Okotoks has another tourism award to put under its belt.
The Town was the recipient of the Growing Rural Tourism Champion Award on Feb. 23 at a rural tourism conference held in Camrose.
According to the Growing Rural Tourism website, the award is given to rural tourism businesses, municipalities or communities in Alberta each year, recognizing them for outstanding accomplishments, innovation and leadership in rural tourism.
Alexandra Ross, Okotoks economic development specialist, said winning the award was a great honour.
“The rural area compliments our town, and we embrace our neighbours,” said Ross.
She said the Town applied for the award based on its contributions to Cool Little Towns, the promotion of farms like Kayben Farms, the Saskatoon Farm and Chinook Honey Farm, as well as collaborations like the Foothills Holiday Road Show, which is a partnership between the Town and Millarville with their Christmas markets.
The award is given particularly to rural areas and communities who support rural activity, she said.
“In Okotoks we use tourism as a tool for business attraction and retention,” said Ross. “We try to extend that to our surrounding area as well, and those efforts are what this award was based on.”
She said the entire Foothills area benefited from summer ad campaign, which went viral when a photo of a C-Train door reading, “There are a number of things to do in Okotoks,” was posted by Calgary Herald reporter Meghan Potkins in September.
“Some of the things to do reached out to our surrounding communities, so that was a part of it as well,” said Ross. “That was an ad that had a reach we could never have expected if we’d tried.”
