Cookie Policy

Cookies are small text files that websites store on your computer, smartphone, tablet or other device when you visit them.

Cookies can perform different functions. Some are necessary for a website to operate correctly, while others help website owners understand how visitors use their website, remember preferences or measure the effectiveness of advertising.

We may also use similar technologies, such as tags, pixels and local storage. For simplicity, this policy generally refers to these technologies collectively as “cookies”.

Up Albania uses cookies and similar technologies to:

• operate and secure our website;
• remember certain choices and preferences;
• understand how visitors use our website;
• measure website performance;
• understand which pages, tours and destinations visitors find useful;
• measure enquiries and other website conversions;
• measure the effectiveness of our advertising;
• improve our website and marketing; and
• support relevant advertising where you have provided the required consent.

We do not use non-essential analytics or advertising cookies contrary to the choices you make through our cookie-consent system.

We group the cookies used on our website into the following categories.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are required for the website to function properly and securely. They may be used for purposes such as:

• website security;
• fraud and spam prevention;
• maintaining user or session preferences;
• remembering your cookie-consent choices;
• enabling forms and essential website functionality.

Because these cookies are necessary for the operation and security of the website, they cannot normally be disabled through our cookie settings.

You can configure your browser to block certain cookies, but doing so may prevent parts of the website from functioning correctly.

Analytics Cookies

Analytics cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website. For example, they may help us understand:

• which pages are visited;
• how visitors arrive at our website;
• how visitors navigate between pages;
• how long visitors spend on parts of the website;
• which tours, destinations and content attract interest; and
• whether visitors complete important actions such as sending an enquiry.

We use Google Analytics for this purpose.

Google Analytics primarily uses first-party cookies and identifiers to measure interactions with websites. Google Help

Where required, these technologies are used according to your consent preferences.

Advertising and Marketing Cookies

Advertising cookies and similar technologies help us understand whether our marketing campaigns are effective and may help us show more relevant advertising.

Our website may use:

• Google Ads — to measure whether people who interact with our advertising subsequently visit our website, submit an enquiry or complete another relevant action.
• Meta Pixel — to help measure the effectiveness of advertising on Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, and understand interactions between those advertisements and our website.

Depending on the services enabled and your consent preferences, these technologies may use identifiers to recognise browsers or devices and measure interactions with advertising.

Advertising and marketing cookies are not treated as strictly necessary cookies.

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors use our website and to help us improve its content, usability and performance.

Google Analytics may process information such as:

• pages visited;
• approximate location derived from technical information;
• device and browser type;
• referring website or campaign;
• interactions with pages;
• session information; and
• website events and conversions.

Google states that Analytics customers must disclose their use of Google Analytics and how it collects and processes information. Google Help

Google Analytics also provides consent controls so that analytics storage can be enabled or denied according to a visitor's choices. Google Help

We use Google Ads to promote Up Albania tours and travel services and to measure the effectiveness of our advertising.

Google Ads technologies may help us understand, for example, whether someone who clicked an Up Albania advertisement subsequently:

• visited a tour page;
• completed an enquiry;
• used our Design My Trip form; or
• performed another relevant website action.

Where applicable, Google Consent Mode allows our website to communicate visitors' consent choices to Google and adjust the behaviour of Analytics and advertising tags accordingly. Google Help

Google distinguishes between consent for analytics storage, advertising storage, advertising user data and advertising personalisation. Google Help

Our website may use the Meta Pixel, provided by Meta, to understand how visitors interact with our website after viewing or interacting with advertising on Meta platforms.

This can help us:

• measure advertising performance;
• understand which campaigns generate website visits or enquiries;
• build advertising audiences where permitted; and
• improve the relevance of our advertising.

The use of Meta advertising technologies is subject to your cookie and consent preferences where required.

Our website may use Google Maps to display locations, destinations, meeting points or other useful geographical information.

Embedded services may receive technical information when they are loaded or when you interact with them and may use cookies or similar technologies according to their own policies.

Where an embedded service requires non-essential cookies, its operation should respect the consent choices you make through our cookie settings.

We may use Google reCAPTCHA or similar technology to protect our website, forms and enquiry systems against spam, fraud and automated abuse.

reCAPTCHA may process technical information necessary to assess whether an interaction is being performed by a genuine visitor rather than an automated system.

Where such technology is necessary for website security, it may be treated differently from optional analytics and advertising technologies, subject to applicable law and the way the service is technically implemented.

When you make a card payment through Stripe, Stripe may use cookies or similar technologies necessary to securely process payments, prevent fraud and provide its services.

Payment-related technologies necessary to complete a transaction or maintain security may be classified as essential.

Stripe's own privacy and cookie practices also apply when you interact with its payment services.

Our newsletter, email-marketing and CRM providers may use technical technologies to help deliver communications, manage subscriptions or measure interactions with communications.

For example, email services may record whether a message was successfully delivered or whether links within a marketing email were used.

Further information about how we process personal information for customer communications and marketing is provided in our Privacy Policy.

Some cookies are set directly by Up Albania's website. These are known as first-party cookies.

Others may be provided by external services integrated into our website. These are known as third-party cookies.

Third-party services used on our website may include providers such as:

• Google;
• Meta;
• Stripe;
• our newsletter/email provider;
• our CRM provider; and
• other technical services required to operate the website.

These providers may process information according to their respective privacy and cookie policies.

Cookies may also differ according to how long they remain on your device.

Session cookies generally expire when you close your browser.

Persistent cookies remain for a defined period or until they are deleted.

The duration of individual cookies depends on their purpose and the provider responsible for them.

Because third-party providers may change their technologies and cookie durations from time to time, the current cookie list displayed through our Cookie Settings should provide the most up-to-date information where available.

When you first visit our website, you may be presented with a cookie banner allowing you to manage non-essential cookies.

Depending on the configuration available, you can choose to:

• Accept All — allow all available cookie categories.
• Reject Non-Essential Cookies — continue using the website without optional analytics and advertising cookies.
• Manage Preferences — choose which optional categories you wish to allow.

Your choices can be changed later through the Cookie Settings link available on our website.

Google recommends that websites using its measurement products collect a user's consent choice and communicate that choice to Google so its tags behave accordingly. Google Help

Our website may use Google Consent Mode in connection with our cookie-consent system.

Consent Mode allows Google tags to adapt their behaviour according to the choices made through the cookie banner. Google currently distinguishes consent states including analytics storage, advertising storage, advertising user data and advertising personalisation. Google Help

The precise behaviour depends on how Consent Mode is configured on our website.

You can change your cookie preferences at any time through the Cookie Settings link on our website.

Changing your preference does not affect the lawfulness of processing that occurred before your choice was changed.

You may also delete existing cookies through your web browser.

Most browsers allow you to:

• view stored cookies;
• delete cookies;
• block particular websites from storing cookies;
• block third-party cookies; or
• block all cookies.

Blocking all cookies may affect the functionality of some parts of our website.

Browsers and devices may provide additional privacy controls.

The availability and effect of these controls vary by browser, device and third-party service. You can review your browser's privacy and cookie settings for further options.

We may update this Cookie Policy when:

• technologies used on our website change;
• we introduce new website services;
• third-party providers change;
• our advertising or analytics practices change; or
• applicable legal requirements change.

The latest version will be published on this page together with the date it was last updated.