ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Central Florida’s tourism took a heavy hit as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but economic experts say they’re looking forward to seeing the tourism dollar totals this spring travel season is expected to bring in.

What You Need To Know

  •  Central Florida's tourism industry took a big financial hit due to the the COVID-19 pandemic

  •  Economic experts are hopeful, though, that the spring travel season will show improvement

  • As more people get vaccines, officials believe they will feel more comfortable traveling to places like Florida

 “I think the March numbers are going to be really good, and typically March is a good month," said Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond.

Diamond says a big reason is spring break season.

Of course, he says last March was the exception to that, as the onset of the pandemic brought travel nearly to a halt — decreasing Orlando International Airport travel by 97%.

Now, though, he says things are looking up.

“Now we’re, in many ways, in a vastly different world as far as tourism is concerned," said Economic Forecaster Sean Snaith.

Snaith says he expects as more people get the vaccine, more people will get plane tickets.

“We’ve got a convergence of events that I think will slowly render COVID-19 less and less of a factor as the year goes on," he said.

However, it’s not quite a sunny situation in this part of the Sunshine state, yet.

Diamond said there is still a lot of room to grow, and recover.

“Our budget number is about 12 and a half million dollars a month, and through this fiscal year we really haven’t come close to hitting that," he said. “We’d like to get above 12 and a half million, because that’s the figure that is in our budget, and that’s the figure that I think is something of a break-even for the county to start being able to do the things that it wants to do with the tax collections that it gets.”

Diamond said he believes Orange County will fall short of the $150 million tourism development tax number really needed to break even for the 2021 fiscal year.

However, his sights are set on an upward trend that seems to suggest long-term recovery is well underway.

“There are a lot of things going on in the economy, and in the world right now that can really help the economy around here get in a much better place," said Diamond.

February’s Tourism Development Tax numbers are coming out soon and Diamond believes they will be much higher than January’s — and he has full faith March’s numbers will set the bar even higher than that.​