Who We Are
Egypt Discovery is a trading name of Discovery Tours Egypt, an Egyptian travel company with offices in Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Hurghada, Marsa Alam and Sharm El Sheikh, registered at 12 El Obour St., Saleh Salam, Cairo, Egypt. References to "we", "us" or "our" mean Egypt Discovery. We act as the data controller for the personal data we collect under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Data protection queries: info@egyptdiscovery.co.uk.
What Data We Collect
- Contact information — name, email address and phone number
- Booking details — travel dates, group size, room preferences and dietary requirements
- Enquiry and checkout details you begin entering — including your email address and the trip selections you make — which we retain even if you do not complete the enquiry or booking, so we can help you finish it
- Payment information — processed by our secure payment provider; we do not store card numbers
- Passport details — where required for visa applications or booking confirmations
- Device and usage data — IP address, browser type and pages visited, via analytics cookies
- Interaction recordings — anonymised patterns of scrolling, clicking and where visitors get stuck, captured by Microsoft Clarity so we can see which pages confuse rather than guessing. It records how the page is used, not who you are, and we do not use it to identify individuals
How We Use Your Data
- To process and manage your booking and issue confirmation documents
- To process payments through our secure payment processor
- To send pre-departure and in-destination information relevant to your trip
- To respond to enquiries and provide customer support
- To follow up on an enquiry or booking you began but did not complete, using the email you provided, so we can help you finish it
- To comply with legal obligations, such as providing passenger data to airlines or border authorities
- To send marketing communications where you have opted in (you may opt out at any time)
Legal Basis for Processing
We process personal data under: contract performance (to deliver your booking), legal obligation (financial record-keeping), and legitimate interests (service improvement, fraud prevention, and following up on an enquiry or booking you began but did not complete so we can help you finish it). Details from an incomplete enquiry or checkout are kept for no more than 90 days unless you go on to book or opt in to marketing. Where we send optional marketing, we rely on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
Who We Share Your Data With
- Accommodation, cruise, guide and transport partners — your name and booking details, limited to what they need to deliver your itinerary
- Egyptian authorities — where required by law, such as border control and security registration at hotels and on cruise vessels
We also rely on a small number of technology suppliers, and we would rather name them than write "trusted third parties":
- Cloudflare — hosts this website and stores enquiries submitted through our forms
- CyberSource, a Visa company — processes card payments. Card numbers reach them directly and are never stored by us
- Google Analytics — measures site usage in aggregate, with IP addresses anonymised
- Microsoft Clarity — records anonymised interaction patterns as described above
- Google Workspace — our email, through which your correspondence with us passes
We do not sell or rent your personal data to anyone, for marketing or any other purpose, and we do not share it with data brokers or advertising networks.
Where Your Data Goes
We are an Egyptian company, so your data is accessed and used by our teams in Egypt in order to plan and run your holiday. Egypt is outside the UK and the EEA and is not the subject of a UK adequacy decision. We transfer your data there because it is necessary to perform the contract you have entered into with us — there is no way to arrange your holiday in Egypt without our Egyptian colleagues seeing your booking. Some of the suppliers named above also process data in the United States and elsewhere. We limit what is transferred to what is genuinely needed to deliver your holiday, and we do not transfer your data abroad for marketing.
Your Rights Under UK GDPR
- Right of access — request a copy of the data we hold about you
- Right to rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate information
- Right to erasure — request deletion where there is no legal reason to retain it
- Right to restriction — limit how we use your data while a dispute is resolved
- Right to data portability — receive your data in a machine-readable format
- Right to object — object to processing based on legitimate interests
To exercise any of these rights, email info@egyptdiscovery.co.uk. We will respond within one calendar month.
Cookies
We use cookies to keep the site working and to measure how pages are used. We run no advertising cookies of any kind. Analytics cookies are set only after you accept them in the notice shown when you first arrive — decline, and nothing non-essential loads. Our cookie policy sets out what each one does.
Data Retention
- Booking records — seven years, to meet accounting and tax obligations
- Enquiries that did not become bookings — no more than 90 days, unless you go on to book or opt in to hearing from us
- Marketing preferences — until you opt out
- Analytics — anonymised within 26 months
- Correspondence — kept while it is useful for your trip and any follow-up, then deleted in the ordinary course
Security
All data travels over encrypted HTTPS connections, and access to personal data is restricted to the staff who need it to deliver your booking. Card numbers never touch our systems — they go directly to our payment provider. We will never ask you for your full card number by email or over the phone, and if anyone claiming to be us does, it is not us.
Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handled your data, you have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk. We would ask that you contact us first at info@egyptdiscovery.co.uk so we can try to resolve it.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Any significant changes will be posted on this page with an updated date at the top.