Olympic Efforts Result in “Superb” Reviews
Sooke, BC - September 22, 2010
Earlier this year, the BC Streets Exhibit at the Richmond Ozone during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics provided a once in a lifetime opportunity to promote the Sooke to Port Renfrew Region on an international scale. A community-wide collaborative effort, spearheaded by the District of Sooke and the Sooke Region Tourism Association has yielded tremendous results.
Many residents of Sooke will recall the display created for BC Streets - a recreation of the Rotary Boardwalk in Sooke, complete with a water feature, spouting orca, intertidal life, seal, seagull, lighthouse and fish weigh station. A tremendous showpiece for the area, the success of the Sooke display on BC Streets led to its subsequent use at other events, such as the Vancouver Outdoor Adventure and Travel Show in April, 2010 and the Sooke Rotary Fair. Many local sponsors contributed funding, supplies and their time, reducing the overall costs for the display and participation in the events.
In total the Sooke display saw approximately 150,000 visitors in 2010.
An accompanying website, sooke2010.com was created as a means to provide further local information. To date, the website had approximately 7,500 hits.
One of the main attractions of the website was a Grand Prize of a week’s vacation for four people to the Sooke Region, which included complimentary accommodations, meals and activities, all offered by local businesses . The winners of the Grand Prize – James and Judith Pettifer of Richmond, BC -- recently visited Sooke for the first time, along with two friends who made the trip from England specifically to take advantage of the opportunity.
The foursome enjoyed an amazing assortment of local offerings and found Sooke to be “picturesque, friendly and clean – with so many activities” to take advantage of. They report that they were “very impressed with the people”, who made their trip “so superb” and that not only do they intend to come back to the area, but that they “will definitely talk many friends into visiting” as well. Mr. Pettifer indicated he will “be talking Sooke up for the next 100 years”.
For more information, contact:
District of Sooke
tel: (250) 642-1634
fax: (250) 642-0541