Yukon's Takhini Hot Pools, Husky Bus win major tourism awards

A photo collection of people with frozen hair propelled Whitehorse'sTakhini Hot Pools into first place in the "Westjet Social Media Initiative"category at the 2015 Canadian Tourism Awards ceremony in Ottawa last week.

Most of the images were taken lastFebruary and quickly went viral.

"Not only did we run the contest online, be we were also open to sharing with the media and other organizations in town and that spread it very quickly," said Lauren O'Coffey, who runs Takhini Hot Pools with her husband Andrew Umbrich.

The "International HairFreezing"contest will run again this winter.

The owner of Husky Bus, based in Dawson City, won the "Parks Canada Youth Tourism Entrepreneur" award.

"If you look at the criteria, it was all those flattering words like 'outstanding service' and 'community-based tourism product'," said Jesse Cook. "I think it says a lot about the guys working for us."

Cooke started the business four years ago as a van service carrying passengers and freight between Whitehorse and Dawson City. It has expanded into bike rentals, guided hiking and Yukon tours.

Next year, Cooke plans to launch a new adventure tourism company called Klondike Experience.

Yukon tourism operators won two of the 15categories at last week's award ceremony.A third Yukon business, Adaka Cultural Festival, was a finalist in the "ATAC National Aboriginal Cultural Tourism" category.