Privacy Policy

At Kyoto Essence Tours (“we”, “our”, or “us”), we respect the privacy of our guests and handle personal data in compliance with Japan's Act on the Protection of Personal Information (“the Act”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, process, and safeguard personal data in connection with our services (“the Services”).

1. Categories of Collected Personal Information

We collect personal information only within the scope necessary to achieve the purposes described in Section 2, and always through appropriate and lawful means.

This may include:

• Personal identifiers such as name, date of birth, nationality, telephone number, and e-mail address
• Reservation and payment information related to the use of our Services
• Responses to surveys and feedback, including travel preferences and requests
• Inquiry information such as name, e-mail address, and the content of communications
• Technical information automatically collected when using our website (e.g. IP address, cookies, browser information)
• Website usage analytics collected through aggregate analytics tools and privacy-limited first-party attribution, such as page paths, traffic sources, UTM campaign parameters, country-level traffic, browser information, and bot/crawler activity. Google Analytics 4 also uses cookies or similar identifiers to measure visits and completed bookings. These measurements may include campaign click identifiers, a booking reference, and the paid amount and currency. We do not intentionally send guest contact details, payment card details, or checkout session identifiers to Google Analytics.

2. Purpose of Using Personal Information

We use personal information for the following purposes:

• Identity verification, reservations, and payments
• Provision of tours and related services
• Responding to customer inquiries and communicating with guests
• Service improvement, including the analysis of campaigns and surveys
• Fraud prevention and security management
• Compliance with laws and responses to disputes

3. Provision of Personal Information to Third Parties

We do not disclose guest information to unrelated third parties for their independent use without prior consent, except as required by law. Service providers that process data on our behalf are described in Section 4.

4. Entrusted Handling of Personal Information

We may outsource specific business operations to the extent necessary for service provision. These third parties may handle personal information for the purpose of processing reservations, payments, and related services. In such cases, we ensure that contractors are carefully selected and appropriately supervised to maintain the secure management of personal information.

We use Cloudflare for website analytics and Google Analytics 4 to understand website visits and completed bookings. Our Google Analytics property is linked to our Google Ads account to measure how ads lead to bookings. Personalized ads are disabled in that link. Google may process analytics data under its own terms and policies. You can review Google's Privacy Policy. Browser privacy controls that send Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals prevent our Google Analytics tag from loading.

5. Security Measures for Personal Information

We take reasonable precautions and implement physical, human, and technical measures, as the service operator, to prevent unauthorized access, leakage, loss, or alteration of personal information, and strive to ensure its secure management.

6. Requests for Disclosure, Correction, or Deletion

Guests have the right, under applicable laws, to request the disclosure, correction, restriction of use, or deletion of their personal information. To make such a request, please contact us using the details provided in Section 10. We may ask you to provide information necessary to verify your identity before responding to your request.

7. Voluntary Provision of Personal Information

Providing personal information is voluntary, but if certain details are not provided, we may be unable to provide part or all of the Services.

8. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, operations, or applicable laws. The latest version will always be available on our website, and we encourage you to review it periodically.

9. Personal Information Management Supervisor

The business owner of Kyoto Essence Tours serves as the personal information management supervisor.

10. Inquiries about Personal Information

For questions or requests regarding the handling of your personal information, please contact us via the contact page.