ReturningVisitor doesn't seem to be working

I might be missing something, but visitors always stay in a new state. Tested locally and on demo application.

Reproduction path:
1. checkout hippo-project-archetype version 12.6.16 or 14.5.1
2. install Banner, Relevance, Relevance Collectors Bundle features from Hippo Essentials Library
3. configure a Returning Visitor variant in the channelmanager to show when visitor is a returning visitor.
4. visit root domain localhost:8080/site/
5. Verify _visitor cookie is set.
6. close browser tab and visit same url again. No personalization happens.
7. Verify that _visitor cookie is set the same value as first visit.