Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Everlasting Private Tours is a South African private tour operator and guiding business based in Cape Town, Western Cape. We provide private tours, custom itineraries, guiding services, and related travel planning support for local and international clients.

For this Privacy Policy, “personal information” has the meaning used in South African privacy law, including the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

2. What personal information we may collect

We collect information that is reasonably needed to answer enquiries, prepare quotes, manage bookings, plan tours safely, process payments, keep records, and improve our services. This may include:

• Contact details such as name, surname, email address, phone number, WhatsApp number, country of residence, nationality, and preferred contact method.
• Booking and tour details such as tour date, group size, guest names or labels, children’s ages, pick-up location, accommodation area, route preferences, special requests, and booking reference numbers.
• Safety and suitability information such as dietary requirements, allergies, mobility or accessibility needs, relevant medical notes, fitness level, language preferences, child-seat needs, and emergency contact details where supplied.
• Custom tour information such as interests, destinations, budget range, travel style, accommodation or transport preferences, and itinerary notes.
• Payment-related information such as invoice details, payment status, transaction references, refund records, and limited information received from payment providers. We do not aim to store full card details on this website.
• Messages, form submissions, customer support notes, complaints, reviews, marketing preferences, and other communications with us.
• Website and technical information such as IP address, device information, browser type, pages visited, referral source, approximate location, cookies, analytics events, and security logs where these tools are used.

3. How we collect information

• Directly from you when you submit a contact form, booking request, custom tour enquiry, email, phone call, WhatsApp message, or other communication.
• Through booking, payment, email, analytics, hosting, security, or administration tools used to operate the website and business.
• From another person in your group where they provide details on behalf of guests.
• From third-party suppliers or partners where needed to manage a booking, confirm availability, process payment, resolve an issue, or deliver a tour component.

4. Why we use personal information

• To respond to enquiries, prepare quotations, confirm availability, and communicate before, during, and after a tour.
• To administer bookings, invoices, payments, refunds, booking changes, and customer records.
• To plan and deliver tours, including pick-ups, routes, timing, guide allocation, guest requirements, and reasonable safety planning.
• To arrange services with relevant suppliers such as transport providers, attractions, activity operators, accommodation providers, restaurants, wine estates, permit offices, and tour partners.
• To process payments and payment confirmations through payment providers and related financial systems.
• To keep legal, tax, accounting, insurance, operational, safety, complaint, and dispute records.
• To improve our website, tours, customer communication, security, and service quality.
• To send service messages about an enquiry or booking, and optional marketing updates only where consent or applicable law allows it.

5. Legal basis and practical privacy approach

We aim to process personal information lawfully, reasonably, and only for legitimate business purposes connected to our tour services. This may include processing needed to take steps before a booking, perform a booking contract, comply with legal obligations, protect safety, pursue legitimate business interests, or act with your consent where consent is required.

Please do not send highly sensitive information unless it is relevant to the tour or booking. If you provide health, dietary, mobility, allergy, or medical notes, we use them only to help assess suitability, plan responsibly, and communicate relevant needs to people who reasonably need to know.

6. Sharing information with third parties

We do not sell personal information. We may share information only where reasonably necessary, lawful, or authorised. This can include sharing relevant details with:

• Payment providers, banks, payment gateways, invoicing tools, accounting systems, and refund processors.
• Email, website hosting, booking, analytics, security, customer support, administration, and data storage providers.
• Guides, drivers, transport providers, attractions, restaurants, wine estates, accommodation providers, activity operators, permit offices, and other suppliers needed to deliver a tour or custom itinerary.
• Professional advisers, auditors, insurers, legal representatives, authorities, regulators, courts, law enforcement, emergency services, or medical responders where necessary and lawful.

7. International clients and cross-border handling

Many clients contact us from outside South Africa. Information may be sent across borders when we communicate with international clients, use reputable cloud-based tools, process payments, or work with suppliers for a travel arrangement. Where cross-border handling occurs, we aim to use reputable providers and reasonable safeguards appropriate for a small tour operator.

8. Cookies, analytics, and website tracking

Our website may use cookies or similar technologies to keep the website working, remember preferences, understand website usage, improve content, support security, and measure enquiries or bookings. Cookies may be set by our website or by third-party tools such as hosting, analytics, maps, booking, payment, or security services.

We advertise our tours through Google Ads, and use Google Ads conversion measurement to understand which adverts lead to a booking. When a booking is completed we send Google a booking reference, the booking value, and the currency. We do not send your name, email address, telephone number, or the details of your travel party.

Where you have accepted measurement on the cookie banner, we also use Google Analytics 4 to count page views and understand how visitors move through the site, and Microsoft Clarity to see how pages are used — which parts of a page are clicked and how far down people scroll. Clarity also records a playback of how a page was used, so that we can find parts of the website that are broken or confusing. These recordings capture page activity such as mouse movement, scrolling and clicks; Clarity masks text typed into forms by default, and we do not use these tools to identify you.

None of this runs until you actively accept on the cookie banner. If you decline, or simply do not answer, no Google Analytics or Clarity script is loaded at all and nothing is recorded. You can change your answer at any time using the cookie settings link below and in the website footer. Google and Microsoft may set their own cookies and handle that information under their own privacy terms.

You can usually control cookies in your browser settings, and advertising cookies can also be managed through Google’s own advert settings. Some features may not work properly if cookies are blocked. Where we add or change these tools, we update this policy accordingly.

Change my cookie choice

9. Email and marketing communication

We may send emails or messages needed to answer an enquiry, manage a quote, confirm a booking, provide tour information, process payment, request feedback, or resolve a service issue. We may send occasional tour updates or marketing messages only where you have opted in or where allowed by law. You can ask us to stop marketing communication at any time.

10. How long we keep information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably needed for the purpose it was collected, unless a longer period is required or allowed for legal, tax, accounting, insurance, operational, safety, dispute, fraud-prevention, or record-keeping reasons. Booking, payment, invoice, complaint, and tax records may need to be kept for several years.

When information is no longer reasonably needed, we aim to delete, anonymise, or securely archive it where practical.

11. How we protect personal information

We take reasonable organisational and technical steps to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration, or disclosure. These steps may include access controls, secure service providers, password protection, limited staff or supplier access, backups, and sensible administrative procedures.

No website, email system, payment system, or online service can be guaranteed completely secure. Please contact us if you believe information has been sent to us by mistake or may have been compromised.

12. Your privacy rights

Subject to POPIA and other applicable law, you may request access to personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct inaccurate information, object to certain processing, withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, or request deletion of information where lawful and practical.

We may need to verify your identity before assisting. Some information may be retained where required for legal, accounting, safety, dispute, or legitimate business reasons.

13. Privacy questions and updates

For privacy questions, POPIA requests, or personal information updates, please contact [email protected] or use the website contact form. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The “Last updated” date shows the latest version published on the website.