Privacy Notice

The Department of Economy and Tourism
The Department of Economy and Tourism (“DET”) is an entity established pursuant to Law No. 20 of 2021 and having its principal address at P.O. Box 594, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. DET is the principal authority for the planning, supervision, development and marketing of tourism in Dubai. DET also markets and promotes Dubai’s commerce sector and is responsible for the licensing and classification of all tourism services, including hotels establishments, tol agents and all other tourism services. Find out more about DET at: https://www.dubaitourism.gov.ae/en/about-us.

 

DET and its affiliates, including, but not limited to, Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment and Dubai Corporation for Tourism and Commerce Marketing (collectively, “Dubai DET”, “We”, “we”, “our” or “us”) are committed to providing excellent service to all customers, including respecting their concerns about privacy and taking the relevant measures to safeguard their personal data in accordance with applicable data protection legislation. We have provided this Privacy Notice to help you, the user, understand how we collect, use and protect your information when you visit and use any of Dubai DET ’s websites (including, without limitation, www.visitdubai.com) and any microsites and tools contained therein (our “Websites”), mobile applications (including, without limitation, the Visit Dubai and Dubai Calendar mobile applications) and any tools contained therein (our “Mobile Applications”), social media pages, and other technological platforms in whatever form (together referred to as our “Platforms”), and how that information will be treated. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it.

Our Contact Details
Your privacy matters to us so if you have any questions regarding your privacy please contact us at privacy@dubaitourism.ae.

If you have any general enquiries, complaints or suggestions, please contact us at info@dubaitourism.ae or click here.

This Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice should be read together with our Terms of Use and any other documents referred to in it.

Please note that we will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those that are set out in this Privacy Notice.

This Privacy Notice uses the following key terms:

• Browser web storage: enables websites to store data in a browser on a device. When used in "local storage" mode, it enables data to be stored across sessions (for example, so that the data are retrievable even after the browser has been closed and reopened). One technology that facilitates web storage is HTML 5.
• Non-personally identifiable information: information that is recorded about users so that it no longer reflects or references an individually identifiable user.
• Personal data: any information which you provide to us which directly or indirectly personally identifies you, such as your name, email address, billing information, credit card information, or other data which can be reasonably linked to such information by Dubai DET, such as information we associate with any accounts you may hold with Dubai DET.
• Sensitive personal data: special categories of personal data, specifically, information about your race, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, health and genetics, biometrics (where used for ID purposes), and criminal convictions.

What personal data do we collect?

We collect a range of personal data to deliver and improve our services:

• Personal data we receive through your interaction with our content, platforms and via third parties for example your name, contact details, details relating to payments and/or official documentation
• Sensitive personal data we receive:
• through organising trips for you for example health data relating to allergies
• through you applying for employment with Dubai DET or in Dubai for example, details of criminal background checks and salary expectations
• through analysis of your online activity with Dubai DET or organisations based in Dubai for example hotels and attractions
• through you applying for retirement or remote working visa(s) in Dubai via the Retire in Dubai and Virtual Working Programmes for example details of criminal background
• Consents we receive when you consent to us processing your data where consent is required or to other activity for example using cookies.
• Technological data including:
• Internet protocol (IP) address
• device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number)
• device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL,
• cookies or similar technologies that may uniquely identify your browser or any of your accounts on our Platforms,
• information (including personal data) locally on your device using mechanisms such as browser web storage (including HTML 5) and application data caches
• We may also collect and process location information when you use any of our Platforms through various technologies such as Wi-Fi access points and cell towers.
• When information is associated with any of your accounts on our Platforms, we treat it as personal data. For more information on technological data, please see our section on ‘Direct Marketing, IP addresses and Cookies’

How we collect personal data

We collect your personal data directly from you unless it is unreasonable or impractical to do so. We do this in a number of ways including:

• through your access and use of our Platforms, including via our apps, or sending SMS/MMS or emails to us;
• when you enter into a competition or promotion;
• through someone else who has provided us with your information (e.g. a gift subscription);
• during conversations between you and our representatives; and/or
• when you complete an application or subscription.

