Queensland may or may not have been the first, but it certainly was the most successful in terms of its worldwide media coverage. It looks like the contest has become a go to strategy for other destinations as well, in addition to the requisite Facebook/Twitter profiles.

Check out Dublin’s Flickr photo competition (below), which has over 1000 entries. A nice idea to start with, but there’s no platform for discussion. The winners are chosen by a panel of judges, not by regular fans. First lesson if you’re going to have an online contest – make it social, at least if you want to reach more people.

If you’re a budding filmmaker, you can enter to win the Bahamas 14 Islands Film Challenge. Unfortunately, their site and YouTube channel displays a low numbers of views, comments and no interaction. It’s too much of a niche target and the entries don’t have any mainstream appeal. There are be plenty of people outside this demographic that the Bahamas should want to reach. Second lesson – think about your audience, and the content/tools that would enable you best to find them.

Here’s my favorite example. This fall, Thailand launched it’s Ultimate Thailand Explorer contest. Winners to receive $10,000 cash and $5000 in prizes. Online voters select the 5 finalists and the winner in separate voting rounds, and are eligible for prizes as well. The finalist page includes a bio, YouTube video, links to social profiles (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and WAYN), and a blog – see here for example. Talk about covering all your bases. Let the people vote (and win). Make it easy to share content. Empower contestants to be your destination ambassadors across multiple channels.

Now, my the question is: How can I stay up to date with all these destination campaigns so I can enter myself? :)

If you’ve got other good examples, please leave a comment and let me know.