The winners of Tourism Golden’s Golden Contest have been chosen, and will get to experience the adventure lifestyle that the area offers.

The contest winner, David Harris from Edmonton, and three friends who are from Calgary and Edmonton, will spend five days in Golden enjoying 10 adventures in the area.

Tourism Golden ran the contest from June 7 to July 5, and used a variety of mediums to get the word out about the contest. Magazines, newspaper, radio and the internet were all utilized to spread the message about the campaign.

The contest showcased many of the great adventures, lifestyle and tourism opportunities that are available in Golden and the surrounding area. Through the contest and the promotion of the contest, many people were shown the many things that Golden has to offer.

“Something like this is a very common way to promote destinations,” said Miro Micovsky, Tourism Golden Marketing Director. “Our goal was to put something extraordinary together. If a prize is good enough it will attract attention.”

As well as offering a fantastic prize to the four winners, the contest also served the purpose of telling Golden’s story to those outside of the province’s boundaries.

“We need to raise awareness of Golden outside the province,” explained Micovsky. “Our main market is Alberta.”

The main focus for the distribution of promotional materials for the contest was Alberta; however, Tourism Golden received entries from other provinces as well. Out of a total of 771 entries, the majority, 492, came from Alberta, with 162 coming in from BC, 46 from Ontario and the remainder from other provinces and regions.

Tourism Golden used the contest as an opportunity to collect information about the success of the various marketing mediums that were used in the campaign. When entering the contest, contestants were asked to provide information about where they heard about the contest.

“Everyone who entered had to say where they learned about the contest, which is how we learned about which one worked the best for us,” said Micovsky.

After collecting the marketing information, Micovsky explained that Tourism Golden was able to determine that the advertisement in the Discover BC special publication, which was distributed with the Calgary Herald, provided the best coverage. He also mentioned that the ad on Facebook offered the best ratio for the money that was spent. The advertising budget for the campaign was $20,000, with fifty per cent funded by Tourism BC explained Micovsky.

Contestants entered the contest on the Tourism Golden website, where they gave a short write-up about why they should win.

“We looked for people that represented our target market, and will be able to experience all the adventures,” explained Micovsky in regards to the final decision of a contest winner.

In addition to winning the five day stay in Golden, the contest winners will also receive winter season passes to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort.

The winners will be coming to Golden on August 11 to enjoy their adventure, and Tourism Golden will be following them around filming them while they enjoy all of their adventures. The video will be used for future marketing for the area, explained Micovsky.

Those who entered the contest were also given the option of providing an email address to Tourism Golden to allow them to receive the regular monthly Golden Travel Update. Out of the 771 entries, Micovsky mentioned that many signed up to receive this monthly email.

“414 email addresses were collected from people who want Golden Travel Updates,” said Micovsky.