Orange County commissioners are poised to cleave $15 million and possibly more from Visit Orlando’s annual budget Tuesday when they consider rewriting the contract of the tourist-tax-funded, destination marketing agency.

The elected board — excluding Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who did not attend — held an unusual discussion Jan. 16 and knocked around possible changes to the county funding agreement with Visit Orlando.

Commissioners reached consensus on a few points at the two-hour session, including chopping the agency’s share of overall tourist-tax revenue by 5 percentage points, to 25%. They are expected to vote for real at their regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.

Visit Orlando got more than $100 million in 2023 from a 30% portion of the tax proceeds, also known as the tourist development tax or TDT.

If future TDT collections stay on pace with those of the last 23 months, the cut in the agency’s allotment would mean about $18 million less for Visit Orlando’s marketing and promotions operation over the next 12 months.

TDT funds come from a 6% surcharge added to the cost of a hotel room or home-sharing option like Airbnb. That fund raked in a record $359 million in fiscal year 2022-23. But Visit Orlando’s share has drawn sharper scrutiny as a citizens’ task force, created by the mayor, reviewed more than 50 other requests forTDT funding totaling more than $3.5 billion.

Visit Orlando defends work, $100M budget but Orange County plans ‘haircut’

Commissioners are eyeing TDT money to help pay to replace the upper deck terraces at Camping World Stadium, add a 100,000-square-foot multipurpose space to the stadium campus or pursue other eligible projects.

Visit Orlando reps were in the audience of lobbyists and tourism interests at the Monday meeting but did not ask to be heard.

Instead, the agency emailed commissioners — and the mayor — a four-page response dated this morning addressing issues that were discussed, including a board desire to audit Visit Orlando’s travel and other expenses.

Commissioner Mayra Uribe distributed a budget spreadsheet Monday, culled from Visit Orlando tax returns for the years 2015 through 2022, that showed a three-fold jump in travel expenses from $2.4 million in 2021 to $7.5 million in 2022.

“We don’t know if they’re all going first-class or what,” Uribe said.

In the agency’s response, Visit Orlando President & CEO Casandra Matej said the organization’s policy forbids employees, including herself, from flying first-class. She said inflation and a new push to lure conventions contributed to higher travel costs.

“We strategically decided to expand our footprint at many of our key trade shows and increase the number of events that drive a return for our destination,” Matej said in the message, shared with the Orlando Sentinel. “In 2021, Visit Orlando attended only 35 tradeshows, sales missions and client events. In 2022, we did 63 events and in 2023 we were up to 92 events.”

Uribe said she wants better oversight and more transparency.

Matej said every TDT dollar spent is reported to the comptroller and the reports are publicly available.

The six commissioners, who have a similar discussion scheduled for 4 p.m. today in advance of Tuesday’s vote, also agreed to push for one of them to have a seat with voting rights on Visit Orlando’s executive board.

Some also questioned why Visit Orlando has promoted events like a space launch or other attractions in neighboring counties when funding flows from Orange County’s surcharge on hotel rooms and other short-term lodgings.

“Visitors to our region do not know where county lines begin and end,” Matej said, adding marketing the region is a best practice. “Our visitors explore the entire region and Visit Orlando aims to be their main source of information.”

The three-county area of Orange, Osceola and Seminole boasts more than 130,000 hotel rooms, with over 103,000 in Orange, which serves as the primary vacation “homebase” for visitors, a boon to local TDT collections.

During COVID, Visit Orlando helped Orange County government and the Orlando Economic Partnership create the “Safer, Stronger, Together” campaign that encouraged business and resident compliance with safety precautions.

The organization also mitigated convention cancellations in Central Florida by urging shows to reschedule.

Robert Agrusa, president & CEO of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, credited Visit Orlando’s work for helping the tourism and hospitality industries rebound more quickly than other destinations after the pandemic.

He said the marketing agency also has helped the region fend off challenges from domestic and global rivals.

“There will be unintended consequences” of a cut as significant as the board is proposing, Agrusa said. “More than 450,000 jobs here rely on tourism and hospitality. That’s something to consider. Real people’s lives are at stake.”

shudak@orlandosentinel.com