More than 50 tourists from around Australia visited the AIS on Sunday 17 February 2013 when it hosted the second instalment of the Human Brochure campaign.

Human Brochure was an initiative created by Australian Capital Tourism (ACT Tourism) to drive people to visit Canberra.

Around 500 ‘humans’ received a free trip to the nation’s capital on the condition that they share their experiences at some of Canberra’s major tourist attractions (including the AIS) on social media.

The campaign was split into two weekends, with half attending in October last year, and the other half two weeks ago.

It was a family oriented day at the AIS, with the group largely made up of families with young children.

The humans experienced more than a typical AIS tour, with Australian race walkers brother and sister Jared and Rachel Tallent leading the groups.

They were treated to a rare visit underneath the AIS’ technology pool; shown a routine by former AIS scholarship holder and gymnast Philippe Rizzo; and visited the basketball courts, where they had a mini clinic with AIS basketball players and former Opals and current Canberra Capitals coach Carrie Graf.

“How awesome was it to host the humans on their visit to Canberra, a great chance for them to experience all the AIS has to offer,” said Debra Beetham, manager of Tourism and Exhibits at AIS.

The AIS’ Human Brochure campaign ended with a visit to AIS’ Sportex, where the families could interact and learn about sport in an engaging way.

Despite a minor setback on social media, where the #humanbrochure stream was spammed, the overall campaign proved to be a success for its organisers.

ACT Tourism has reported that since October, close to 10 000 messages have been posted on Twitter and Facebook and 4952 images put on Instagram, with the number rising daily.

“Where Australia's swimming champions train! #AIS #humanbrochure,” tweeted @LittleAusTravlr.

“Shooting hoops in the land of giants at the #AIS, #Canberra. #HumanBrochure http://t.co/OZ3lAyx5,” tweeted @DisarmDoors.

Analysis by ACT Tourism also found that more than 90 per cent of the posts on social media channels have been positive and reached an audience of around four million people.