Lisa Vioni and her family are firm believers in serendipity.

They were on vacation in Vancouver, Canada when they saw an ad for a competition run by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.

It invited North Americans to enter a holiday video. Up for grabs was a three-night stay at a Fairmont destination, a Go-Pro camera and a $500 Visa gift card.

Ms Vioni’s husband, Rob Arthurs, was a whizz at making home videos and so they decided to enter.

“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we won and got to go to Bermuda?’,” she said.

Her dream came true. Theirs was one of 42 videos selected.

In a stroke of luck they were chosen to stay at the Fairmont Southampton.

“I did think a little about which destination I would want if we could choose,” Ms Vioni said.

“We didn’t want to go to Mexico and were already in Canada earlier this year, and my husband is from there, so I literally said to him ‘I hope we get Bermuda and hope we get to stay at the Fairmont Southampton’.

“When we found out we won and that they had picked for us to go to Bermuda we were ecstatic. First of all Bermuda is a good place to go for a three-day trip and it’s only two hours away from our home in New York by plane. The reason I wanted to stay at the Fairmont Southampton is because it’s so close to the beach.”

Ms Vioni has been to the Island “a bunch of times” before and loved it.

But she said “the really bizarre thing” was that she was planning to host a business event here next summer.

“I have my own company, Hedge Connection, which allows professionals to meet, connect and network online,” she explained.

“I decided some time ago that I would host my next big event, a global fund forum, in Bermuda seeing it used to be a hub for lots of hedge fund activity and those are my clients.

“Bermuda has since lost some of that business to Cayman Island due to various factors, so my hope was that we could bring some of that back to Bermuda.”

The family had a whirlwind tour of the Island when they visited ten days ago.

They toured the Town of St George, visited Crystal Caves, went on a private tour on a pontoon, enjoyed some snorkelling and swam with the dolphins. Mr Arthurs got to ride on a scooter for a few hours, and the entire family enjoyed dinner on a private beach at the hotel and a meal at Waterlot Inn.

“The best part of the trip was really how well the staff at the hotel treated us,” Ms Vioni said.

“When we arrived they were only required to put us in a basic room, but they put us up in a suite with four bathrooms.

“We paid so that our six-year-old son, Logan, could join us and when he saw the room he asked us if all hotel rooms were like this. He couldn’t believe how big it was.

“They also put gift baskets, candy and chocolate in our suite and it was fun to watch my son’s reaction to everything.

“He got to experience all these unique experiences and we were really escorted around from one event to the next and treated to a lot of really nice things. Just the overall experience was really positive.”

Since their stay, the Westchester, New York family has been working on a video showcasing the best of Bermuda.

It will be eligible to win the grand prize in the competition — a seven-night trip for two to any one of Fairmont’s North American destinations.