Columbia, is one of the top five cities on the rise for 2024. The Famously Hot city was included on Southern Living Magazine’s annual list of the top 25 southern cities, which is released each year.
That ranking is in agreement with Edie Enright. She recently opened a small business in Columbia and believes the community has embraced her.
According to Edie Enright, “this feels a little bit like home.” “I adore the hospitality found in the South.” This place has always been incredibly welcoming. There are some very kind folks in this group.”
Columbia is rated highly for everything from restaurants to art to nature to downtown.
“For a long time we would hear the opposite, we would hear people say there’s not a whole lot going on in Columbia and we are seeing that shift,” stated Kelly Barbrey, vice president of marketing and communications at Experience Columbia SC.
“We are seeing people absolutely loving our restaurant scene , our brewery scene, we have tons of new breweries and old favorites that are just staples of both residents and visitors, people coming to the community.”
Southern Living Magazine polled more than 20,000 readers to determine their rating, and the top 25 were chosen.
“We landed on their short list,” said Danya Cantelmi, Communications Manager at Experience Colombia. “From there they put their list of cities into a survey and the readers of Southern Living took it from there, this was a completely readers choice vote.”
Experience According to Columbia officials, this recognition has long been overdue.
In 2022, Barbrey remarked, “We just had our highest tourism year yet in 2022.” “15.8 million visors came into our community in 2022, prior to that our highest year was 2019, before COVID.”
Neighbors said they wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, even though Columbia has become a major tourist destination.
According to Columbia resident Caitlin Cameron, “It’s fun there’s generally a good amount of things to do, not in an overwhelming way of course.” “I can walk down to Five Points and look around and see what’s going on and find something to do.”
Wilson Bames has lived in Columbia for the past 20 years.
According to him, “There’s constantly an influx of new people, new ideas and new opportunities to learn about your community and to really just enjoy the city.”
According to city officials, this is just the start.
Barbrey stated, “This list kind of hints that we’re up and coming but we’ve really arrived.” “I think spreading the word to show people that we really have all of these things we have these wonderful assets that they can enjoy and those will continue.”