Kelowna

"This postcard-perfect lake town is nestled in Canada's Okanagan Valley, home to more wineries than Walla Walla and better snow than Whistler."

Tell us something we don't already know.

Photo: Contributed

The description of Kelowna is the opening line from an article 'Three Perfect Day: Kelowna, BC' in the March issue of United Airlines in-flight magazine Hemispheres.

The magazine is featured on every United Airlines flight worldwide.

"(No matter where you're flying), you can pick up the Hemispheres magazine which is in the little jacket in front of you and you can read about Kelowna," says Tourism Kelowna communications manager, Catherine Frechette.

She says the 11-page spread on the city will be exposed to the 12 million passengers who fly with United each month.

Hemisphere features a different destination each issue. Previous features have included Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, Tokyo, Hawaii and Seattle.

Kelowna's feature spread includes a spectacular front page shot from Big White, an iconic picture of 'The Bear' on the contents page and several other pictures within the body of the article.

If Kelowna Tourism were to have paid for the article, Frechette says the bill would have been upwards of $750,000.

Frechette says the only cost to Tourism Kelowna for the exposure was the cost of hosting the writer, accommodations, meals, traveling around the city etc.

"It's an extremely cost effective way to market your destination," says Frechette.

"The nice thing about the editorial is this is a third party impression of the destination. At the end of the day it's her impression and it's her experience. That is something we have no control over."

Frechette says the article is Kelowna speaking for itself - not Tourism Kelowna.

She says there is a great amount of credibility in the article for tourists interested in coming to the city after reading the article.

"We hosted that writer in December. We showed her around and made sure she got to meet people in town," says Frechette.

"We made sure that she got to see a lot of the tourism attractions people would want to come and see in the spring and the summer. We're really happy with the story."

The feature article comes on the heals of United Airlines decision to include Kelowna to its list of destinations.

United began daily non-stop flights between Kelowna and Los Angeles (LAX) just before Christmas.