City of Kenora wins 2025 Marketing Canada Award

The Economic Development and Tourism Department of the City of Kenora is excited to announce that it has won a Marketing Canada Award. The Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC) revealed the winners of the 2025 Marketing Canada awards at its annual conference hosted October 6 to 9, 2025 in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

The Kenora Holiday Trail won in the Promotional Event category, which recognizes efforts that promote economic development, tourism opportunities, attractions, and services in local communities.

In 2024, the City partnered with Wake Marketing, Harbourtown BIZ, and the Chamber of Commerce to develop and launch the Holiday Trail, a shopping initiative designed to encourage local residents and visitors to stop in at local retailers during the holiday season by using Trail Vouchers. 

Participating stores were featured in the Holiday Trail brochure and promoted across the City from November 22 to December 24, 2024. Participating retailers feature a gift item valued between $10 to $20 that customers can redeem with in-store vouchers. For each voucher redeemed, retailers are reimbursed $5. This is a great opportunity to showcase a special item and attract new customers to the store. Holiday Trail booklets are sold by participating local businesses for $30 each.

To promote the Kenora Holiday Trail, the City delivered print media, social media advertisements, and collaborated with local Instagram influencers.

The 2024 campaign was the most successful year to date with 120 booklets sold and 642 vouchers redeemed, creating 642 customer interactions with participating businesses. Notably, 2024 welcomed four new business participants to the program. 

“The success of this initiative comes from our business community, who are prepared to support a program like this, and from our local residents who support shopping local. The award recognizes the continued hard work of Kenora’s Economic Development and Tourism team and the support of a community that champions shopping local,” shares Stace Gander, Director of Economic Development and Tourism. “I’m especially grateful to the participating business owners, the Harbourtown BIZ, Wake Marketing, local influencers, and the Chamber of Commerce, whose collaboration has elevated the Kenora Holiday Trail and highlighted the best our unique Kenora retailers have to offer. We now have a program and momentum that we can use in future years that will help benefit local business.” 

A follow-up survey indicated participating businesses saw increased foot traffic, brand awareness, sales, and customer engagement. All retailers stated they would participate in the 2025 Holiday Trail and all rated the experience a 5/5.

Jackie, the owner of Lake of Sunrise Soap Co., expresses her enthusiasm for the annual Holiday Trail, noting, “As a small locally owned business, the Holiday Trail is an event I look forward to annually. Each year it draws new faces into our store, many of whom turn into repeat customers. It’s a fun and festive way to showcase what Kenora has to offer while promoting shopping local during the holidays and all year round.”

The 2025 Holiday Trail will be launching this November! This year the trail will launch on November 21 and be available until December 24. There 20 businesses confirmed, including some new shops such as Songbird Baby & Kids, The Painted Sheep Boutique, Adelina Jane, and Babe & Bloom Co.

More about the award

Kenora was entered into the mid-sized category for economic development budgets of $200,000 to $600,000. To view the City of Kenora submission, please visit the 2025 Marketing Canada Awards Gallery of Entries.

The municipality had previously won EDAC Marketing Awards in 2018 for its Choose Kenora project, in 2023 for its Tourism Destination Brand and for the Ken and Nora social media campaign and in 2024 for its Winter Banner initiative. 

About the Economic Developers Association of Canada

The Economic Developers Association of Canada (EDAC) is Canada’s national organization of economic developers pursuing excellence in the field since 1968. With over 1,000 members from coast to coast to coast, EDAC delivers a comprehensive program of:

• Professional development, including the Ec.D. – Canada’s nationally recognized designation for economic developers
• Networking and information sharing opportunities with a national perspective
• Tools and resources – both on and offline – for economic development in Canada

Media contact

Mya Horley, Senior Communications Advisor
mhorley@kenora.ca