THE JORVIK Viking Centre in York has issued a cheeky invitation to Millennium Dome management to come and see how it's done!

The top visitor attraction in Coppergate hopes its 12 millionth visitor will arrive on Thursday morning.

And the Jorvik Centre has invited Pierre Yves Gerbeau, the manager of the Dome, to witness the landmark visit.

The tongue-in-cheek move comes because 12 million visitors were once the Dome's target.

Richard Kemp, director of attractions for York Archaeological Trust, the charity which runs the visitor centre, said: "Really our invitation to Mr Gerbeau is all a bit of fun, although if he does accept our invitation, we would be happy to talk him through some of the reasons behind Jorvik's phenomenal and sustained success over the last 16 years.

"Jorvik has attained worldwide fame as the place to go in the UK and continues to draw crowds of over half a million visitors per year, even after 16 years.

"As a registered charity we have not had the incredible budgets available to some of the newest attractions around the country, and yet we continue to exceed many of their target admissions on an annual basis. Jorvik originally only cost £2 million to build, so it is clear one needs more than mere pound coins to create a good visitor attraction."

The 12 millionth visitor wins a weekend break to Norway.

Staff at Jorvik are still waiting to hear back from M Gerbeau and his dome team.