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Cookie Policy

Last updated: November 2024

This Cookie Notice explains how Buena Vista Holidays Limited (C76834), of 15, Ix-Xatt ta’ Qui-Si-Sana, Tas-Sliema, Malta (the “Company”, “we”, “us” and “our”) collects and uses personal data through cookies on our website, https://buenavistaholidays.com (the “Website”), and is intended to complement, and be read in conjunction with, our Privacy Notice.

What are Cookies?

Cookies are small text files that a web server hosting a website sends to the bowser that you would have used to access such website through your internet-connected devices, such as computer and mobile phone. Cookies would then be processed and stored by your web browser on such internet-connected devices for a period of time, essentially enabling the accessed website to remember information about you (including a record of your visits, activity, preferences and login information on that website), and to generally make the website more user-friendly and your experience more efficient.

Still unsure how cookies work? Below is a simplified breakdown:

  1. You visit a website: Your internet browser sends a request to the website’s server for the webpage that you want to view.
  2. The web server sends a cookie to your browser: The server replies to your browser with a text file which includes the cookie and instructs your browser to store the cookie.
  3. Your browser stores the cookie: The cookie is saved in a dedicated cookie file on your device.
  4. You return to the website: When you revisit the website, your browser sends the stored cookie back to the web server.
  5. The web server recognises your device: The web server retrieves the information stored in the cookie and uses it to personalise your browsing experience.

The below table lists different kinds of cookies, including their functions, that may commonly be used by different websites:

Type of Cookies

Use of Cookies

Strictly Necessary

Non-essential

Strictly Necessary cookies are required for a website to perform at a basic level and function properly. These cookies as exempt from user consent.

Non-essential cookies, on the contrary, is not ‘essential’ for a website to function, but may render the users’ experience on a website more enjoyable. Examples include functional, analytical and marketing cookies.

Functional

Analytical

Marketing

Functional cookies enable a website to personalise its users’ browsing experience by enhancing functionality. These may include cookies used to remember a user’s preferred location, language and other settings.

Analytical cookies are used to gather statistical data about the users on the website, their activities and their preferences. Other information that may be gathered includes website pages visited, duration of visit, what was clicked on and other similar information.

Marketing cookies are commonly third-party cookies used in relation to adverts on websites to provide target advertisements. Information collected would include clicks on the adverts, number of times the adverts have been displayed, number of unique visitors and similar information. Such cookies may also be used to build user profiles to gather individual preferences.

Persistent

Session

Persistent cookies remain stored on your device, even after you close your browser (unless deleted by you), for a predetermined period that may range from a few days to several years. Persistent cookies are often used for authentication (e.g. to remember your login details so that you would not have to enter these every time that you visit the website), and/or tracking (e.g. to personalise your experience on the website).

Session cookies are temporary, and generally remain in your browser during your browsing session only, i.e. until you close the website. Session cookies are often used for session management (e.g. ensuring continuity of your browsing experience as you navigate from page to page), and/or shopping carts (e.g. remembering items that you would have added to your cart as you browse e-commerce websites).

First-Party

Third-Party

First-Party cookies are set by the website that you are visiting to, most often, enhance your browsing experience on that particular website. First-party cookies are often used for website functionality (e.g. enabling essential features such as personalised user accounts, content, and shopping carts), and user preferences (e.g. your preferred language and region, so that you would not have to set these every time that you visit the website).

Third-Party cookies are generated and set by third-party domains independent to the website that you are visiting, generally when the website that you are visiting is using third-party applications or content embedded on its web pages. Third-party cookies are often used for tracking online behaviour through multiple websites (e.g. advertisements, videos, widgets).

Cookies, therefore, offer several benefits to both website users and website owners. However, cookies also raise privacy concerns and for this reason, their use must continuously comply with both the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation [EU] 2016/679 (the “GDPR”) and the e-Privacy Directive [EC] 2002/58.

How and why do we use Cookies?

When you visit our Website, we may place cookies on your device. You can provide us with your permission to do so through the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website.

The cookies that we use enable us to recognise you and your preferences when visiting and subsequently returning to our Website, ultimately with the scope of providing you with a more customised and user-friendly experience. Data collected may include IP address, device information, browser information and interaction data. We may also use cookies to analyse and understand how visitors like you use our Website to be able to continuously improve our Website, our marketing strategies, and our services. This information will generally be anonymised, and therefore with no risk to your personal data.

More specifically, our Website uses three types of cookies:

  1. strictly necessary cookies;
  2. functional cookies; and
  3. analytical cookies.

Strictly necessary cookies are cookies that are required for our Website to properly function and provide you with the basic information that you seek. These types of cookies do not require user consent and can be deployed on your device automatically since without them the Website would not be able to function.

Functional cookies are used to enhance the functionality of our Website. Although not necessary, these cookies enable us to personalise and enhance your browsing experience on our Website. This notwithstanding, functional cookies are disabled by default. We require your consent to collect, process and store data through functional cookies by means of the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website, as mentioned above.

Analytical cookies are used to gather statistical data about our Website users, their browsing patterns and their preferences over a period of time. Data collected by analytical cookies are for statistical purposes only, such as analysing and reporting visitor interactions with our Website, and such collected data would be anonymised. That said, analytical cookies are disabled by default. We require your consent to collect, process and store data through analytical cookies by means of the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website, as mentioned above.

