Visit Similan Islands
Privacy policy
This policy explains what personal information we use when you enquire about, book or travel on one of our Similan, Surin, Richelieu Rock or North Andaman trips, and how you can control it.
Last updated: 13 August 2026
1. Who is responsible for your information?
Visit Similan Islands is responsible for deciding how and why the personal information described in this policy is used (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our”).
Contact: Use our contact form
Business location: Choeng Thale, Thalang District, Phuket, Thailand
2. What this policy covers
This policy covers visitsimilanislands.com, our enquiry and traveller-detail forms, booking support through our form and any follow-up messages, hosted payment links, and the information used to arrange the trips we sell.
Our current operational routes include:
- Similan and related snorkelling speedboat day trips;
- the Early Bird Similan Islands speedboat trip; and
- scuba day trips and liveaboards, including applicable MV Koon 9 trips.
The relevant boat, tour, diving, transport or insurance provider may also be an independent data controller for the information it receives. We provide or confirm the applicable operator details during the booking process where needed.
3. Information we may collect
Enquiries and booking support
- your name, email address, telephone or WhatsApp number;
- the trip, preferred date, group size, hotel or pickup area;
- your questions, messages and our replies; and
- your booking reference, payment status and support history.
Traveller and trip-delivery details
What we need depends on the trip. It may include full passport name, nationality, date of birth, passport number, hotel and pickup details, dietary requirements, language requirements and emergency-contact details.
For scuba trips we may also need certification level, dive count, date of last dive, equipment requirements and sizes, scuba licence or certification evidence, dive-insurance evidence and, where genuinely required, a temporary passport document. For ordinary snorkelling reservations we normally need the identity details requested in the traveller form and do not normally require a passport image.
Payments and financial records
We keep the amount, currency, invoice or payment reference, payment status, refund information and related correspondence. Card payments are handled by a secure payment provider. We do not receive or store your complete card number or card security code.
Website and device information
Our website and service providers may process IP address, browser and device type, pages viewed, referral source, approximate location, security logs and form activity. Our currency feature may obtain a country code from an IP-country service and store currency preferences and reference exchange-rate information in your browser. See our Cookie policy.
Information about children
A parent, guardian or booking organiser may provide the minimum information needed for a child traveller. The person supplying it must be authorised to do so. We do not use child traveller data for marketing.
4. Where the information comes from
Most information comes directly from you or the person organising your booking. We may also receive confirmation, pickup, safety or booking-status information from the relevant trip operator, transport provider, payment provider, insurer, national-park or other authority, or another person in your booking group.
6. International use and transfers
We arrange trips in Thailand and serve international customers. Information may therefore be processed in Thailand, the United Kingdom, the European Economic Area, the United States or another country used by a service provider.
Where data-protection law restricts a transfer, we use an applicable adequacy decision, contractual safeguard, provider transfer mechanism or a permitted limited exception, such as a transfer necessary to arrange your trip. You can ask us for more information about the safeguard relevant to your booking.
7. How long we keep information
| Record | Normal retention |
|---|---|
| Incomplete traveller form or save-and-continue draft | Up to 30 days after the last activity, unless it is attached to an active booking |
| Detailed traveller data, passport or certification files, insurance evidence, equipment details, emergency details and other temporary trip-delivery information | Deleted or minimised 30 days after the completed or cancelled trip. If the trip is rescheduled, the deadline moves to 30 days after the new trip date. |
| Basic closed-booking record: customer name, email, booking-created date, product/booking description and reference | Normally up to six years after the trip for booking history, customer queries, accounting and dispute handling, then deleted or anonymised unless a longer period is required |
| Invoices, transaction and tax/accounting records | For the period required by applicable tax, accounting, fraud, chargeback or legal-claims rules, normally up to six years |
| General enquiry or support correspondence that does not become a booking | Normally 12 months after the last meaningful contact |
| Optional marketing preference and contact | Until you withdraw, or until periodic review shows there is no continuing reason to retain it |
| Website security and technical logs | For the shortest period reasonably required for security, diagnostics and provider operations, then deleted or aggregated |
A record may be held longer where there is an active refund, chargeback, complaint, safety incident, insurance matter, legal claim or legal hold. We document the reason and review date. Encrypted backups may retain a residual copy until their normal overwrite cycle completes; restored data remains subject to the same deletion rule.
Information already sent to an independent trip operator, payment provider or messaging platform is also subject to that organisation’s own retention duties. We delete or minimise copies in systems we control and ask other organisations to assist where the law requires it.
8. How we protect information
We take sensible steps to protect your information, including secure connections, controlled access, limited private storage and sharing only the details needed to arrange your trip. If we need passport or health information, we will explain why and tell you the appropriate way to send it. Card payments are handled by our secure payment provider, so you do not need to send card details in an ordinary message.
9. Your privacy rights
Depending on the law that applies, you may ask us to:
- confirm whether we use your personal information and provide a copy;
- correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
- delete information or restrict how it is used;
- provide certain information in a portable format;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests or to direct marketing; and
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting earlier lawful use.
Use our contact form and include the name and email used for the booking. We may ask for proportionate identity evidence before releasing or deleting information. Some rights have legal exceptions, including records we must retain for accounting, claims or fraud prevention.
Your right to object: You may object at any time to direct marketing. You may also object to processing based on our legitimate interests; we will stop unless we have a compelling lawful reason to continue.
10. Questions and complaints
Please use our contact form first so we can try to resolve the issue. You may also complain to the regulator that applies to you, including the UK Information Commissioner’s Office or Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Committee.
11. Changes to this policy
We review this policy when the booking process, suppliers, service providers, retention controls or applicable law changes. Material changes will be brought to customers’ attention where required.