MACON, Ga. — Downtown Macon is no longer decked out in pink, but the 2022 Cherry Blossom Festival brought in lots of green for the Macon-Bibb County economy.
For four years, William 'Mike' Seekins has run Famous Mike's in downtown Macon. He's a Macon lifer.
"People say Macon's making a comeback. I say, 'From what?' I think we're finally becoming something very special," Seekins said.
Seekins has seen a lot over the years, including several Cherry Blossom Festivals.
"For the first time, that we had a positive effect due to Cherry Blossom," Seekins said.
He says in past years, the festival's kept regulars from coming through the door. Not this year.
"People have this perception that downtown Macon's overrun with people, so they came down. This year, I think people were just ready to get out," Seekins said.
Gary Wheat with Visit Macon says he saw the same thing.
"We saw 29,000 unique visitors that came from over 50 miles to Macon," Wheat said.
He says Macon hotels saw 80% occupancy. The festival saw 3.5 million people over nine days, including folks who visited more than once.
Seekins says some of them found their way to his restaurant. He thinks the festival's event scheduling helped.
"They had more events downtown this year than they had the past several 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. That's something he says he'll continue for next year.
The 2022 festival also saw the return of tour bus groups for the first time in three years. Wheat says the weekends were the busiest he's ever seen during Cherry Blossom.