accept cookies by changing the settings of your Internet browser. You can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or allow your browser to show you when a cookie is being sent. If you choose not to accept these cookies, your experience at our site and other web sites may be diminished and some features may not work as intended.

HEAT MAPPING

When enabled heat mapping software will record mouse clicks, mouse movements, and scrolling activity. It logs that you entered text but not the information entered. This software uses Cookies. Analysing the results from heat mapping software enables us to assess the performance of our website and its suitability for different audiences’ needs.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Digital analytics tools such as Google Analytics may be used by (by Google) to record anonymous users’ interaction with our websites. This data may then be used to retarget users through advertising on other websites, therefore an individual's behaviour on one of our websites may result in them being retargeted by Google with advertising related to the pages they visited or actions they took on the site.

You may opt out of the DoubleClick cookie by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads or you may opt out of our use of Analytics by visiting the Google Analytics opt-out page. https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION

When you consent to share personal information with us, we may use this information to improve our services to you and to tailor the information we provide in future. We may also use it to understand the success of our marketing and make improvements to our services overall. Personal data is stored for as long as the purpose intended.

We may use the information you supply about your location (town/city/country) to tailor our email marketing and website information and make it more relevant to you. We therefore process this data in your legitimate interest.

If you do not want us to use your data in this way, please email enquiries@gotoplaces.co.uk. Likewise if you would like to see the data that we use for this purpose, contact us.

YOUR RIGHTS

Under the General Data Protection Regulations, you have rights as an individual which you can exercise in relation to the information we hold about you. Read more about your individual rights on the Information Commissioner's Office website.

Individuals can find out about any personal information we may hold about you by making a Data Subject Access Request under the General Data Protection Regulations.

On request you have the right to be informed within 30 days about what information we hold about you, how we obtained it, and to whom we may pass it on. If a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive, or involves requests for copies of the same information already supplied, we reserve the right as allowed under the act to levy a fee for this service. We may from time to time send emails announcing new products and services.

SECURITY AND DATA RETENTION

We employ security measures to protect your information from access by unauthorised persons and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage. We will retain your information for a reasonable period or as long as the law requires. If we dispose of your information it will always be done securely.

CHANGES TO OUR POLICY

Any changes to our privacy policy in the future will be posted to the site and, where appropriate, through email notification

HOW TO CONTACT US

This privacy notice was drafted with brevity and clarity in mind. It does not provide exhaustive detail of all aspects of our collection and use of personal information, but we are happy to provide any additional information or explanation needed. Any requests for this should be sent to the address below:

Email: enquiries@visitkent.co.uk

Telephone: 01227 812900

Post: Visit Kent, 10 Best Lane, Canterbury, Kent CT1 2JB

Last updated 16 April 2019