Yearly tourism stats compiled by the Gilmer Chamber show that 2023 was among the biggest years to date — for both the amount of outside visitors to the county and the amount of lodging tax revenue they generated.
“The busiest Ellijay has ever been was Dec. 25 through New Year’s. Christmas week was the biggest check we’ve ever seen for lodging (tax revenue),” said Jennifer Grimmer, Gilmer Chamber CEO. “That could be slightly skewed because people are going to pay a premium to rent a cabin that week, but our occupancy rate was off the charts. We were at 90 percent occupancy for every hotel and cabin.”
Grimmer said it was another year in which “exponential growth” was seen in tourism here.
“It’s grown so (much) after COVID, four years ago was nothing we can compare to now. It’s drastically increased,” she added. “In 2021, 2022 and 2023 were exponential growth, whereas as 2023-2024 is a small amount of growth, but it’s still growth.”
The amount of lodging tax revenue for the county has nearly quadrupled over the last five years, Grimmer noted. For both 2023 and 2024, the county government budgeted for $4 million to be provided by the lodging tax, which is paid by those staying at hotels and motels, as well as cabins and other registered short term rentals, she added. The county’s and Ellijay’s lodging tax rate is 8 percent, while East Ellijay’s is 3 percent.
“Tourism is a sensitive subject, but it’s clearly become an industry that Ellijay depends on. I don’t think there’s a business in Ellijay that can say tourism doesn’t benefit them,” Grimmer said. “Other than our broilers and chickens, which is still our number one industry, everything else is attached to tourism — apples, apple houses, wineries. Agritourism is obviously huge for us. Downtown Ellijay is our most visited place, then the farms and wineries. The wineries, which are open year-round, actually outperformed the apple houses in visitorship and spending for the first time last year.”
As for where all the tourists are coming from, a quick glance at license plates on any given weekend should point to some of the top “feeder” cities and states. Atlanta is number one, while the other four top tourist bringers are Florida cities.
“The top five is Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville. Then you’ve got Chattanooga, Montgomery and we are starting to see people from (places like) Ohio, Texas and some of the northeastern (states),” Grimmer said.
And how do they find out about the Ellijays and Gilmer County? Word of mouth accounts for some of it, but advertising done by the chamber has a greater reach. In the past three years, the chamber has advertised the area with billboards, TV commercials and magazine ads in Southern Living.
“The amount of money coming into the county reflects that people are seeing our advertisements more. People have noticed,” Grimmer said. “We had billboards coming up from Florida, and we actually pulled those this year and put billboards in Kentucky and Tennessee. We’ve also put ads in things like the Braves guide and the Fox Theater (programs).”
As the county’s official destination marketing organization (DMO), the Gilmer Chamber receives 45 percent of the incoming lodging tax revenue. That must be spent on marketing, which includes the aforementioned advertising, Grimmer noted.
“The portion we get is very strict. State law says we can only use it for marketing. We don’t get to keep a dollar of it. If it comes in, it has to go straight back out,” she added. “We can’t use it to pay for a band or fireworks or to build an amphitheater. You can’t pay for the thing. You can only pay to market the thing.”
The growing influx of tourism also means more cars on local roads, more potential for accidents and emergency room visits and other negatives that also have to be considered, Grimmer noted.
“While (they) spend money at our businesses and restaurants, which is a huge benefit, we’ve also seen how quickly it grew because of COVID and how our infrastructure is burdened with those tourists. (That includes) our roads, our medical services and our police. It’s something we have to always remember to strike a balance on,” she added. “We have formed different committees, including a transportation committee to address (some of these) issues. We’re at the table all the time.”
Bringing in more lodging tax revenue also has a hidden benefit for some local taxpayers, Grimmer noted.
“In Ellijay, we’re at around $1,000 that each household would have to pay per year to make up for (tax revenue) that tourists are bringing,” she added.