“Tour the Island, 2005” winners are about to receive a memento of their vacation on Prince Edward Island this past summer. The initiative is designed to encourage both visitors and Islanders to travel and experience various aspects of PEI with the added bonus of qualifying to win a prize. Total ballot count for the summer season was 1,263, demonstrating that the four Island tours are very popular.
“The contest is fun and educational for participants and has proven very effective in encouraging travellers to visit locations and activities all across the Island, highlighting some of our cherished tourism products,” said Minister of Tourism, Philip Brown. “In past years, visitors have often commented on how nice it is to have a tour developed for them to follow and a keepsake of the time spent on Prince Edward Island to take home.”
Winners for the 2005 summer season included travellers from Utah, Maine, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia.
The “Tour the Island” program includes four tours for participants to choose from: The Confederation Trail Tour calls participants who travel a section of the trail to receive an “Achievement Certificate” available at any of the provincial Visitor Information Centres as well as information on Island Trails ‘Rossignol Award’; the Tip-To-Tip Tour invites participants to visit the East Point Lighthouse Craft Shop and the North Cape Interpretive Centre and receive a “Tip-to-Tip” ribbon at one end of the Island and a certificate at the other; the Lighthouse Lovers Tour welcomes participants to visit at least four of the seven lighthouses listed in the Lighthouses of Prince Edward Island brochure, have the brochure stamped, and receive a Lighthouse Lovers Certificate; and the Beauty and the Beach Tour beckons participants to visit at least four of eight provincial park beaches included on the tour and locate the “Supervised Beach” sign where they find all the necessities to create a duplicate of a brass insignia for that specific beach. Upon completion of four or more duplicates from different beaches, participants present the sheet to a staff member at any Provincial Visitor Information Centre to receive a special “Island” souvenir. Finally, each tour participant enters a ballot to enter the draw for PEI apparel for the overall “Tour the Island” contest providing one more opportunity to win an Island souvenir.
The Tour The Island promotion runs each year from mid-June to October 15. The contest will run again in 2006 so get your itinerary ready and fill out your ballots, you could be the next winner!