Toerisme Oostende vzw is the organisation that provides the full range of tourism services in Ostend. It intervenes in every phase of the customer journey to the City by the Sea: attracting new visitors, welcoming these visitors, organising events and monitoring their success through evaluation. We aim to produce fun events, create amazing experiences and sufficiently capitalise on current trends.

We are aware that you place your trust in us and we therefore think it is our responsibility to protect your privacy. On this page, we inform you which data we collect, why we collect them and how we use them to improve your user experience. You will better understand how we work as a result.

Toerisme Oostende vzw respects the privacy of all the users of its website and ensures that the personal information you provide to us is treated confidentially.

Privacy policy

1. Why do we collect data?

We like to send you current and relevant newsletters to ensure we are doing our job optimally and always inform you about fun events. We can provide you with tailor-made information based on your detailed preferences.

We request all the relevant contact details when people participate in competitions to inform the winner. Should you require further information about this, you can always check the competition rules.

Newsletter

When signing up for the newsletter, your email address is sent to Campaign Monitor in a secure way. You can always unsubscribe by sending an email to privacy@toerisme-oostende.be or by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every newsletter.

Request by filling out a form

Every request that is sent to us using a form is stored on the website. This allows us to handle your request in a smooth way. You can ask to see or erase this information at any time by sending an email to privacy@toerisme-oostende.be.

2. Which data do we collect?

We may store messages when you send us an e-mail or other messages. We may sometimes request your personal information as it is relevant for the situation. This allows us to process your questions and reply to your requests. The data are stored on our own secure servers at Toerisme Oostende vzw or on the servers of a third party. We will not combine these data with other personal information we have.

We collect:

  • data pertaining to your behaviour on the website to offer you a more personalised service
  • contact details: e-mail address, name, date of birth, phone number and postal address
  • behavioural data on the website
  • company data, including the number of employees, job title of the employee
  • information about the device you used to access visitoostende.be.

3. Cookies

We collect data for research purposes to gain a better insight into our customers and be able to tailor our services accordingly.

Our website visitoostende.be uses “cookies” to analyse how you use the website. The information generated by the cookies about how you use the website may be transferred to the secure servers of Toerisme Oostende vzw or the servers of a third party. We use this information to keep track of how you use the website, to draw up reports about website activity and offer other services pertaining to website activity and internet use.

By default most browsers accept cookies but you can change the settings to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is sent. Please note that some functions and services may not work as they should if cookies were disabled in your browser, both on our and other websites.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a small text file that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you visit the site. It enables the website to remember your preferences (such as your language) over a period of time, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you come back to the site or browse from one page to another.

How do we use cookies?

All cookies on this site are anonymous, which means that no personal data is stored or sent to third-parties.

1. Functional cookies

has_js: placed by Drupal. Remembers if your browser supports Javascript.
JSESSIONID: makes sure the site loads as fast as possible through an application called New Relic.
__newsletter: makes sure you only see the newsletter popup once.

2. Analytic cookies

These cookies register which sites you visit and what links are clicked. They enable us to optimise the website content.

_ga, _gat en _gid: used by Google Analytics to track the amount of visitors.
fr: set by Facebook to optimise the Facebook ad results.

How can you remove cookies?

You can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you can set most browsers to prevent them from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit a site and some services and functionalities may not work.

4. Purposes

We do not collect or use information for other purposes than the purposes set out in this privacy policy unless we receive prior permission from you for this. This data is used:

  • for personalised marketing
  • to inform you about new, future actions and promotions
  • to answer your questions more quickly
  • to establish a connection with other social networks
  • to conduct audience research
  • to inform you of upcoming events or new information

5. Third parties

This information may be shared with a third party. We only do this in the framework of the regular activities of Toerisme Oostende vzw. The processing and storage of this information is determined in close consultation between both parties. In some cases, the information may also be shared in-house. Our employees and all the parties we work with must respect the confidentiality of your information.

6. Authorities

We may share personal information, including the content of your communication to:

  • to notify the authorities about certain elements in the personal information you provided
  • to detect fraud
  • to reply to legal proceedings, including law enforcement

7. Children

We store information that is needed to identify the child for specific child-oriented activities. This include the child’s name, the address and phone number of the (grand)parents, custodians or supervisors. This information is stored for up to one year after the event to facilitate new registrations.

8. Changes

This privacy statement is geared to the use of and the possibilities of our site. Any adaptations and/or modifications of this website may give rise to modifications of this privacy statement. That is why we recommend that you regularly review this privacy statement.

9. Choices regarding personal information

We offer all our visitors the opportunity to review, modify or delete all personal information they provided us at one time.

10. Adapt/unsubscribe communication

Kindly contact us if you wish to adapt your personal information or wish to have it deleted from our databases. You can find our contact details below.

11. Questions and feedback

We regularly check our compliance with this privacy policy. Kindly contact us with any questions you have about this privacy policy at:

Toerisme Oostende vzw
Monacoplein 2
+ 32 (0)59 70 11 99
privacy@toerisme-oostende.be