Canberrans who often host interstate family and friends are the latest recruits to take to social media in a bid to improve the capital's image and boost visitor numbers.
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VisitCanberra hopes to build on the success it had with social media-savvy participants from interstate who took part in the Human Brochure tourism campaign designed to help promote the city.
This week 101 Canberra residents, known as 101 Local Humans, will be offered a place in the initiative's second instalment.
They will be tasked with connecting with potential tourists through stories, experiences and social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
VisitCanberra director Ian Hill said the interstate participants had been hugely successful in shining a light on what Canberra had to offer visitors, particularly during last year's centenary.
''We had more than 500 people who just shared and shared and shared in the areas of food and wine, arts and culture, family fun and adventure. We were very keen to keep the brand alive.''
‘‘About 34 per cent of interstate domestic visitors come here to visit family and friends so we know locals have a huge impact on what they do here, how long they stay and where they spend their money.’’
More than 1150 residents applied to take part in the latest campaign, and more than 500 hopefuls wanted a spot in the most popular category of food and wine.
Between May and July the group will enjoy some of the best experiences the Canberra region has to offer, including wine tasting and mountain-biking.
They will also have access to master classes to help them build their skills in social media, a medium which Mr Hill said was ''today's currency for travel.''
''What we really want is more really positive noise out through social media, and mainstream media, about Canberra,'' Mr Hill said.
''You see so many things out there that aren't positive about Canberra and that's often influenced by the political news of the day.
''We want to have 101 really passionate Canberrans sharing the best of what we have to offer and also recruiting family and friends to do the same.''
Content generated through participants’ social media channels will be aggregated at humanbrochure.com.au.
