Fannin County leaders and private citizens alike have long voiced the off-the-cuff prediction that the county’s population doubles on weekends while other onlookers were skeptical of such a huge estimate.
But figures just released by arrivalist.com indicate the estimate may be closer than anyone might imagine.
Those figures show 1.4 million visitors to Fannin County during 2020. Of those, 950,787 were overnight trips and 440,000 were day trips.
GeoLocation Intelligence is the source of the data. It is calculated by tracking cellphones, so it includes day visitors, overnight visitors, part-time residents and those who might be in the county on business, etc.
An arrival has to start at someone’s home address and be at least 50 miles from Fannin County. Fannin County must be the primary destination. An arrival is only counted as a visit if the person stays more than four hours. So travelers passing through to Murphy, North Carolina, or Towns County, Georgia, for example, are not counted.
Also, if a person comes to Fannin County more than four times a month that count is dropped from the data. The thought here is that the person is likely coming for work.
GeoLocation Intelligence also showed 51% of arrivals came from the Atlanta area. That number reflects 710,903 arrivals. Tampa generated the next highest total with 107,442 arrivals or 7.70 percent of the total. Following in order were: Orlando, Miami, Macon., Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers/Naples, Tallahassee and Birmingham.
63,739 arrivals originated out of Orlando while 20,948 came from Birmingham.
Four main points of interest were reflected in the data based on the duration of visits. These were:
•Downtown Blue Ridge, 830,616 arrivals who stayed an average of four hours and six minutes;
•Downtown McCaysville, 127,352 arrivals staying an average of three hours and 50 minutes;
•Mercier Orchards, 231,513 arrivals at an average stay of 41 minutes; and,
•Ingles, 228,320 arrivals who stayed an average of 40 minutes.
Indicators showed Thursday through Saturday recorded the highest number of arrivals. So, based on 1.4 million arrivals a year, divided by 52 weeks, that’s 26,923 per week. With the majority Thursday through Sunday, the idea Fannin County’s population doubles on weekends is closer than skeptics might think.