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This policy explains how Ethan Holidays & Events uses your personal details. In short: we use them to plan and book your travel, we share them only with the people needed to do that, and we never sell them.
1. Who we are
Ethan Holidays & Events ("Ethan Holidays", "we", "us") is a travel agency on Old Airport Road, Nedumbassery, Kochi, Kerala 683572, India, right outside Cochin International Airport. We have helped travellers since 2010.
We decide how and why your details are used, so we are responsible for them. Under Indian law this makes us the "data fiduciary" (and the body that collects and keeps your information). This policy covers this website and the details you give us by phone, WhatsApp, email or at our office.
We follow the Information Technology Act 2000 and its rules on personal information. We have also written this policy to the standard of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and its Rules, as their duties come into force.
2. What this website collects
You can look around this website without telling us who you are. We collect details only when you choose to send them.
The enquiry form
When you send the form, we receive:
- your name and phone number
- the service you need (a holiday, cruise, visa, flights, hotel, insurance or foreign exchange)
- the destination, trip or sailing you are interested in, and the city you set off from if you tell us
- for flights, whether you want one way or return
- how many adults and children are travelling, and the children's ages if you give them
- for cruises, the cabin type and whether you want flights or train to the port
- when you plan to go
- for holidays and cruises, your rough total budget if you pick one
- anything you write in the notes box
- which page of our website you sent the form from, and the website or advert that brought you to us
Your enquiry goes securely to our own booking records, which only our team can see. A quick automatic check may run first to keep spam and bots out of the form.
Like most websites, our website and booking records also see technical details when you visit or send the form, such as your IP address and browser type. We use these only to keep the site and the form safe from spam and misuse.
WhatsApp, phone and email
Our WhatsApp buttons open WhatsApp with a message already typed for you. If you use "Prefer WhatsApp? Send it there instead" on the form, that message includes the details you filled in, and we also save them in our booking records, even if you do not send the message. Nothing is sent on WhatsApp until you press send. WhatsApp’s own privacy policy applies to messages there.
If you call or email us, we note what you tell us, such as your email address, so we can reply.
What we do not collect online
We do not take payments on this website and we never ask for card or bank details here. If anyone asks you to pay through a link that claims to be from us, please check with us by phone first.
3. What we collect when you book
When you go ahead with a trip, we ask for more, usually by email, WhatsApp or at our office. What we need depends on the services you choose. It can include:
- full names exactly as in each traveller’s passport, dates of birth and nationality
- passport copies and photographs
- visa forms and supporting papers, such as bank statements, salary slips, tickets and hotel bookings
- your PAN, where tax law requires it (for example for TCS on overseas tour packages)
- meal choices, room preferences and any medical or mobility needs you want us to plan around
- details for travel insurance, which may include health information
- bank account details, only if we need to send you a refund
- records of your payments to us and of your bookings
Health information and bank details are sensitive. We ask for them only when a service needs them, we use them only for that purpose, and we ask for your agreement in writing first. An email or WhatsApp message is enough.
If you give us details about other travellers, such as family members or colleagues, please make sure they are happy for you to do so and know about this policy.
4. Why we use your details
We use your details only for clear reasons:
- to reply to your enquiry and prepare a quote
- to book flights, hotels, cruises, transport, tours and other services with suppliers
- to apply for visas and arrange travel insurance and foreign exchange, when you ask us to
- to send your tickets, vouchers and updates before and during your trip
- to help if something goes wrong while you travel
- to keep accounts and meet legal duties, such as GST, TCS and other tax rules
- to protect the website and our systems from misuse
We use your details for these purposes because you asked us to help with your travel and gave them to us for that reason, or because the law requires it. We may contact you again about the trip you asked about. We send offers and news only if you have told us you want them, and you can stop them at any time.
5. Who we share them with
We do not sell or rent your details. We share them only when needed:
- Travel suppliers: airlines, hotels, cruise lines, transport companies, local tour operators and guides, so they can provide what you booked.
- Visa and insurance bodies: embassies, consulates, visa application centres, insurers and foreign exchange providers, when you use these services.
