"It is a great honour to be given this award by our peers," said John Scurfield, Sunshine VillageSenior Vice President of Resort Operations, Sales and Marketing. "We're very proud of what we've accomplished this season and how we've listened to our follower's suggestions to give them what they want. Thanks to our followers we opened up a second park and let them name it; we also named the features after the winners and the runners up."

As SAM staff point out, it's unbelievable how much marketing has changed since SAM inaugurated this annual review back in 2004.

SAM called on a diverse group of experts to evaluate a variety of different categories and Sunshine Village has been recognized for the solid engagement and growth they have displayed in Twitter.

Sunshine Village appreciates and listens to social media fans by engaging every day with guests through Facebook, Twitter, photos, video, contests and many other channels.

In addition to the SAM award, Sunshine was also recognized by SlopeFillers in late December for the Best Ski Resort Twitter Campaign.

Sunshine Village is wide open until May 21st so there is still plenty of time to come on out and experience some fantastic spring skiing.

Sunshine will be making use of Google Hangouts from the G+ page www.gplus.to/SunshineVillageby having a live stream during the Spring Concert Series and this year's Slush Cup.

If you can't make it to Slush Cup in person then this is the next best thing; front row seats and all the big splashes live right from your computer.

In addition, great news for guests interested in participating in the Ski the Day Before We Open Sweepstakes - those who become a season's pass holder for the 2012/2013 season will be automatically entered to win.

Watch for the sweepstakes in October, 2012 and be sure to follow Sunshine Village on Twitter and Facebook to see what the buzz is about.

Visit http://www.skibanff.com or call 1-87-SKI-BANFF for details. For more information on events, photos,videos and conditions, follow us:

Google+: http://gplus.to/sunshinevillage

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sunshinevillageresort

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sunshinevillage

To view the photo associated with this release, please visit the following link:http://www.marketwire.com/library/20120501-501slushb.jpg