2024: Another Great Year
Time flies but let's take a moment to slow down and reflect on another GREAT year with our members, community, and visitors!
Chamber Membership
We are ending the year with a record number of Chamber members - 1002!
Total New Chamber Members - 184
As always, we are thankful for each of our members!
Visitor Center Statistics
We had excellent visitation to each of our three visitor centers. Don't forget that we have wonderful meeting spaces at both our main and Downtown Blue Ridge locations. Check out information about all our centers here.
Visitor stats are below.
Total guests:
Downtown Blue Ridge – 9,300+
Main Center – 4,900+
McCaysville – 4,300+
We had visitors from all 50 states!!
We had guests from 24 Countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and Venezuela.
Social Media
Facebook followers:
@VisitBlueRidgeGA - 152,800 (increase of 10,800)
@FanninCountyChamberofCommerce – 9,180 (increase of 780)
@VisitCopperBasin – 4,600 (increase of 500)
Instagram followers:
@visitblueridgega -39,500 (increase of 4,100)
@fannincountychamber - 2,104 (increase of 321)
@visitcopperbasin -2,316 (increase of 199)
Website Statistics
We spend a lot of time in our website and remain proud of how it performs! Explore our website here.
Totals for 2024:
Website Sessions – 2,000,000+
Website Page Views – 3,600,000+
New Website Users –1,480,000+
#LovingLocal
We remain committed to #LovingLocal as we encourage visitors to enjoy Blue Ridge and Fannin County responsibly, helping to preserve our beautiful natural resources.
Over the past few years, we’ve worked hard to share meaningful information about our community, and we’re excited to continue this important work in 2025. This year, we’ll launch an exciting new program designed to guide businesses, non-profit organizations, and individuals toward conservation practices that help protect and sustain our community. In essence, it's a “Commitment to Conservation,” and we can’t wait to share it with you!
In the meantime, explore all our #LovingLocal initiatives here!
Fannin County Hotel/Motel Excise Tax
From January to October 2024, we’ve seen an approximate 4% increase in City hotel/motel tax collections and a 1% increase in County collections compared to 2023. Additionally, SPLOST collections to date are 2% over last year at this same time.
Why is this significant?
While many communities have seen visitation return to pre-COVID levels, our economy continues to thrive. This sustained visitation supports local businesses and drives growth.
Year to date (January–October 2024), the Chamber’s portion of restricted funds totals $2.92 million, with approximately $444,000 dedicated to Tourism Product Development (TPD). Additionally, Fannin County Government has received over $2.669 million in unrestricted funds, with a couple of strong months still ahead.
A major highlight this year:
As noted above, over $444,000 was allocated to TPD projects! These capital projects benefit our entire community—residents, visitors, and children of all ages.
Click here for the full list of projects!
Have questions about hotel/motel tax?
Understanding the restrictions and percentage breakdowns can be complex. If
you’d like more information, please email president@blueridgemountains.com or
call 706-632-5680 to speak with Christie Gribble.
Upcoming in 2025
Business After Hours will kick off on Tuesday, January 7th, at Twisted Tomato Blue Ridge. Our full schedule can be found on our Chamber Event Calendar here.
The Annual Banquet is scheduled for Saturday, March 15th.
The Clay Shoot will be on Friday, May 2nd.
The Golf Tournament will be on Tuesday, October 7th.
To get up-to-date information about Chamber events view our Chamber Events Calendar.