Tag Archives: Orlando Tourism

Orlando Still Expected to Be Top Destination for 2012

Orlando expects to remain No. 1 in travel destination for 2012.

Orlando’s primary tourism rival in the U.S. – New York City – said last week it attracted a record 52 million visitors in 2012, falling short of Orlando’s expected tally for last year.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the visitor count was an all-time high for the Big Apple and a 2.1 percent increase from 2011. An estimated 41 million domestic visitors came to the city, along with 11 million international visitors.

Orlando, meanwhile, expects its 2012 visitor count to total about 56.4 million, though the area’s main tourism-marketing agency, Visit Orlando, won’t release an official number until later in the year. In 2011, the Orlando area attracted nearly 55.2 million travelers, topping New York, according to statistics from Visit Orlando.

The two cities have maintained a bit of a rivalry over the years, with New York preemptively declaring itself the No. 1 tourist destination in the U.S. in January 2010. Orlando’s visitor count for that year, when it emerged a few months later, outstripped New York’s by a million people.

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56,000,000+ visitors to Orlando expected this year – that’s almost equivalent to the entire population of the United Kingdom!

Wow!

Best!

Bill Cowie

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Orlando Ranks No. 1 as Holiday Destination

From today’s Orlando Sentinel:

Orlando ranks No. 1 as holiday destination and, as usual, the holiday period is expected to be a busy one for Orlando.

The city was the No. 1 destination for both Christmas and New Year’s travel, according to the Orbitz Holiday Travel Insider Index and Travel Survey, which was released earlier this year.

The online-travel site said Orlando ranked ahead of New York for Christmas travel, with Denver, Los Angeles and Chicago rounding out the top five. For New Year’s, Orlando was followed by New York, Cancun, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

More than 80 percent of holiday season travelers said family was the top reason for holiday trips. And travelers value their voyages: 68 percent of those surveyed said they would reduce the amount they spend on gifts, or not buy gifts at all, to ensure they have money to cover travel costs during the holidays.

A good start to the New Year!

Best!

Bill Cowie

www.BritishHomesGroup.com

Orlando Florida (Kissimmee Office) 407 396 9914

British-American Chamber of Commerce Advisory Board

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2960 Vineland Road | Info@britishhomesgroup.com or (+1) 407 396 9914

Orlando tourism industry looking good for the Summer

Summer is looking up for Orlando tourism industry

According to Sara Clarke’s recent artcile in the Orlando Sentinel, signs point toward a good summer for Orlando’s primary industry, as hotels look to fill more rooms and theme parks are riding on a wave of pent-up demand.

With Memorial Day weekend the unofficial start of the summer travel season, Orlando is expected to be one of the top spots on travelers’ minds.

“We’re doing great compared to the rest of the country,” said Abraham Pizam, dean of the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. “The hospitality and tourism industries are recovering and are seeing some good times – I wouldn’t say the best of times.”

Pizam attributes the positive momentum to people giving into their desire for a vacation even though the overall economy is still struggling.

“Those who can afford … will dig into their savings and spend money in order to get away from all the bad news,” Pizam said. “The question that is the most important one: Is that sustainable?”

For this summer, at least, that appears to be the case.

Orbitz.com said in April that Orlando ranked top on its list of most popular summer travel destinations for 2011, ahead of cities such as Las Vegas, Seattle, Los Angeles and Denver.

SeaWorld Orlando said last week that it is expecting attendance growth this summer, while Universal Studios is awaiting the release of the final movie installment of the Harry Potter series in July, which could bump attendance at its already wildly popular Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

Disney officials expressed more caution, saying recently that hotel bookings through the end of June are slightly behind those of last year, although they said their rooms are commanding higher rates than a year ago.

Tourism businesses will have to battle the continuingly sluggish economy and high gas prices to make this summer a success story.

With gas averaging $3.79 a gallon nationwide on Sunday, the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration has said it thinks prices have peaked. Still, the cost of a gallon of gasoline remains about a dollar higher than at this time a year ago – something that could have a psychological effect on travelers.

Orlando’s hoteliers say they’ve got their eye on gas prices but aren’t sounding the alarm yet.

“We’re monitoring the situation, but we’re not as concerned as it relates to gas pricing at this point,” said Richard Maladecki, president of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association.

One concern Orlando won’t have to deal with this year: the threat of oil on Florida’s shores. Leading into last summer season, tourism officials still had their eye on the millions of gallons of crude oil that had poured into the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded in April.

This year, Maladecki said, hoteliers are expecting to see a continuation of the positive performance they reported during the first three months. In March, hotels recorded their best occupancy rate in years and slightly higher prices.

“We’re seeing our advanced bookings at a considerably higher pace than they were last year at this time,” said John Brost, general manager of Mystic Dunes Resort & Golf Club. “Still not up to the 2007 years, but significantly better.”

For Orlando’s tourism market, looking past Memorial Day and into the summer isn’t an easy task. While many in the industry are feeling good about the upcoming leisure season, travelers are still planning their vacations with relatively short notice, making projections difficult.

