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November 10, 2010

Osoyoos Marketing Initiatives Win Awards at Tourism Industry Summit

Two area organizations have been awarded top honours by the region’s tourism industry for their first-class work promoting Osoyoos to potential visitors across Canada and around the world.

Destination Osoyoos and Black Hills Estate Winery were each presented with the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association’s (TOTA’s) 2010 Tourism Excellence Award for Innovative Marketing and Promotion, during the 2nd Annual Thompson Okanagan Tourism Industry Summit held Nov. 3-5 at Sparkling Hill Resort near Vernon.

Destination Osoyoos won for its series of marketing and promotion initiatives tied to the release earlier this year of the motion picture and DVD movie Gunless, which was filmed near Osoyoos in 2009.

Black Hills Estate Winery won for its marketing and promotion of the Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Festival, which each June attracts entertainment celebrities, major media, and visitors to a weekend-long series of wine-and-food events held at Osoyoos resorts.

Gunless, a big-screen comedy western starring Paul Gross, was released in theatres last April and on DVD in August. During the six-week filming in May and June 2009, the cast and crew of more than 100 people stayed in Osoyoos, injecting hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy.

Destination Osoyoos (DO) negotiated a marketing agreement with the Gunless producers to get major recognition for Osoyoos in a number of ways – in the film’s on-screen credits, on the DVD packaging, on all the movie posters, and also the production of a bonus vignette film about Osoyoos to be included on the Gunless DVD, showing gorgeous video of the Osoyoos landscape and community.

DO Executive Director Jo Knight says the great hosting of Gunless in Osoyoos was a community effort. After the Okanagan Film Commission’s early help, many local community sectors collaborated to make the whole experience a tremendous success. The Town of Osoyoos provided space for the construction of sets and storage of materials, and local hotels, resorts, retail stores and others all chipped in to ensure that the film’s producers and crew got what they needed.

Then Destination Osoyoos worked hard to obtain a high-profile marketing campaign agreement with the producers. “We took the hosting of a major movie production to the next level,” Knight says. “The Osoyoos branding on the posters, the DVD packaging, and the feature vignette film all provide a lasting legacy, giving national exposure to the ‘Osoyoos: Canada’s Warmest Welcome’ brand well into the future,” Knight adds. “It gives Osoyoos a major promotional boost as a tourist destination.”

With co-sponsorship from Destination Osoyoos and other groups, Black Hills Estate Winery launched the annual Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Festival in June 2009. The first three-day event attracted a number of film and television celebrities as well as coverage by magazines, newspapers, websites and the Entertainment Tonight Canada TV show. The 2nd Celebrity Wine Festival, in June 2010, was an even bigger event, featuring Beverly Hills 90210 star Jason Priestley, Star Trek star Bruce Greenwood, TV celebrity chef Ned Bell, actor and media host Terry David Mulligan, Emmy award-winning producer Chad Oakes, and Barenaked Ladies co-founder Steven Page. The six-event Festival included a star-studded Osoyoos Celebrity Wine Auction for children’s charities, a wine commercial film festival, a beach party, and an international wine competition.

Glenn Fawcett, President of Black Hills Estate Winery, notes, “The Festival was an exceptional collaboration of effort and time from 17 wineries, four hotels, eight chefs or restaurants, three live musical performances, two tourism agencies, 10 celebrities, 29 film producers, 20 members of the media, and nearly 1,100 enthusiastic fans of B.C. wine and food.”

In presenting the Tourism Excellence Award for Innovative Marketing and Promotion to the winery, the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association recognized that its effort had a huge impact in promoting Osoyoos as a place to visit, raising the profile of its growing food and wine scene.

“It is great to see the wine industry getting acknowledged by TOTA during the same year that all wineries are now welcomed in as stakeholders in the region’s tourism industry organization,” Fawcett says.

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From left, Destination Osoyoos Chair Don Brogan and Executive Director Jo Knight receive the Innovative Marketing and Promotion Award from Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association Chief Executive Officer Glenn Mandziuk, at the 2010 Thompson Okanagan Tourism Industry Summit, held Nov. 3-5 at Sparkling Hill Resort near Vernon.

Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association Chief Executive Officer Glenn Mandziuk, left, presents the Innovative Marketing and Promotion Award to Black Hills Estate Winery President Glenn Fawcett, at the 2010 Thompson Okanagan Tourism Industry Summit, held Nov. 3-5 at Sparkling Hill Resort near Vernon.

FOR INFORMATION:

Jo Knight, Executive Director Glenn Fawcett, President

Destination Osoyoos Black Hills Estate Winery

Tel: 250-495-5070 ext. 202 Tel: 250-498-0666

jknight@destinationosoyoos.com glenn@blackhillswinery.com

The Destination Osoyoos Development Society is a non-profit grassroots organization committed to excellence in the provision of destination management, tourism marketing, and visitor services for the Osoyoos area in the South Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. The organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors representing diverse tourism-related interests in the community.

Black Hills Estate Winery, established in 1996, presents wines that have been carefully hand-crafted from vineyard to bottle. The terroir on its 27-acre vineyard on Black Sage Road is some of the most exceptional in Canada, combining rugged desert earth, long sunlight hours and cool nights, yielding intensely flavoured Bordeaux grapes. Its distinctive new winery building won the 2008 Lieutenant Governor's Award for Architectural Excellence.

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