The 2022 Cherry Blossom Festival attracted 3.5 million visitors.
MACON, Georgia — Downtown Macon is no longer decked out in pink, but the 2022 Cherry Blossom Festival brought greenery to Macon-Bibb County’s economy.
William “Mike” Seekins has been running Famous Mike’s in downtown Macon for four years. He’s a Macon Lifer.
“People say Macon is making a comeback. I’m like, ‘From what?’ I think we’re finally going to be something very special,” Seekins said.
Seekins has seen a lot over the years including several cherry blossom festivals.
“For the first time, we had a positive effect from Cherry Blossom,” Seekins said.
He says in previous years festival regulars would have discouraged coming through the door. Not this year.
“People have this perception that downtown Macon is overrun with people, so it’s run down. This year, I think people were just ready to get out,” Seekins said.
Visit Macon’s Gary Wheat says he saw the same thing.
“We saw 29,000 unique visitors coming to Macon from over 50 miles away,” Wheat said.
He says hotels in Macon were at 80% occupancy. The festival saw 3.5 million people over nine days, including people who attended more than once.
Seekins says some of them found their way to his restaurant. He believes the festival’s event planning helped.
“They had more events downtown this year than in previous years. In the past the only thing they had downtown was the Mulberry Arts and Crafts Festival,” he said.
Seekins also made sure to communicate with his regulars to make sure they knew Famous Mike’s was open for them. It’s something he says he’ll continue to do next year.
The 2022 festival also saw the return of tour bus groups for the first time in three years. Wheat says the weekends during Cherry Blossom were the busiest he’s ever seen.
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