Paris may have lost out to London to stage the Olympics but the city has come up with a way of making sure it is not left behind when the Games begin in earnest on July 27.

Under the banner "Celebrate Your Victories in Style", any British citizen with a Facebook account can register for the chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip organised by the Île-de-France administrative region of Paris.

After each British victory, an automatic draw will take place and the winner immediately informed, allowing entrants to carry on until the competition ends on August 12.

The unorthodox promotion is costing €600,000 (£480,000/$750,000), almost half of it provided by the national tourist board.

However, Jean-Pierre Blat, director general of the Paris Île-de-France Regional Tourism Committee, admits it is something of a charm offensive and well worth it in terms of economic benefit and raising the profile of Paris.

The only criterion is that entrants hold a British passport.


"We Parisians have not always had the best reputation among the British and this summer we are working with our friends here in London to overcome this," Blat said here at the campaign launch in central London.

"Every time one of your athletes wins a gold medal, we will be cheering with you.

"You might not think that French people would be wishing Britain success but we want as many British people as possible to come to Paris after the Olympics.

"We are doing very well as a tourist destination but we can't just sit on our laurels.

"We have actually seen the number of British visitors go down over the last couple of years."

London famously beat off Paris to host the Games in 2005 in Singapore after rival bids from Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated.


Blat sidestepped a question from insidethegames about whether the French Olympic Committee and Paris bid officials supported his region's campaign.

"I'm not a spokesperson for the Paris Olympic Committee but we need to learn from our failures," he said.

"I don't suppose they will be rolling out the red carpet and waving flags for Britain but that's not the same job we do.

"We are not organising an Olympic bid.

"We are promoting Île-de-France as a destination."

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