The below table provides a list of, and additional information about, the cookies deployed via our Website:

Name

Provider

Purpose

Type

Retention

Cookies that may be used for visitors who (i) do not have an account on our Website; or (ii) have an account on our Website and which may be deployed before that the visitor logs into his/her account:

cookieyes-consent

CookieYes

To remember users’ consent preferences so that their preferences are respected on subsequent visits to our Website. It does not collect or store any personal information about the site visitors.

Necessary; Persistent;

Third-Party

1 year

wpEmojiSettingsSupports

WordPress

To determine if the users’ browser can display emojis properly.

Functional;

Session;

Third-Party

For the duration of your browsing session

wordpress_test_cookie

WordPress

To determine whether cookies are enabled on the users’ browser.

Necessary;

Session;

Third-Party

For the duration of your browsing session

_ga_*

Google Analytics

To store and count page views.

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

1 year 1 month 4 days

_ga

Google Analytics

To calculate visitor, session and campaign data and track Website usage. This cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognise unique visitors.

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

1 year 1 month 4 days

_hjSessionUser_*

Hotjar

Registers a unique user ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the same visitor uses the Website.

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

1 year

_hjSession_*

Hotjar

Registers a unique user ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the same visitor uses the Website.

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

1 hour

Cookies that may be used for visitors who have an account on our Website, and which may be deployed after that the visitor logs into his/her account:

__cf_bm

Cloudflare

To identify and mitigate automated traffic to protect our Website from bad bots.

Functional;

Session;

Third-Party

For the duration of your browsing session

JSESSIONID

New Relic

Creates session identifiers so that the Provider can monitor session counts for the Website.

Analytical;

Session;

Third Party

For the duration of your browsing session

NEXT_LOCALE

Next.js

Stores the user’s preferred language or region to display content in the chosen locale. Helps in maintaining a consistent language preference across sessions.

Functional;

Session;

Third-Party

For the duration of your browsing session

__stripe_mid

Stripe

To remember a user and enable secure payment processing on the Website. It helps prevent fraud and ensure a smooth checkout experience.

Functional;

Persistent;

Third-party

1 year

_hjptid

Hotjar

Assigns a unique identifier to a visitor for the purpose of collecting data about the visitor’s behavior across different sessions. This data is used for analytics purposes, helping us understand visitor interactions.

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

1 year

ajs_anonymous_id

New Relic

Enable us to monitor Website performance

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

1 year

ak_bmsc

New Relic

Enables us to monitor Website performance

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

2 hours

bm_sv

New Relic

Enables us to monitor Website performance.

Analytical;

Persistent;

Third-Party

2 hours

breeze_folder_name

Breeze

This is a WordPress caching plugin that enables us to reduce server load and improve loading times for visitors returning to our Website.

Functional;

Session;

Third-Party

For the duration of your browsing session

cookieyes-consent

CookieYes

Used to store the selected cookie preferences, including consent, of the visitor.

Functional;

Persistent;

Third-party

7 days

login_service_login_newrelic_com_tokens

New Relic

Used to manage and authenticate user sessions, allowing visitors that have an account on our Website to stay logged in securely.

Functional;

Persistent;

Third-Party

21 years

user_timezone

Buena Vista

Used to store the visitor’s time-zone when creating a booking through our Website.

Functional;

Persistent;

First-Party

1 week

wordpress_logged_in_*wordpress_logged_in

WordPress

Used to keep visitor’s having an account on our Website logged in, and to identify the logged-in user for session management.

Functional;

Session;

First-Party

For the duration of your browsing session

wp-settings-*

WordPress

This is used to enable visitors to customize the view of the administrative interface on their account profile.

Functional;

Session;

First-Party

170 days

wp-settings-time-*

WordPress

Sets the time at which wp-settings-* cookie was set indicating when the visitor’s settings were last updated, ensuring that the visitor’s chosen settings are consistent across different browsers and devices when logged in.

Functional;

Session;

First-Party

170 days

Tracking Pixels or Links

Tracking pixels or links are small graphic images or code which may be embedded into our Website. These tools allow us to determine whether you performed a specific action and ultimately help us measure and improve our response, Website and promotions. Since such tools are not ‘Strictly Necessary’ for our Website to function, we do require your consent to collect, process and store data through tracking pixels or links by means of the ‘cookie banner’ that pops up when you visit our Website, as mentioned further above In this Cookie Notice. We currently use the following pixels on our Website:

  1. Google Tag Manager
  2. Google Analytics
  3. Hotjar

Controlling and managing Cookies

You may set your browser to block cookies, although doing so may affect your ability to perform particular transactions, use certain functionality, and access content on our Website. You may refer to the below list of the most popular browsers, and follow the relevant link for further information on managing cookie settings on your browser:

Changes to our Cookie Notice

We may update this Cookie Notice from time to time. Any changes will become effective upon posting of the revised Cookie Notice on the Website. We will still seek your express consent to any changes to our cookie practices if required by law. Otherwise, the use of our Website following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Cookie Notice then in effect.

Contact Us

Should you require any further information regarding the data processed through our cookies, or our data processing practices generally, you may contact us on the below contact details. Any request for information must be made in writing and must also include your name, address, email address and a description of the information required. We may also ask for identification documentation, which is essential in order for us to be able to verify your identity.

Postal Address:

15, Ix-Xatt ta’ Qui-Si-Sana, Sliema, Malta

Email Address

[email protected]

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