OREANDA-NEWS. Heathrow, the UK's only hub airport, alongside VisitBritain has today announced that the North East is the winning region in the YourGreatBritain competition and will receive £1m worth of free advertising at the airport. The competition on Heathrow's Facebook page saw the North East go head-to-head with the North West, Northern Ireland and the Midlands - resuting in over 40,000 votes in total.

For two weeks members of the public were invited to go to the Heathrow Facebook page where a gallery of four stunning images from each region were featured. The image representing the North East in the competition showcased the beautiful scenery of Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland. The public voted for their chosen region, simply by 'Liking' the corresponding image with the North East and Northern Ireland fighting it out until the very end. The North East pipped Northern Ireland to the post with only 82 votes in it and as a result will have four advertisements showing the breadth and beauty of the region displayed across digital screens in all terminals at Heathrow from the beginning of September.

Around 13 million passengers a year already use Heathrow as their gateway to Britain's regions. This 12 month advertising partnership with VisitBritain, worth £4 million, started in March and is designed to inspire passengers to explore further afield during their visit, or on future trips.

John Holland Kaye, Heathrow's CEO said: “I'm delighted to announce the winner of the Your Great Britain competition with Heathrow and VisitBritain is the North East. This beautiful region has really got behind the competition over the last two weeks, resulting in over 19,000 votes for the breath taking image of Hadrian's Wall. The competition in total received over 40,000 votes for all four regions so the North East should feel proud to receive this prestigious prize. Heathrow is the gateway to Britain and sees around 73 million passengers a year travel through the airport. With seven flights a day from Heathrow to Newcastle we hope the winning images will inspire passengers to explore the beautiful North East during their visit to the UK."

Joss Croft, Marketing Director at VisitBritain said: “Every vote really did count in this competition as the decision went right to the wire with over 40,000 votes registered in just a few weeks. I was delighted to see such collective campaigning across the winning region with tweets from Newcastle United FC, Sunderland AFC, local airports and the North East's tourism industry all urging locals to get behind their area. It clearly worked, and now the beauty of the North East will be seen by millions of overseas visitors each day as part of VisitBritain's GREAT campaign.”

The first three months of the partnership, promoted the previously flood hit areas of Devon, Cornwall, Llanddwyn Island (Wales Coast Path) and Glastonbury, to show they were back on track and open for business. The second round of adverts that went live in June and are currently live until August were chosen to coincide with the Tour de France Grand Départ, illustrating the natural beauty of Yorkshire's celebrated countryside, as well as the region's retail and architectural strengths.