Orange County’s tourist tax take was good, not great in April
Orange County’s tourist tax collections were better in April than a year ago, but not as good as the year before that.
The revenue generated by the county’s 6% surcharge on overnight hotel stays and other short-term lodging has been a reliable measure of tourist industry health, but Comptroller Phil Diamond, whose office tracks the collections, interpreted the new figures cautiously.
“It’s interesting to me that even though we’re in the midst of what looks to be a very good year — and we just had a very good month — we didn’t beat a number from two years ago when everything was less expensive and hotel rooms cost less,” Diamond said.
April 2025 collections were slightly weaker at $33.1 million than those in both April 2023 ($33.6 million) and April 2022 ($34.6 million).
Still, revenue from the Tourist Development Tax, or TDT, through the first seven months of fiscal year 2025 has totaled $235.6 million, about $11.3 million ahead of the pace of last fiscal year when TDT raked in a best-ever haul of $359 million.
Diamond expressed concern about slowing international travel and global economic uncertainty, but also noted bright spots.
“I really want to see more Epic results,” he said, referring to Universal’s heralded new theme park, Epic Universe. “I will say I’m pleasantly surprised at the visitation level we’ve had before the new park even opened. That was a surprise to me and probably other people as well.”
The immersive park officially opened to big crowds May 22 eager to see attractions built around training dragons, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Super Nintendo video games and Dracula, Frankenstein and other celluloid creeps and monsters from the movies.
Tourism figures from May will be revealed in early July.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings took note of another $30-million month of TDT revenue.
“I am pleased to see that our Tourist Development Tax revenues remain strong,” he said in an email. “It is a great indicator that our tourism industry is thriving and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This complements our strong growth in other industries such as the medical and health sciences, technologies, and aerospace industries.”
Visit Orlando also offered a somewhat mixed outlook for summer travel in an emailed response about the latest numbers.
Hotel bookings from May through July are currently pacing 1% behind the same time period last year, but the short-term rental market is showing “robust growth” with bookings 15% ahead of last year, said Casandra Matej, CEO of the region’s tourism marketing agency.
She said the average daily room rate was $223.44 in April, driven largely by a surge in leisure travel.
The rate was $208.50 in April 2024.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com