The growing popularity of educational tourism in the microregion has had the LCBD Council and affiliated groups busy this season Ohio University again directed their annual new faculty tour of the region to Shawnee and New Straitsville in May. A faculty-student group from OU's School of Art gathered at Robinson's Cave on May 15 to present dramatic readings on topics ranging from labor history to modern day mining.

In June, the Perry County Cooperative Extension Homemakers Club from northern Perry County completed a tour through the mining communities of southern Perry County including a visit with living history character Chris Evans and a luncheon at Hickory Hill Bed & Breakfast. Thirty Social Studies teachers from northeast Ohio school districts toured the region under the direction of the University of Akron and the Ohio Historical Society on June 17. Also on tap in June was a presentation on the Little Cities region to faculty from a variety of southwestern Ohio colleges at Eclipse Company Town. The professors were involved in the Kanawha Project, led by OU's Environmental Studies program.
For the second summer in a row, the Council has hosted international guests. In 2009 the Fellowship of Hungarians group visited. This year's visitors were journalists from seventeen countries around the globe who are enrolled in the Study of the United States Summer Institute sponsored by the U. S. State Department and hosted by the Scripps School of Journalism at OU over the course of six weeks. Led by Hocking College Associate Dean and LCBD volunteer Ken Bowald, the group visited sites in Nelsonville, Haydenville, New Straitsville, Shawnee, and Rendville, followed by a picnic at Burr Oak State Park. They were particularly interested in learning about Sunday Creek Associate's asset-based community development strategy which was presented by Sandra Landis at the Tecumseh Theater in Shawnee.