Besides conventions, why do families visit ATL? (Atlanta, Savannah: place to live, restaurants)

[Alicia64]

No insult meant at all. . . and I know there's a massive amount to do here for families (because we're doing it). But, if you haven't been to ATL, what would make a family from another state decide to visit here if they don't have business or relatives here to see?

My tendency is to spend my travel dollars at the beach or Orlando -- why do over 45 million come to ATL?

Again, no disrespect meant in the least -- I'm just trying to explain to someone.

Thank you!!

Alley

[jsvh]

Many in Atlanta used to feel like:

I’d say: “You know that old saying, ‘It’s a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there’? Well, Atlanta’s just the opposite. It’s a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there.”

But that is now changing.

From a good review of the new Civil Rights Museum: The National Center for Civil & Human Rights

[pollen]

Civil rights heritage is a big reason. The MLK historic site gets over 1 millions visitors per year, and represents people and events that are incredibly important to US and world history. I think sometimes Atlantans overlook how amazing it is that we have MLK's house, church, and grave, plus the new civil rights museum, not to mention a lot of related sites and the whole Sweet Auburn historic district.

[AtlJan]

I think people come for business conventions and to visit relatives, as you stated. They also come for job interviews, sporting events, music concerts/festivals/shows and to receive chemotherapy. They also stop on their way to the beach. If they visit Atlanta without one of these compelling reasons, they may find they have made a mistake.

[UrbanConquistador]

Kind of the opposite of a "family trip", but here's a good article written by a Vancouver couple that chose to come to Atlanta for their 20th anniversary. They had their doubts at first in choosing Atlanta as their destination, but ended up being pleasantly surprised.

Reclaiming adulthood in Atlanta

[residinghere2007]

Well, Six Flags is right outside Atlanta and is a family destination, as is White Water. Then you have the Aquarium and Coca-Cola and just lots of touristy stuff.

I first came to Atlanta with my family in 1992-1993 to see the King Center and MLK landmarks and that was the basis of our trip.

As a parent though, I honestly wouldn't see a reason, other than that to take my kids to Atlanta for a trip unless I was visiting someone else. I agree with AtlJan in the response above why so many people come.

I personally feel most family activities in Atlanta are too expensive and I would rather go to DC where they have more free museums and such. But the MLK tour was and still is very good IMO. I really enjoyed visiting when I was a kid.

[Ant131531]

The Aquarium is the top reason. Many families in the south take weekend trips to Atlanta. The Aquarium is the largest of it's kind in the states and one of the largest in the world. There's a reason the lines are incredibly long on the weekends. I think it's the only one with the Beluga Sharks and you can actually swim amongst them.

The World of Coke also adds to that, though not as big of a draw.

MLK Center is a big draw as well, especially for Black Americans.

And then ironically enough, when there is a large amount of people moving here, they may just come to the city just to see it before they move here.

Atlanta is still one of the most family friendly cities in the south, especially in the last 10-15 years. Orlando is the only one that beats it. Savannah is nice, but it's not really family friendly(kids just don't appreciate enough history enough and of course, they don't experience the nightlife). Miami is also more adult friendly apart from the beach.


Also, Lenox is a huge reason why it gets a lot of tourists. Last I saw, nearly 40% of all Lenox visitors are out of state.

[lorilove]

A lot of visitors are Braves fans and come for the games. For those of us that grew up in the 70/80's with TBS and there were no other professional baseball teams in the south, the Braves were THE team to root for.

[ATLTJL]

They come to have a city vacation.

Most of the tourism in Atlanta is travel by car. That means they are coming from smaller cities and towns, so I imagine they come for relatively short periods of time to take in tourist and cultural events, maybe eat out at quality restaurants they don't have immediate access to.

It's kind of like why we would visit Asheville or Chattanooga....just different scenery, something else to do.

I think a lot of people also like to come to shop.