Tourism Kelowna launched its Instagram account more than a decade ago, posting its first photo—a reposted shot of skydivers leaping out of a plane over the Okanagan Valley—in early 2013. The strategy for the account began to take shape with that very first post, seeking to showcase the spirit of adventure and outdoor exploration that is foundational to the Okanagan Valley. Today, that spirit remains, and the community that has gathered around the account has now grown to 100,000 followers.

This milestone means a great deal to our team, but it also holds significance for the destination and Tourism Kelowna's members and partners. Read on to learn more about what has driven the growth on this critical social media channel, what our team has learned along the way, and what's coming next.

What 100K Means for the Destination

A follower count is only as valuable as the audience behind it. Tourism Kelowna's audience is made up of travellers actively dreaming and planning their next trip, locals looking to connect with their community, and people who choose to follow us because Kelowna and the Central Okanagan genuinely caught their attention.

For our industry partners, that's a meaningful opportunity. When we feature a tourism experience, event, or our region's natural beauty, it's reaching an audience that's already engaged and supportive.

It also reflects something we've been working hard to build: a four-season narrative for Kelowna and the Central Okanagan. Summer content has always performed well, but we've put real effort into showcasing what this destination offers in spring, fall, and winter.

Behind the Growth: Campaigns, Creators, and Community

Growth on Instagram does not happen by accident or overnight. Over the past thirteen years, a combination of compelling content, strategic partnerships, and authentic community engagement has shaped the account into what it is today. We've shown every season, tried new things, and learned what lands.

Some of the most notable growth moments have come from influencer and creator partnerships that brought Kelowna and the Central Okanagan to new audiences in a genuine way. Our influencer strategy has evolved a lot since 2013, but the core idea has stayed the same: invite people who have a connection to what they're sharing, and let them tell the story in their own way.

Influencer & Creator Campaigns: Then

In 2018, we worked with a handful of collaborators who each brought something different to the table:

• Partnering with well-known television personality, influencer, and Kelowna-area resident, Jillian Harris, on several campaigns, including her 12 Days of Giveaways contest, provided an opportunity to showcase the destination to her large, rapidly growing Instagram audience. 
• Brent Fikowski put Kelowna in front of a global fitness community when the city was featured in "All In," a documentary following his road to the Reebok CrossFit Games.
• Calgary-based travel photographer, Scott Bakken, one of Canada's top Instagram influencers at the time, captured an Okanagan road trip that gave the region a stunning visual moment.
• Bolt and Keel, two well-travelled cats with over 108,000 followers, made a compelling case for Kelowna as a pet-friendly destination.

The following year, we partnered with Destination Canada to host Brooke Lynn Hytes, Season 11 runner-up from RuPaul’s Drag Race, to experience the best of Kelowna, highlighting the region's active urban environment, exceptional wine offerings, and the local drag queen scene.

Influencer & Creator Campaigns: Now

More recently, our influencer partnerships have leaned into longer-format storytelling and itinerary-driven content that gives audiences something they can actually use.

• In fall 2023, we worked with Vancouver-based influencer Brie Evans, aka VancityWild, to help with the instill that "Kelowna is open" to help with visitation after the 2023 wildfires. Their Fall Day Trip in Kelowna Reel received over 50,000 views and reached their audience size of over 150,000 followers.
• We hosted Andy and Meagan from Fuel for the Sole in spring 2025. The duo put together an adventure-packed itinerary covering hiking, biking, and paddling in Lake Country. The content they created for the 3-day spring itinerary has surpassed 160,000 views, and their "Where to Stay, Eat, and Sip" video has racked up more than 30,000 views.
• Summer 2025 saw us welcome Katherine and Randy Feltis of KatherineWants, whose content showcased the region through a culinary lens. From farm-fresh markets to vineyard stops and what a day in Kelowna looks like. Their itinerary championed exactly what makes Kelowna's food and drink scene so special and aligned perfectly with our recent UNESCO City of Gastronomy designation.