- Service providers who help us run things: website hosting and security (Cloudflare), the hosting of our booking records, website analytics (Cloudflare Web Analytics and Google Analytics), and our accountants and professional advisers. They may use your details only to provide their service to us.
- Authorities: government, tax or police bodies, when the law requires it.
If you ask, we will tell you who we have shared your details with.
6. Details sent outside India
Travel abroad means sending some details abroad. Hotels, airlines, ground handlers and embassies for your destination are often outside India, and some of our service providers store data on servers in other countries. Your enquiry is processed and stored by our booking system's providers on servers outside India (currently in Singapore). We send only what is needed for your trip. We will follow any limits the Government of India sets on sending data to particular countries.
7. Cookies and analytics
Cookies are small files a website stores in your browser. This website uses very few.
- Security: our website host may set or read a small cookie to keep the site and the form safe from bots and attacks. The site needs these to work safely.
- Analytics: we use Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts visits without cookies, and Google Analytics 4, which uses first-party cookies (_ga) to count visits, searches and enquiries in total. We never send your name, phone number or message to analytics tools, and we use these reports only in total, to improve the site, not to identify you. Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland get no analytics cookies. How Google uses this data: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites(opens in a new tab).
- Your unsent enquiry: while you fill in the enquiry form, what you type is kept in that browser tab only, so a reload does not wipe it. It is not sent anywhere until you tap the form’s send button (Get my free quote or Get today’s price) or send it on WhatsApp, and it is cleared once your enquiry reaches our team, or when you close the tab. After that, the tab keeps only the form's random reference number, none of your details, so your next enquiry gets a new one.
- Where you came from: if you arrive from an advert, a link with a campaign tag or another website, this browser keeps a short note of it for 30 days: the website or advert's name, its campaign tag and click code, and the first page you opened. It goes to our team only with an enquiry you send, so we can see which adverts and links bring enquiries. It holds no name, number or other personal details.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Blocking analytics will not stop you using the site or sending an enquiry.
8. How long we keep your details
- Enquiries that do not become bookings: we keep them for 24 months after our last contact with you, then delete them.
- Booking and payment records: we keep them for as long as tax, accounting and other laws require us to.
- Passport copies and visa papers: we keep them only as long as needed for your trip and any follow-up, unless the law requires longer.
- System and access logs: kept for at least one year, as the law asks, to help detect misuse.
When we no longer need your details, we delete them or make them anonymous, and we ask our service providers to do the same.
9. How we keep them safe
We take reasonable care to protect your details. For example:
- the website and our booking records use encrypted connections (HTTPS)
- only our staff who need your details for their work can open them
- we use established hosting providers with their own security controls
No system is completely secure. If a breach affects your details, we will tell you without delay, explain what happened and what you can do, and report it to the authorities as the law requires.
10. Your rights and choices
You can ask us to:
- give you a summary of the details we hold about you, how we use them and who we have shared them with
- correct, complete or update your details
- delete your details, unless the law requires us to keep them
- stop using your details for a purpose you agreed to, by withdrawing your consent
- stop sending you offers and news
- record one or more people you nominate to act for you if you die or cannot act for yourself (write to us to name them)
To ask, email support@ethanholidays.com or send us a WhatsApp message. Please include the phone number or email you used with us, or your booking reference, so we can find your records. We may ask you to confirm who you are before we act.
Withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it. It stops future use but does not undo what we have already done. If a booking is in progress, we may not be able to finish it without your details, and the supplier charges for that booking may then apply.
We also ask you to give us true and complete details, not to pretend to be someone else, and not to make complaints you know to be false.
11. Children
The enquiry form is for adults. Under Indian data law a child is anyone under 18. When a family trip includes children, a parent or guardian gives us their details and agrees to their use for the trip. We do not track children or show them targeted advertising.
12. Questions and complaints
If you have a question or a complaint about how we handle your details, please contact our grievance officer (details below). We will confirm we have your message within 48 hours and aim to resolve it within 30 days.
Please come to us first. If you are not satisfied with our reply, you may complain to the Data Protection Board of India, using the method it publishes.
13. Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when our services or the law change, including as the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules come fully into force. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change is important, we will make it clear on this page.