We may also collect personal data from third parties including:

• third party companies such as credit reporting agencies, law enforcement agencies and other government entities;
• organisers or co-organisers of events, schemes or initiatives as well as service providers assisting with organising such events, schemes and initiatives;
• advertisers;
• mailing lists;
• recruitment agencies; and/or
• contractors and business partners.
• Where you engage on one of our social media platforms, for example our Facebook page, we receive information from third parties, including Sprinklr, which provides us with a view of your publicly available information across social media platforms. To understand more about how Sprinklr use your personal data, please refer to their Sprinklr Social Media Management System (SMMS) Privacy Notice.

Any personal data we collect about you will only be retained for as long as it takes for the purposes for which such information is required to be completed. If we no longer need to use or disclose your personal data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice and we are not legally required to retain that information, then we will take reasonable steps to destroy your personal data or ensure it is rendered anonymous (i.e. turned into non-personally identifiable information).

How we use personal data

Applicable data protection law states that we can use your personal data only where we have a valid purpose to do so. This is also the case where we share your personal data with third parties. Where we use your personal data we must have one of the following lawful bases for doing so:

• To fulfil a contract
• To comply with a legal obligation
• Where someone’s life is in danger, known as vital interest
• When it is required to deliver our core business activities, known as legitimate interest
• When it is required for us to carry out a task in the public interest
• When you consent to us doing so 

We may receive your personal data from you or from third parties which we use:

• to provide you with the information, products and services that you request from us (including Dubai Calendar – see "Dubai Calendar" section below for more information);
• to respond to your questions, comments and requests;
• where you have indicated your consent, to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with additional services and/or information about additional services that may interest you. You will be provided with the names of any such third parties are the point of obtaining consent. (see “Marketing” section below for more information);
• to notify you about changes to one or all of our Platforms;
• to administer events, competitions, schemes and initiatives;
• to ensure that content from our Platforms are presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device. 

How we use personal data and our legitimate interests

Where we rely on our legitimate interest we are required to inform you of what data we collect under this lawful basis and for what purpose we use it. Below is a list of the ways we may use your personal data and details of our legitimate interests for each case:

Providing services to people who visit, or have indicated an interest in, Dubai:

What we use personal data for:

• To provide a call centre to support you with any issues you may face and record suggestions and feedback.
• To organise and administer events, competitions, schemes and initiatives;
• competitions and prizes and validate the authenticity of the winners
• To organise trips to Dubai for selected individuals and third parties, for example influencers or competition winners
• To sign up users to our online platforms and games
• To contribute to information security and business continuity initiatives

Our lawful bases:

• To fulfil contracts
• For our legitimate interests
• When you consent to us doing so

Our legitimate interests:

• To improve our services
• To organise competitions and prizes
• To organise trips for third parties
• To provide online services such as signing up to our apps and platforms

What we use your personal data for:

• To administer our Platforms and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• To allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
• As part of our efforts to keep our Platforms safe and secure;
• To administer the Tourism Dirham, a fee collected from visitors staying in hotels.
• To administer initiatives, schemes, competitions and programmes that are intended to promote and encourage initiatives within Dubai (including programmes/ initiatives such as Intelak, Futurism, Study Dubai, Retire in Dubai and Virtual Working Programme)
• To administer applications to Dubai College of Tourism (DCT)
• To administer the Holiday Homes service
• To organise events promoting Dubai
• To administer portals which provide government to business services such as hotel classifications, ticketing platforms, permits platforms and other services for which Dubai DET is responsible

Our lawful bases:

• To fulfil contracts
• For our legitimate interests
• When you consent to us doing so
• To comply with legal obligations

Our legitimate interests:

• To improve our services
• To administer our online platforms
• To provide online services such as signing up to our apps and platforms

Marketing our products, services and platforms

What we use your personal data for:

• To develop and manage the brands located in and related to Dubai
• To send you information about products and services available in Dubai that you may be interested in
• To engage with you when you mention Dubai on the internet offering tailored content
• To measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;
• For market research and analysis purposes;
• Where you have indicated your consent, to make suggestions and recommendations to you and other users of our Platforms about goods or services that may interest you or them (see “Marketing” section below for more information).
• To request permission to use your online content relating to Dubai for marketing and communications
• To send you newsletters where you have signed up for them
• To learn more about your interests by understanding who you engage with online; and
• To improve our Platforms to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device

Our lawful bases:

• For our legitimate interests
• When you consent to us doing so

Our legitimate interests:

• For advertisement content licensing
• For marketing purposes

For National Security

What we use your personal data for:

• To provide of special entry permits for visitors and performers
• To obtain security clearance for agencies who work with us
• To process visas and security clearances for other people who may visit Dubai on DET's request
• To administer Five-Year Multi-Entry Tourist Visa pre-screening approval to be processed by GDRFA or authorised representative/s

Our lawful bases:

• For our legitimate interests
• To comply with legal obligations

Our legitimate interests

• To facilitate the compliance of visits that we provide to visitors and performance with national security obligations

For more information on your rights regarding your personal data please refer to the “Your Rights” section. For information on how to exercise your rights please refer to the “Contact us with Your Questions and Comments” section.

