Orange County Florida Continues to Break Records With November Hotel Taxes
Since the pandemic, people have been anxious to get out and about and travel. This is evidenced by Orange County Florida’s November hotel tax receipts, which have broken records for the month.
November Hotel Taxes Break Record
According to the Orlando Sentinel, tourists paid a whopping $31 million in hotel taxes in November. This adds to Orange County’s current record of tourist tax collections, which has continued for 11 straight months!
Hurricane Nicole caused closures at Theme Parks like Walt Disney World as well as Orlando International Airport this year. That being said, there was still a high demand for rooms, which averaged $151 per day.
Collection tracker, Phil Diamond reports that room occupancy averaged 72.6% in November 2022. In November 2019, it averaged 76.5% as the tourism and hospitality industries experienced their previous best for the month.
The pandemic derailed the 2019-2020 fiscal year. $31 million was generated in November 2020, $6 million better than in November of 2021 when tourism began to revive.
Orange County Florida
CEO and president of Visit Orlando, Casandra Matej, attributes the healthy numbers to events in the Orlando area. The Electric Daisy Carnival and various large gatherings at the Orange County Convention Center attracted roughly 12,000 visitors.
Matej projects how the current month will fare. He states, “We are expecting to start the year off strong with January 2023 pacing 17% ahead of January 2022.”
The Convention Center has about a dozen events planned in January. Included are the Surf Expo, VMX 2023, a veterinarian conference, and the PGA Merchandise Show 2023.
According to Matej, hotel bookings for 2023’s first quarter are up 13% compared to the same period last year. I don’t know if you’ve traveled as of late, but it’s crazy how busy airports and Theme Parks are since the pandemic’s lull.
Although introverts didn’t mind the isolation to some extent, it seems like most people are making up for lost time. We’ll see what happens this month, but in November, Orange County Florida continued breaking records, when it came to hotel taxes!