In 2002, over 42 million travelers spent $23.9 billion on visits to Georgia. The Atlanta Metro Region received the most visitor expenditures, about 60%. More than 207,000 jobs are supported by the tourism industry in Georgia.
Major tourist attractions include national forests, national parks, state parks, and historic areas. Other places of interest include the impressive hotels and convention facilities of downtown Atlanta; the Okefenokee Swamp in southern Georgia; Stone Mountain near Atlanta; former President Jimmy Carter's home in Plains; the birthplace, church, and gravesite of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta; and the historic squares and riverfront of Savannah.
The varied attractions of the Golden Isles include fashionable Sea Island; primitive Cumberland Island, now a national seashore; and Jekyll Island, owned by the state and leased to motel operators and to private citizens for beach homes. Since 1978, the state, under its Heritage Trust Program, has acquired Ossabaw and Sapelo islands and strictly regulates public access to these wildlife sanctuaries.
Georgia has long been a hunters' paradise. Waynesboro calls itself the "bird dog capital of the world," and Thomasville in South Georgia is a Mecca for quail hunters.