Dubai Calendar

Dubai Calendar is the official calendar of year-round events happening in Dubai, where event organizers may list events and ticket sellers may offer tickets for such events for users of the Dubai Calendar to purchase.

If you use our Dubai Calendar services, we will collect, use and otherwise process your information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Notice. More specifically, we will:

• collect your personal data when you sign-up to the service;
• use and otherwise process your personal data in order to provide you with the service; and
• disclose your personal data to third party event organizers and ticket sellers in order for these third parties to provide you with a service.

DET is the regulatory authority responsible for the administrative and regulatory tasks related to the issuance of permanent/temporary tourism activities, and events, promotions and classifications permits and licenses, follow-up with the permits/licensing procedures comprising preliminary approvals, renewal, amendment and cancellation, and inspections of such authorized activities to ensure their compliance with the laws and regulations implemented in Dubai. The various e-permits, promotions permits and classifications portals/ platforms managed by DET facilitate the exercise of such regulatory tasks and functions.

If you use our e-permits, promotions permits and classifications portals, we will collect, use and otherwise process your information in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Notice. More specifically, we will:

• collect your personal data when you register to the service;
• use and otherwise process your personal data in order to provide you with the service;
• disclose or process personal data in accordance with the requirements under any applicable law, or in good faith believe such action is necessary or desirable to comply with the applicable laws; and
• process and disclose personal data with other departments of the government of Dubai or any other federal authorities of the United Arab Emirates for national security related purposes.

Marketing

Where you have indicated your consent or we have a legitimate interest, we (and permitted third parties) may contact you for direct marketing purposes via post, telephone, email, SMS/MMS, push notifications, and social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp.
This marketing may relate to:

• additional products and services we (or permitted third parties) feel may interest you;
• information about other goods and services we offer that are similar to those that you have already used or enquired about; and
• upcoming events, competitions, schemes, initiatives, promotions and new products/services or other opportunities as well as those of selected third parties.

If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means without seeking your consent in advance (including but not limited to telephone, e-mail, SMS/MMS, push notifications, and social medial channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp) with information about services similar to those which were the subject of a previous dealing with you.

If you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us you may unsubscribe by following the unsubscribe link in our email communications or by requesting us to remove you and your personal data collected electronically from our database(s) by emailing privacy@dubaitourism.ae.

Internet Protocol (IP) Address

An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your device every time you browse the internet. When you visit our Platforms, the server used by our web host will make a record of your IP Address, together with the date and time of your visit, the type of Internet Browser you use and the URL of any other websites that referred you to our Platforms.
We may also log IP addresses to analyse trends, administer our Platforms, track user movements, and gather broad demographic information.

Cookies

In some cases, we may also collect your personal data through the use of cookies. When you access our Websites, we may send a “cookie” (which is a small summary file containing a unique ID number) to your device. This enables us to recognize your device and customise the online experience. It also helps us keep track of services you view, so that we can send you news about those services. We also use cookies to measure traffic patterns, to determine which areas of our Websites have been visited, and to measure transaction patterns in the aggregate.

We may also collect anonymous data (which is not personal data) relating to your activity on our Websites (including IP addresses) via cookies, or we may collect information from you in response to a survey. We generally use this information to report statistics, analyse trends, administer our services, diagnose problems and target and improve the quality of our services. To the extent this information does not constitute personal data because it does not identify you or anyone else, we may use this information for any purpose and by any means whatsoever.

For further information on the cookies we use, please refer to our Cookie Policy.

