Orlando Visitor Numbers continue to fall as Tourism Tax Revenue is down for fourth straight month

Orlando is continuing to experience a quiet summer, with official figures showing that tourist tax collections in Orange County is down for the fourth month in a row.

Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond has revealed the numbers for the Orange County Tourist Development Tax received by Orange Count in July, and once again the numbers are down, making this four months in a row that visitor numbers are down in Orlando compared to last year.

For the July 2023 period, the county collected $27,171,100.. This is a 5.2% decrease compared to June 2022.

In Orange County, a 6% resort tax is imposed on all lodgings, with the taxes raised going towards projects that contribute to tourism revenue, and tourism advertising via Visit Orlando.

Diving deeper into the figures, occupancy at area hotels in July was 73.8%, down -4.3% year-over-year. The average daily rate for a hotel stay in July was also down by 1% from July 2022, with the actual rate for July being $177.60.

Following very promising visitor numbers at the start of the year including an all-time high in March, visitors to Orlando have been on the slide ever since.

The only good news in the latest figures is that the ever popular Orange County Convention Center has seen an increase in the number of conventions, with 19 events in July 2023 compared to 13 events in July 2022. However, the number of people attending these events was down from a year ago.

Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond and Visit Orlando are attributing the drop in revenue to summer heat and competition from other tourism destinations, together with an ever-growing cruise industry.

The drop is also believed to be because of pent-up demand for travel in 2022 after restrictions on travel were relaxed after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The alarming news is that the comptroller's office, is expecting lower tourism tax collections to continue to drop in August and into early fall.

The better news is that Visit Orlando is expecting demand to increase in 2024 by around 3%. Fingers crossed!

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