RESPECTING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

VERSTRAETE TRAVEL & CRUISES respects and maintains high standards within the Travel Industry while serving our valued customers. We continue to respect and protect the privacy and confidentiality of our existing customers and potential new customers by only disclosing personal information responsibly and to the extent necessary for the travel products and services we provide.

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information includes information that relates to their personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income, home address or phone number, ethnic background, family status) and their health (e.g., health history, health conditions, health services received by them). In addition, due to the nature of the travel agency business, we also include in our policies and staunchly protect therein an individual's financial information including checking account information and credit card information.

Our travel agency, VERSTRAETE TRAVEL & CRUISES, is a full service agency business, and we arrange travel products and services for our clients with a wide spectrum of industry suppliers. Accordingly, we deal with a number of consultants and third parties that may, in the course of their duties, have limited access to personal information we hold. These include airlines, railroads, cruise lines, tour operators, computer reservation system providers, and other travel-related vendors. We restrict their access to any personal information we hold as much as is reasonably possible. We also have their assurance that they follow appropriate privacy principles in accordance with their own policies under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Like all travel agencies we collect, use and disclose personal information in order to service our clients. For our clients, the primary purposes for collecting personal information are as follows: to make and secure reservations, to issue transportation documents and vouchers, and to provide travel suppliers with information to complete the necessary purchasing arrangements for a wide array of travel and tourism products. Examples of the type of personal information we collect for those purposes include the following: name, address, telephone, age, credit card information, passport or visa information and similar personal information necessary to properly identify our clients and their entitlement to the services we arrange. We also collect personal information from our employees and contractors to assure our proper compliance with employment laws, remuneration, tax payments, and other employee/contractor functions.

We understand the importance of protecting personal information and for that reason we have taken the following steps:

• Staff are trained to collect, use and disclose personal information only as necessary to fulfill their duties and in accordance with our privacy policy.
• External consultants and agencies with access to personal information must enter into privacy agreements with us or acknowledge that they abide by PIPEDA.

We need to retain personal information for some time to ensure that we can answer any questions you might have about the services provided and for our own accountability to external regulatory bodies.

We will be using personal information collected prior to and after January 1, 2004 for the purposes described earlier. Should you at any time not wish to receive any promotional information about travel opportunities or services and products that may be of interest to you, let us know and we will not use your personal address or information for this purpose.

We appreciate and value your patronage. At VERSTRAETE TRAVEL & CRUISES, privacy is not a privilege, it's a right.