We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites or services linked to or from our Websites, including the information or content contained therein or the data collection practices or privacy policies therein. Please remember that when you use a link to go from our Websites to another website, our Privacy Notice does not apply to third-party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third-party websites or service, including those that have a link or advertisement on our Websites, are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies. In addition, you agree that we are not responsible and we do not have control over any third-parties that you authorize to access your user content. If you are using a third-party website or service (like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Instagram, or Google groups etc.) and you allow such a third-party access to your user content you do so at your own risk. This Privacy Notice does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources other than through our Platforms.

Information we share

When you consent to provide us with your personal data, we may also ask you for your consent to share your personal data with our Dubai DET affiliates who may sometimes need to access your information to provide services to you on our behalf. Because Dubai DET is passionate about your privacy, we have made a decision to implement the same level privacy protection throughout our business.

Legally, other Dubai DET affiliates will then be acting as ‘ data processors’ to process your personal data on our behalf and based on our specific instructions. These processors will also be subject to data protection laws and will only process your personal data compliance with our Privacy Notice and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
Where we share your personal information, within Dubai DET or with third parties we implement robust contractual agreements with third parties to confirm that your personal data will be handled in compliance with relevant data protection laws, for example, the GDPR. Where we do this, we will use appropriate safeguards to protect any Personal Data being transferred.

We use approved Standard Contractual Clauses for the international transfer of personal information collected in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

You can find information on Standard Contractual Clauses on the EU Commission website. 

We do not share personal data with companies, organisations and individuals outside of Dubai DET unless one of the following circumstances applies:

We will share personal data with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Dubai DET (and the parties and bodies referenced in this section of the Privacy Notice) for marketing purposes when we have your express opt-in consent to do so. If you have specifically consented to share your personal data with one or more of such third party companies, organizations or individuals outside of Dubai DET identified on our website for the purposes set out in such consent, each such third party will act as a data controller in relation to the data that we supply to it; and upon contacting you, each such third party will supply to you a copy of its own privacy notice, which will govern that third party's use of your personal data.

For external processing 

We provide personal data to our affiliates or other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Notice and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures. Our affiliates are located worldwide, in particular in the UAE, US and EEA countries. Examples of organisations we share your data with for this purpose are:

• Airlines
• Hotels
• Attractions
• Tour operators and events' organisers
• Organisations running competitions on our behalf, for example newspapers and websites
• Organisations sending you information about offers or products
• Organisations that Dubai DET collaborates with in order to arrange and deliver programmes, competitions, and other initiatives

We may share non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners – like publishers, advertisers or connected websites. For example, we may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services. Examples of organisations we share your data with for this purpose are:

• Analytics companies who use anonymised data to demonstrate performance

Where required by applicable law

We will disclose personal data when required by any applicable law, or in good faith believe such action is necessary or desirable to comply with the applicable laws, or to protect or defend the rights or property of Dubai DET, our Platforms, or their users. We will only fulfil requests to share personal data where we are permitted to do so in accordance with applicable law or regulation. 

• National security agencies, for example Dubai Police and other departments of the Government of Dubai

In addition to this, we may also share your personal and non-personal data with certain trusted business partners or persons for the following purposes:
We may share non-personal information publicly and with our business partners – like publishers, advertisers or connected websites. For example, we may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services.

We may disclose personal data when required by any applicable law, or in good faith believe such action is necessary or desirable to comply with the applicable laws or to protect or defend the rights or property of Dubai DET, our Platforms, or their users. We may disclose your personal data to third parties in the following circumstances:

• in the event that Dubai DET sells or buys any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets;
• if Dubai DET or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it will be one of the transferred assets;
• agents, service providers and third parties who provide services relating to the purpose for which the personal data is collected including data processing services, whether or not such agents, service providers and third parties are based in the UAE;
• any person who is under a duty of confidentiality and has undertaken to keep such data confidential; and
• if you use our Dubai Calendar service (in accordance with the "Dubai Calendar" section of this Privacy Notice).

Our third parties are located worldwide, in particular in the UAE, US and EEA countries.

Where we store your personal data

The data that we collect from you may be transferred to, stored and otherwise processed on servers located outside the country in which you reside and which may be located in secure data centres worldwide, including the UAE, US and EEA countries, and personal data may be stored in any one of them.

How long we keep your data for

We will retain your personal information for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this Privacy Notice. When assessing these periods we carefully examine our need to collect personal data at all and if we establish a relevant need we only retain it for the shortest possible period to realise the purpose of collection unless a longer retention period is required by contractual obligation or law.

