For the first time ever, foreign residents in the city are being invited to compete for the title of Tourism Ambassador, the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission announced yesterday.

　　Foreigners aged 18 to 30 who have lived in the city for at least five years are eligible to take part in the contest, which kicked off yesterday.

　　The contest is part of the Shanghai Tourism Festival, an annual event that has been held every fall since 1989.

　　Two years ago, the festival began holding a contest to name an official tourism ambassador for the city.

　　"The first two ambassadors were both young Shanghai girls," said Zhang Mode, a local tourism official. "Now we have decided to expand the list of candidates to those who come from outside of Shanghai."

　　Unlike Hong Kong, which tends to pick international movie stars such as Jackie Chan to be its tourism ambassador, the city insists on finding a common person to fill the job. "Our festival is for the ordinary people, so the ambassador should be one of them," said Zhang.

　　This year's tourism festival will be organized by Shanghai Promthean/Kern Tourism and Culture Development Co, a joint venture between two American companies and two local firms. "We are looking for the investors from the United States," said Steven Jiang, general manager of the company.