As Orange County commissioners prepare to discuss a scathing audit of Visit Orlando, the tax-funded marketing agency hosted a video conference Thursday to make the case for tourism’s impact on the local economy.

The industry welcomed 75.3 million visitors to Central Florida in 2024 and those paying guests spent about $59.9 billion here, said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, who has been measuring the economic impact of visitors in the region for 15 years.

Both figures were up over 2023 data.

“If you break that out on a daily basis, that’d be $164 million every single day, 85% of it [spent] in Orange County, 12% in Osceola and 3% in Seminole County,” said Sacks, whose team works with 500 destinations world-wide, hotel companies and attractions.

While there is little argument over the vast importance of tourism to the theme park capital of Central Florida, there is burgeoning controversy over the role of tax money in promoting it, making the timing of Visit Orlando’s Thursday conference apt. Constrained by state laws that limit its use of a six percent hotel tax, also called a tourism development tax, Orange County hands over $100 million-plus to Visit Orlando annually.

But some local leaders want to spend much of that money on other things, suggesting Visit Orlando doesn’t manage funds well and that the industry should do more to promote itself.

Sack’s numbers argue that the region benefits, saying Central Florida tourism generated an economic impact of $94.5 billion in 2024 – a 2.2% increase over 2023.

Visitor spending, according to Sacks’ estimates, sustains about 468,000 jobs in Central Florida — 288,000 directly employed by the tourism industry, including hotels, restaurants, theme parks and other attractions. He said tax revenues generated by tourism trims the annual tax burden on an Orange County household by $10,200.

State and local taxes collected from visitor activity in 2024 increased by 2.5%, topping $6.7 billion, according to Visit Orlando.

He provided an outline of his team’s calculation methodology which collates economic data from federal, state and local sources. The Orlando Sentinel could not independently verify or dispute the findings.

Casandra Matej, Visit Orlando’s president & CEO, said the analysis shows the importance of tourism and its continued growth.

“Visitor spending and activity fuel our economy, generating significant financial benefits to residents and businesses, while also producing substantial tax revenue which supports local essential public services,” Matej said in a prelude to the economist’s remarks.

“Holding the coveted title of top U.S. destination is the result of decades of strategic effort by our tourism industry,” she said.

Though Matej invited questions from her video conference audience, she faced none.

Her audience will likely be tougher Tuesday when she speaks to county commissioners about Visit Orlando’s role in keeping the region atop the list of the nation’s most visited destinations. The board pushed to cut Visit Orlando’s budget two years ago.

Some commissioners were sharply critical of the agency after the recent audit from the Orange County Comptroller.

Audit says Visit Orlando broke rules on spending public money

According to the meeting agenda, Matej will address the audit and Comptroller Phil Diamond will be given time to respond.

Diamond’s auditing team raised questions about many Visit Orlando practices and expenditures in the 66-page report.

The audit concluded Visit Orlando misallocated at least $3.54 million in TDT money by wrongfully classifying the money as private funds, which have far fewer restrictions on their use. Visit Orlando receives some contributions from private companies in the tourism industry, but most of its budget comes from the taxpayers.

“The public has a right to know how their public money is spent. It’s supposed to be transparent,” Diamond said.

The hotel tax raised a record $359 million in fiscal year 2023-24, and is on pace to break that mark in the current fiscal year which ends Sept. 30. The figures have been boosted by the opening of Epic Universe.

shudak@orlandosentinel.com

 

 

shudak@orlandosentinel.com