Relax - Race around Sydney

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SINGAPORE - Attention, all social media-savvy travellers who love a bargain.

Travel agency ASA Holidays is partnering Life! for the latest instalment of the Life! Takes You Places contest, where five pairs of contestants will travel to Sydney in May.

Over five days, they will compete against one another to get around Sydney in the most wallet-friendly way.

Along the way, they will have to document their trip across social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

The winning pair will take home $10,000 worth of travel vouchers that can be used for travel products such as airfare and hotels.

The first Life! Takes You Places contest took place in 2006, with contestants heading to Hong Kong. Last year, five pairs headed to South Australia and completed challenges such as treasure-hunting in the old German settlement of Hahndorf and searching for South Australian food at the Adelaide Central Market.

This year's contest, themed Affordable Sydney, will see participants going around Sydney using the iVenture Card, a tourist pass that provides savings of up to 50 per cent on bundled attractions in the city.

For example, a A$155 (S$199) two-day iVenture pass allows travellers to save at least A$53 with unlimited access to attractions including the Sydney Opera House and Madame Tussauds Sydney.

Ms Eileen Oh, ASA Holidays' head of marketing and communications, says contestants will be given clues to the attractions at the start of the competition. "They will have to draw up their own itinerary to get to these places each day. They will also have to complete challenges such as doing an aboriginal painting at the Waradah Aboriginal Centre in Katoomba, a town in Blue Mountains."

Contestants will have to take photos of the attractions and post them on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

The posts will be assessed based on their creativity and quality and the number of "Likes" and "Shares" received by a panel of judges from ASA Holidays and Destination New South Wales.

To sign up for the contest, look out for the Life! Takes You Places form that will appear in SundayLife! and Life! daily from Feb 10 to 17.

Drop off the form at the ASA Holidays Power- Packed! Travel Fair held at Hall D of the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Center on Feb 17. Forms must be submitted by 12.30pm that day.

Participants have to be Singaporeans or permanent residents aged 21 and above. Race partners do not have to be present at the fair.

Expenses such as air tickets and accommodation are paid for.

At 1pm on Feb 17, the first selection round will take place, where 20 contestants will be picked.

They will have to play stage games that test their knowledge of Sydney and their physical capabilities.

Ten semifinalists will emerge from this round.

The final round takes place after the fair.

Over the next one month, the 10 semi-finalists will have to post content on Sydney across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and blogs.

The posts will be assessed by judges from ASA Holidays and Destination New South Wales on their creativity and quality as well as the number of posts and "Likes" or "Shares" received.

The five finalists with the best posts will then be picked for the final challenge in Sydney.

They will have to decide on a partner to take along for the challenge.

While being savvy in social media is a plus, Ms Oh says contestants should also be fit, fun-loving and have good planning skills to draw up their itinerary.

And they should expect a more challenging competition than last year's.

Ms Oh says: "We were very impressed by the quality of last year's contestants. They had done their research very well and were game for challenges. Based on that, we are confident that Singaporeans are capable of taking on even more challenges and tackling the social media element."

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Race around Sydney

By Huang Huifen, The Straits Times | Tue, Feb 5 2013

Calling social media-savvy travellers - go on a paid holiday to Sydney, compete in challenges and win $10,000 in travel vouchers.

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