Atout France Announces French Wine Region Awards

NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Atout France announced today the launch of their French Wine Region Awards for the best French wine region experience on francewinetravels.com. The wine regions of Bordeaux, Provence, the Loire Valley, Champagne, Dijon/Côte de Nuits and Mâcon/South Burgundy each hosted one American blogger to showcase the wealth and diversity of wine tourism experiences available throughout the French wine country.

The campaign started off with an advertorial piece entitled "Best of the French Vineyards," which was featured in the travel edition of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. The magazine was directed to over 1.2 million affluent readers. The same piece will be featured in the November edition of Virtuoso Life Magazine, reaching an estimated audience of 200,000 readers.

Atout France then partnered with seven influential bloggers and invited them to each discover a different vineyard experience. Altogether, the combined audience of the bloggers during the trip totaled 4,006,647.

With an exceptional itinerary created by each specific wine region, the bloggers were invited to discover not only the wines, but also the gastronomy, culture, history, charming hotels and unexpected activities in and around the vineyards.  

During the course of the trip, the bloggers shared their experiences live with Atout France's and their own audience via the social media streaming platform francewinetravels.com.

By the end of the trip, the bloggers had created 587 posts of their French vineyard journeys resulting in 29,719,406 impressions, 10,429 likes, 795 comments and 908 shares.

Atout France then launched an online campaign based on the different itineraries, partnering with media such as WAYN, and included a virtual voting process created to determine which region offered the best overall experience. Each voter was entered in a chance to win a trip for two to Provence and uncover the charms of the region's vineyards. The awards will be announced on October 21.

The campaign is expected to deliver around a total of 40 million impressions.

About Atout France
Atout France, the France Tourism Development Agency, is the sole national organization responsible for the development and promotion of tourism to France. As an association of public and private interests, Atout France is charged with supporting tourism to France and assisting its partners internationally through its network of 35 offices in 32 countries. Atout France is also responsible for assisting regions, counties, towns and cities in the development and modernization of their tourism assets, as well as for administering France's new hotel rating system.

For more information about Atout France in the United States, please visit: http://us.rendezvousenfrance.com

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SOURCE Atout France