The six travellers in were effectively enticed to visit Grenfell by the Grenfell community itself. It was an impressive result for our first attempt. Our central involvement point was The Grenfell Henry Lawson Festival of Arts Facebook page.

The Visit NSW social media project and our involvement reach a potential global travel enthusiast audience approaching 55,000 - a staggering figure.

Locals enthusiastically participated by uploading images and text onto Facebook of our best and most favoured assets and generally created so much social noise that the plight to ‘Stop the Bus’ in Grenfell just could not be ignored by the campaign organisers.

It goes without saying that there are very passionate and committed members of the community who recognised and empowered themselves to grasp an opportunity where they could in effect unite to assist in promoting Grenfell and our region.

Those people are too numerous to thank in an article. The thanks for all the effort came rolling into Main Street Grenfell at 9:20am on Saturday morning when the bus and its inhabitants were greeted and gifted with a hand knitted jumper for their road trip mascot Dozer the Wombat.

The unmappers (as they have affectionately come to be known) visit places which engage their social sites with content and suggestions. Specifically, the call from the campaign was, “What does your community do that is unique and remarkable?” Not surprisingly the unmappers wanted to see Guinea Pig Racing. The Pinnacle Guinea Pig Race Club was only too happy to support the concept.

So with just over 24 hours confirmation of their visit, the track was transported, the pigs were groomed and training was amped up for an exhibition race that would be tweeted, blogged and posted on sites such as foursquare and flickr, as well as last minute promotion for the event on radio 1350 2LF and ABC Central West.

A good sized crowd was in attendance at the Grenfell Railway Station for the exhibition race, and the visitors enjoyed a lively and vibrant showcase, highlighting the spectacle that is Guinea Pig Racing.

The six also visited the Loaded Dog Cafe, the Grenfell Art Gallery and Wallangreen Sculpture Garden.

Keen to experience as much of the very best of NSW as possible over the one month period Kelly (USA), Kyle (New Zealand), Seattle and Josh (Canada), John (UK) and Ben (Australian tour manager) bid Grenfell farewell and tweeted off into the distance.

You can follow their NSW trip as it unfolds at www.facebook.com/VisitNSW or checkout the photos from Grenfell at www.facebook.com/grenfellfestival

* Article by Carly Brown