Kim BriscoeNorfolk is going for gold in the run-up to the Olympics by gearing up to cash in on a tourism boom.With fewer than 1,000 days remaining until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Norfolk Broads and the county's coastline have been highlighted as some of the gems waiting to be discovered by visitors from around the world during the Olympics.Kim Briscoe

Norfolk is going for gold in the run-up to the Olympics by gearing up to cash in on a tourism boom.

With fewer than 1,000 days remaining until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, the Norfolk Broads and the county's coastline have

been highlighted as some of the

gems waiting to be discovered by visitors from around the world during the Olympics.

Tourism bosses in Norfolk say

they are doing their best to

ensure the county is the

destination of choice by wooing foreign journalists and arranging press trips in return for column inches in publications across the globe.

VisitBritain set out 1,000 reasons to mark 1,000 days until the Olympic Games, highlighting the UK's national parks and the Norfolk Broads, which has status equivalent to a national park.

The Norfolk and Suffolk coastline also boasts several of the 55 seaside piers and 131 Blue Flag beaches being championed by VisitBritain.

Lydia Smith, Norfolk Tourism team manager, said: 'Norfolk has got a fabulous selection of places to visit and things to do which fit in with VisitBritain's 1,000 reasons to

visit. What we are doing in the run-up to the Olympics is a series of

press trips with foreign journalists based in London.'

The journalists, from publications in China, India, Pakistan, Estonia, Spain, Denmark and Israel, have been taken to see the Go Elephants! exhibition in Norwich, the Norfolk Food Festival, the shrine at Walsingham, Mrs Temple's Cheeses at Binham and the Hanse Festival at King's Lynn. Trips are also being arranged to the Norfolk Broads and to St George's Distillery at Roudham, near East Harling.

Ms Smith said: 'For most of

them it's their first visit to

Norfolk and all of them have

been very enthusiastic and

positive about the county as a destination.'

It is not just foreign visitors

who are being encouraged to

make the most of East Anglia's attractions. The EDP launched

its Holiday Here campaign to encourage people from the region

to take advantage of the host of holiday destinations on own their doorstep.