An Associated Press story, picked up nationwide, noted “Visitors come to Mount Airy looking for Mayberry.” While Mayberry was fiction, it was inspired by a real place: Mount Airy, hometown of the late Andy Griffith. And more than a half-century after the series first aired, fans are still coming to Mount Airy, looking for a glimpse of small-town life and the simpler times portrayed on the show. Tourism in Mount Airy is up since Griffith died, with about 10,400 people visiting the Andy Griffith Museum in July, almost double the 5,300 who visited in July 2011. More than 2,500 showed up at the museum in the three days after Griffith’s death July 3. “People come to Mount Airy “to walk where he walked,” said Tanya Jones, executive director of the Surry Arts Council. “This is Andy Griffith’s hometown. You go to Salzburg in Europe because Mozart was born there. This town influenced his creation of the fictional town.”