Central Florida’s tourism industry performed exceptionally well this summer even though the state was hard hit by the pandemic.
Only one day after the U.S. announced the country will reopen for EU visitors on Nov. 1, the tourism industry representatives have reported exponential growth in bookings in both hotel rooms and airline tickets.
“It’s more than we see normally because everyone is reacting,” said Bob Cook, the director of sales at Go Travel. “It’s about time — it’s about time that it happened.”
Cook is not the only one celebrating. Multiple international airlines have already contacted Orlando International Airport about the new guidelines so they can resume operations as soon as feasible.
As per reports, such protocols will be published only until Oct. 25
The tourist development tax collection in Orange County, which serves as an indicator of regional travel trends, demonstrates how the state recovered in 2021 from the economic setbacks of 2020.
For the months of June, July, and August 2021, the taxes on hotel, motel, and short-term rental sales totaled $62.87 million.
For the same period in 2019, the same indicator plummeted to $13.55 million.
Visit Orlando, the Official Tourism Association for the state currently runs ad campaigns catering to the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Mexico travelers promoting theme parks, beaches, and a wealth of other hotspot destinations.
“We have already started marketing in our international market to get Orlando top of mind. We have a campaign running so we’re really excited,” said Denise Spiegel, from Visit Orlando.
According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, Orlando hotels were expected to lose $2.27 billion in business travel income in 2021 as a result of the shutdown, down 81.5 percent from $2.796 billion in 2019.
Until this week, Only New York, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco ranked higher in terms of predicted business travel revenue loss than Orlando.