Tourism to Florida on the rebound, vacation market leading comeback
At this same time a year ago, travel experts were predicting a full travel rebound in two to three years.
Air travel may take a bit longer, but the drive-in market throughout the southeast had families filling theme parks big and small this summer. June tourist development tax collections on local lodging totaled $21.7 million, only 11% lower than June 2019 collections the year before the pandemic.
“The month of June was the second month in a row where the county did not have to use reserves to offset its TDT spending obligations,” Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond said.
Obligations, like paying debt on the Orange County Convention Center, which is seeing some event cancellations because of the surging COVID-19 delta variant, but nothing like when the industry shut down a year ago.
“They've slowed down very significantly. Last year at this time, the majority of our events did cancel. At this point we have had four recently that have canceled,” Mark Tester with the Orange County Convention Center said.
Right now, the vacation market is leading the tourism comeback.
According to Visit Orlando, a six-week stretch in June and July recorded record occupancy at Orlando-metro hotels and motels.
The marketing agency credits a viral reaction to its TV ad blitz, launched in February called The Wonder Remains, an $8 million campaign that runs through this month and is drawing visitors from across the country.
“We went to a full-blown campaign inviting people to start planning their vacations to Orlando,” Visit Orlando CEO Cassandra Matej said. “We're very excited that The Wonder Remains campaign had such positive results.
Visit Orlando estimates tourists spent $10 for every dollar spent on the ad campaign.