Cookie Policy

Find out what cookies are and how they are used on this website. 

Last updated: [September 2025]

Like many websites, the Visit Essex website uses small files called cookies to help provide the best possible online experience for you. Our Cookies Policy explains what cookies are, how we use cookies, how third parties we may partner with may use cookies on our website, your choices regarding cookies and further information about cookies.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of text sent by your web browser by a website you visit. A cookie file is stored in your web browser and allows Visit Essex or a third-party to recognize you and make your next visit easier and our website more useful to you.
Cookies can be "persistent" or "session" cookies.
•    Persistent cookies continue to exist after you finish your website visit. They are eventually deleted, often after 6 months or longer. They are used to help the Service recognise when you return so that it can remember things like your preferences, or who you are.
•    Session cookies are deleted automatically soon after you finish your website visit, usually within 30 minutes. They are used to help the website to remember the status of your current visit, for example, a session ID might be stored to ensure you remain logged in.
You can remove cookies from your device at any time, and your device will automatically delete expired cookies.

Types of cookies

Cookies can be set in two ways – some are set by us, Visit Essex, whilst others are set by other services which may be used bring enhanced functionality.

First-party cookies

These cookies are set directly by Visit Essex. Only Visit Essex can read them.

Third-party cookies

These cookies are set by other digital services and are accessible only by those digital services. For example, if a webpage contains an embedded YouTube video, YouTube may set its own cookies to enable the video to work correctly. Some cookies are set by services used to provide a better experience for you. For example, Google Analytics is a common service used to understand how users interact with websites so the website owners can make improvements, so the website is easier to use.
Some cookies are set by services for advertising purposes. For example, an advertising platform may set a cookie so that it recognises a user across different websites. It is not Visit Essex who sets these third-party cookies.

We categorise cookies based on how they are used and help you to make broad choices about which cookies you allow us to set.

Essential cookies

These cookies let you use all the different parts of our website. Without them, access to our website cannot be provided. They are sometimes called “strictly necessary” cookies. Some examples of how we use these cookies are:
•    To remember your preferences (for example, whether you have given your consent for cookies to be set).
•    Remembering security settings that affect access to certain content, for example, whether you are logged in.

Functional cookies

These cookies might be used to provide functionality.
For example:
•    Enabling embedded video.
•    Remembering that you have visited the site before so that messages for new visitors are not repeated to you.

Performance cookies

These help us make sure that the website is working properly and fix any errors.
Any performance cookies we use collect anonymised data to protect your identity. We do not collect any data on age, gender, sex, political or religious beliefs, nationality, or postcodes through cookies.

Advertising cookies

Some websites use advertising networks to show you specially targeted adverts when you visit. These networks may also be able to track your browsing across different sites. Cookies are widely used in online advertising. Neither Visit Essex nor its advertising partners can gain personally identifiable information from these cookies.

The cookies we set

What are your choices regarding cookies?

If you would like to delete cookies or instruct your web browser to delete or refuse cookies, you can do this for any website by visiting the help pages of your web browser.

Please note, however, that if you delete cookies or refuse to accept them, you might not be able to use all of the features we offer, you may not be able to store your preferences, and some of our pages might not display properly.

At the end of this cookie policy, we provide a mechanism for you to accept or refuse cookies for Visit Essex. Using this method rather than your browser’s in-built blocking will enable you to block categories of cookies but keep others active. This will help you to preserve the functionality of the site.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit aboutcookies.org or allaboutcookies.org

Set my cookie preferences here [Insert link to set cookies preferences banner] 

Cookie Policy Updates 

Visit Essex use 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.