Cookies help VisitScotland (“VS”, “us”, “our” or “we”) to provide you with the best possible experience when you browse our websites and allow us to keep improving our websites. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are required for the operation of our website and are always active. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
| Cookie Provider | Cookie Name | Cookie Description | Cookie Type | Cookie Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tourismobservatory.scot | UMB-XSRF-TOKEN, UMB-XSRF-V, UMB_UCONTEXT | These cookies are set by the website in order to maintain the session state of the logged in user. | First Party | Session |
| tourismobservatory.scot | ARRAffinity | Used for load balancing to make sure the visitor page requests are routed to the same server in any browsing session. | First Party | Session |
| tourismobservatory.scot | ai_session, ai_user | We use Microsoft Application Insights software, which collects statistical usage and telemetry information for apps built on the Azure cloud platform. This is a unique anonymous session identifier cookie. | First Party | 1 day, 1 year |
| tourismobservatory.scot | .STO_CookiePreferences | Used to store information about a visitor's cookie preference settings | First Party | 1 day, 1 year |
Analytical cookies
These cookies allow us to count the number of visitors, help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to monitor its performance. Third party performance cookies are deployed by a different website provider.
| Cookie Provider | Cookie Name | Cookie Description | Cookie Type | Cookie Lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tourismobservatory.scot | _ga, _gid, _ga_5TX79K403T, _gac_gb_5TX79K403T | These cookies are set by Google Analytics and are used to help aggregate anonymous data around website usage into session and user metrics. | First Party | 2 years, 24 hours, 2 years, 90 days |
Cookie policy updates
VisitScotland uses a number of suppliers who set cookies on our behalf in order to deliver the services that they are providing. We are constantly reviewing our use of cookies and, as such, this cookies policy will be regularly reviewed to include up to date information about the cookies used by our suppliers. We would recommend that you check this page on a regular basis.
How do I change my cookie settings?
At VisitScotland we respect your privacy and want to make sure you have control over your data. You can choose your own setting using the preference centre on our website to select which cookie categories you want to allow.
You can use the Privacy Preference Centre to change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
Privacy Preference Centre
When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalised web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. You can use the following controls to change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.