If you are located in the European Union, under the EU General Data Protection Regulation you have a number of rights with regard to your personal data that we must comply with. The rights you have are:

• The right to be informed
  You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data by us or, on our behalf, by a third party.
• The right to access
  You have the right to obtain from us confirmation as to whether or not your personal data is being processed and, if so, the right to access that personal data. This right does not apply where it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of another person.
• The right to rectification
  You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate personal data and we must comply in a timely manner. Taking into account the purposes of the processing, you shall have the right to have incomplete personal data completed.
• The right to erasure
  You have the right to request the erasure of your personal data, in our possession, in a timely manner.
• The right to restrict processing
  You have the right to request the restriction of use of your personal data, where the data is not being used for the purpose it was collected for.
• The right to object to processing
  You have the right to object at any time to our use of your personal data where that use is based on legitimate interest* or the public interest. *‘ Legitimate interest’ is a lawful basis for processing personal data where (i) the use of data has a limited impact on you, (ii) you should reasonably expect us to use your data in such a way, or, (iii) where we do not deem it appropriate to contact you with disruptive consent requests.
• The right to data portability
  Where you have provided personal data for us to use with your consent* or as required for us to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, you have the right to receive personal data that you have provided from us in a structured, commonly used format in order for you to provide that personal data to another organisation for use as you so wish. This right does not apply where we are using the personal data to carry out a public duty (e.g. security or compliance).
  *This includes sensitive personal data such as biometric, health or political or religious beliefs provided with your explicit consent.
• The right to complain to a supervisory authority
  You have the right to submit a formal written complaint to a regulator who can resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with you directly.
• The right to withdraw consent
  You have the right to inform us that you no longer wish us to collect, store, or use your personal data, where there is not a business or legal reason for us to do so.

Dubai DET have procedures in place to ensure that it deals with any requests it receives in an efficient manner.  You can exercise any of the above rights by contacting us at: privacy@dubaitourism.ae.

If you have any general enquiries, complaints or suggestions, please contact us at info@dubaitourism.ae or click here.

If you select to contact us with any questions, comments or requests using one of the online forms that form part of our Platforms, you will need to provide your full name, telephone number and e-mail address so that we can be sure to be able to contact you. Depending on which online form you complete, you will be given the opportunity to provide additional information that will allow us to serve you better, although the additional information might not be required, it will speed up the process and make it easier for Dubai DET to properly identify you throughout its systems.

If you would like more information on how we handle your personal data or would like to make a request relating to one of your rights above you can email us at: privacy@dubaitourism.ae.

If you have any general enquiries, complaints or suggestions, please contact us at info@dubaitourism.ae or click here.

Opt-Outs of marketing email communication

You may unsubscribe from marketing email communication sent by our Platforms at any time by following the unsubscribe link in our email communications (see “Marketing” section above) or by requesting us to remove you and your personal data collected electronically from our database(s) by emailing privacy@dubaitourism.ae.

You may also set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with our Platforms, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. However, it’s important to remember that many of our Platforms may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, we may not remember your language preferences.

You can request our third party partners to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by clicking the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of emails or by contacting such third parties at any time.

We will take all reasonable steps to protect the personal data that we hold from misuse, loss, or unauthorized access, including by means of firewalls, password access and secure servers. In particular, we review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems, and restrict access to personal data to our employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

Unfortunately, there is always risk involved in sending information through any channel over the internet. You send information over the internet entirely at your own risk. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted over the internet and we do not warrant the security of any information, including personal data, which you transmit to us over the internet.

If you suspect any misuse or loss of, or unauthorized access to, your personal data, please let us know immediately.

Compliance and cooperation with regulatory authorities

We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Notice. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with our users directly.

Privacy Notice Changes

In the future, we may revise or amend this Privacy Notice at any time by amending this page. All changes will be made here so you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone. Some of the provisions contained in this Privacy Notice may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our Websites.

We will inform you of any changes to the Privacy Notice via pop-up, email communication or a push notification via our Mobile Applications.

Your privacy concerns are important to us. We hope this Privacy Notice has been helpful to you.

Questions Concerning this Privacy Notice

If you have questions regarding this Privacy Notice, please feel free to contact us at privacy@dubaitourism.ae.

If you have any general enquiries, complaints or suggestions, please contact us at info@dubaitourism.ae or click here.

Last Modified: 4 February 2022