ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings held his fifth State of The County address last week.
The message throughout the event was "Taking the county to the next level."
Several topics he discussed in his speech included providing access to broadband in underserved communities, affordable housing projects underway, and tourism development tax dollars (TDT).
The Orange County Comptroller, Phil Diamond released the Tourism Development Tax collections report and stated that TDT collections were down compared to this time last year. The report explained that April 2023 brought in a little over $30 million, which was a 3.5% decrease from April 2022. Hotel occupancy in April 2023 was at about 77% compared to nearly 83% last year.
During the state of the county address Mayor Demings said that though lower than last year, the TDT collection this year has still been breaking records. He also shared with summer months now among us, those numbers are more than capable of shifting again.
“With over $35 million that came in for the last month, I should say that we have whole numbers for which is April, that’s still a really good number," Demings said during he private media session.
In a follow up question regarding the contributing factors for the TDT slow-down, Demings said he does believe the current political climate in the state of Florida could be playing a role in people reluctant to visit.
"We are seeing different shows and conventions who have plans to come here, who are contracted to come here and others who are considering coming here, asking us questions about the character and the culture of our community," said Demings. "I've had to quite frankly in the last several weeks respond to that to reassure organizations and conventions that we are a welcoming, caring and open community."
Just down the International Drive corridor, Avanti International Resort sits nestled within the highly trafficked tourism area. General Manager Erin Arpke, has been with the company for nearly a decade. She said like all of the hospitality workers, they dependably heavily on tourism.
During the pandemic, tourism was down, which was difficult according to Arpke, but she said it also showed how resilient the industry is. Now, more than ever she’s driven to continue making the I-drive corridor of Orlando, a top destination for tourism.
“Whether it be convention center business, or whether they’re here for the theme parks and just to have a leisure time, it’s our bread and butte,” said Arpke. “It’s what we depend on.”
With the recent decline in tourism development taxes, Arpke said luckily, they have not an experienced a significant decline in bookings. In fact, she said they’ve actually been mimicking numbers from pre-pandemic times. With the completion of the Convention Center, she says she believes those bookings will continue to rise; with an upcoming conference in town, already set to occupy nearly 200 rooms at her hotel.
“Each convention person can bring over $2,300 per-person when they come for conventions, to the community in various ways. That adds up,” she said.
Arpke says she’s confident in Orlando’s ability to keep drawing visitors in, and that the hospitality industry will continue adjusting and improving to make it happen.
Mayor Deming’s also shared in confidence in Orlando’s ability to keep moving forward. He reiterated that his hopes are to assure potential guests, that Orange County is still a caring, welcoming and inclusive community, and that people will continue to bring their families, and their business here.