Beyond these highlighted campaigns, we regularly host creators and influencers from across Canada, spanning a wide range of niches, including adventure and outdoor, food and wine, family travel, lifestyle, and more. Each visit brings a fresh perspective to the destination and helps us reach audiences we might not otherwise connect with. It's something we're committed to continuing as part of our broader content strategy. If you have creator relationships you think could be a good fit for Kelowna, we'd love to hear about them!

The #exploreKelowna Creator Program

In 2022, we launched the #exploreKelowna Creator Program to formally incorporate local voices into our content strategy. The idea was simple: Kelowna is full of talented, creative people who are already sharing this place because they love it. We wanted to build a structure that could support and amplify their content.

When I joined Tourism Kelowna's team in 2023, we relaunched the program with a sharper focus on local creators producing authentic, Instagram-first content. We've worked with talented creators in our community, each with their own niche, aesthetic, and audience. The content they produce gives us perspectives we couldn't replicate on our own, and it helps us reach corners of the community and visitor market.

It's one of the parts of this work I'm most proud of, not just because of the content it generates, but because of the relationships and creative community it's helping to build here in the Central Okanagan.

User-Generated Content (UGC)

Some of our best-performing content has never been shot by our team. Locals and visitors are constantly capturing Kelowna in genuine, spontaneous, and often stunning ways, and resharing that content has been one of the most effective tools in our strategy.

When someone tags Tourism Kelowna when posting a golden-hour shot from Knox Mountain, a plate at a local restaurant, or a recap of an event, it does a few things at once:

• It gives us content that feels real (because it is).
• It shows potential visitors what the destination looks like through the eyes of people who have actually been there.
• It reinforces that Kelowna is a place worth sharing.

We reshare UGC regularly across our feed and Stories, and we're always keeping an eye on #exploreKelowna for content worth amplifying. If you're encouraging your guests or customers to tag Tourism Kelowna when posting about their experiences, that content has a real chance of reaching our full audience, and we'd love to help tell those stories.

What This Means for Our Partners

Every post we publish is a possible entry point for someone discovering Kelowna for the first time, and often, that means discovering your business, your event, or your experience. It's also a pathway for those well-travelled visitors to discover new experiences they haven't yet tried. 

The content that performs best is almost always rooted in collaboration. When partners share their stories with us, provide us with updated photo and video assets, or work with our #exploreKelowna Creators, the result is more authentic and more effective than anything we could produce on our own. You can read more about these collaborative efforts in our Social Media & Content Guide, which dives deeper into our strategy and provides information on which photo and video content performs best on our channels.

If you're not already tagging @tourismkelowna and using #exploreKelowna, that's the easiest place to start. It helps us find your content and gets it in front of an audience that's ready to be inspired.

A Look at the Numbers

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The account has grown from a single reposted adventure photo in 2013 to a curated feed reaching 100,000 followers across key visitor markets, including BC, Alberta, Ontario, and the Pacific Northwest. Engagement has remained strong across both static content, carousels, and short-form video, with seasonal content—particularly harvest season, new or unique business offerings, spring blossoms, food and wine, and outdoor adventure—consistently outperforming broader averages.

Celebrating the Milestone: Instagram Contest

To mark the occasion, we launched a giveaway featuring a $1,000 Kelowna experience package and ten $100 gift cards, all redeemable at Tourism Kelowna member businesses. The contest generated over 42,000 views and nearly 4,000 entries in under a week, reflecting the strength and engagement of the community we've built.

Looking Ahead

Hitting 100K followers is an exciting milestone, but it's really just a marker on a longer journey. We're continuing to build out our year-round content, deepen our collaboration with both businesses and creators, and find new ways to tell the kinds of stories that make people want to visit and keep coming back.

Kelowna's identity as Canada's first and only UNESCO City of Gastronomy is something we want to lean into more, along with the local, people-first storytelling that sets this destination apart.

We've built this audience together, and we're looking forward to seeing where we take it next.

Thank you to every partner, creator, and community member who has shared their Kelowna story with us—and to the 100,000 people who chose to follow along. Here is to the next chapter!

View Some of Our Top-Performing Content