Things To Do In SW Florida

Tourism in Orange County rode a wave of marquee sporting events and high-attendance conventions in January to generate more than $30 million in hotel tax revenue, a record for the traditionally slow post-holiday month.

The tax brought in $30.4 million, about $1.4 million more than in January 2023, the previous best, according to figures released this morning by Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond, whose office tracks receipts of the 6% lodging surcharge.

“January 2024 was an especially busy month for metro Orlando tourism,” he said.

Diamond cited several sporting events of “significant regional impact,” including the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and the return to City Beautiful of NFL Pro Bowl festivities, which helped fill hotels with athletes and spectators.

Both events brought visitors for the last week of January and the first weekend of February.

Visit Orlando officials noted the Orange County Convention Center hosted several large events such as VMX, a gathering of veterinarian; the PGA Show, a golf equipment extravaganza; and the All Out Nationals  cheerleading and dance competition. read more

COCOA — If SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy finds a home on the Space Coast, what would be the most powerful orbital rocket ever to launch is certain to have a significant environmental impact.

For a pair of potential sites within Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the process to figure out exactly what that will be has begun, starting with a set of in-person and virtual meetings for the public to comment on concerns of frequent launches of a rocket twice as powerful as the Saturn V rockets from the Apollo program.

The first of those meetings brought out a few hundred curious residents to the Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Cocoa Library on Tuesday night.

“The point of these meetings today and this week, is to get as many members of the public — it can be any members of the public: residents, researchers, teachers, it really doesn’t matter, everyone — to come here, in person or online or emailed their comments, concerns, questions, pretty much anything about this process,” said Emre Kelly, media operations chief for Space Launch Delta 45, the Space Force group that oversees the launch sites. read more