“It’s still a very short-term-booking market,” said Gary Sain, president and chief executive officer of Visit Orlando, the local visitors’ bureau. “I think as we get into it, we’ll have a little bit of a better understanding.”

Happy (US) Memorial Day!

Sincerely,

Bill Cowie President

Orlando office 407 396 9914

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Orlando is now the Top US Tourist Destination

Orlando is first U.S. travel destination to draw more than 50M visitors in a year

Metro Orlando took a bite out of the Big Apple on Tuesday when the City Beautiful announced it had become the first U.S. travel destination to draw more than 50 million visitors in a single year.

With a record-breaking visitor tally of 51.5 million in 2010, Orlando easily beat New York City in the unofficial race to the 50 million mark. New York announced earlier this year that it was host last year to an estimated 48.7 million people, making it the only other U.S. city to approach the 50 million milestone.

“What great news to lead the entire nation,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said during a midday news conference. “Last year, everybody was still talking doom and gloom and [saying] it might be three or four years before the tourism economy comes back.”

Orlando’s tourist-based economy rebounded faster than expected: Last year’s visitor count was up 10.5 percent from 2009.

Observation

51,500,000 visitors to Orlando last year (almost equivalent to the entire population of the UK)!

Might be a good place to invest in a bargain-priced short-term rental property – while they last?

Sincerely,

Bill Cowie President

Orlando office 407 396 9914

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The BRITISH HOMES GROUP Florida

Foreign travelers boost Orlando’s 2008 head count

Despite a year long recession in 2008, more than 48 million people visited Orlando last year to give the area its second-best year on record, according to an official head count released Wednesday.

The visitor total reported by the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau Inc. — 48.9 million — was three-tenths of a percent better than the 2007 head count of 48.7 million and the best year since 2005, when a record 49.3 million visitors came to town.

“We knew the first part of ’08 was sensational for us, and we led the U.S. in a lot of different metrics,” said Gary Sain, president and chief executive of the visitors bureau. “And then, of course, the last six months of the year were very challenging.”

The slight increase last year was due to an 18.9 percent jump in international visitors, who constitute a small but lucrative segment of Orlando’s tourism market. The number of U.S. visitors, who constitute about 93 percent of all travelers to Orlando, actually fell last year by nine-tenths of a percent.

Sain attributed the international growth to more targeted marketing in countries such as Brazil and Canada, as well as the addition of international air service by carriers such as Germany’s Lufthansa, Ireland’s Aer Lingus and Brazil’s TAM.

“We’re just making it easier for people to travel to Orlando,” he said.

The number of domestic leisure travelers last year generally held steady when compared with 2007, but the number of domestic business travelers fell 3.2 percent as the recession prompted corporations to trim their travel budgets. Overnight group meetings fell 7.8 percent compared with a year earlier, the visitors bureau said.

International Pow Wow Coming to Orlando in 2010

International Pow Wow, the U.S. travel-and-tourism industry’s primary trade show for foreign buyers, came and went last week in Miami Beach. For Orlando, it’s already time to focus on next year’s show.

Orlando will host Pow Wow 2010 and the 4,500 or so suppliers, wholesale buyers and travel writers that come with the show. It’s a tremendous opportunity for the region during what’s expected to be a critical year for tourism, as the nation hopes to be climbing out of recession by then.

As the host city, Orlando will have the home-court advantage when it comes to snagging a piece of the show’s action. The U.S. Travel Association, which organizes the event, estimates that Pow Wow generates more than $3.5 billion in travel deals, and the host city typically captures 10 percent of the show’s total bookings.

The show, organizers say, consists of three days of intensive, prescheduled business appointments involving more than 1,000 U.S. travel-and-tourism businesses and organizations and close to 1,500 travel buyers from more than 70 countries. In addition to dozens of individual appointments, a buyer is also wined and dined by attractions from the host city.

For Orlando, which last hosted the event in 2006, that means everyone from Walt Disney World to Mears Transportation to various local hotels get to strut their stuff in hopes of wowing wholesale-travel buyers with a firsthand experience.

“So much has changed since when we hosted it last,” said Danielle Courtenay, spokeswoman for the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau. “It gives us an opportunity to make sure that the thinking and perception of Orlando is current.”

Among the new draws in Orlando by next spring: roller coasters introduced this year by both Sea World and Universal Orlando, Disney’s Toy Story Mania ride and American Idol Experience show, the five-star Waldorf Astoria hotel in Bonnet Creek, the 1,400-room Hilton Orlando, and a host of new dining and shopping options.

Also, Universal’s much-anticipated Harry Potter attraction is expected to be open no later than the summer of 2010.

Leslie Case, director of sales and marketing for Blue Man Productions, knows the value of having Pow Wow in town. Last year, when Las Vegas was the show’s host city, more than 3,000 Pow Wow delegates saw the local rendition of Blue Man Groupduring a special evening event.

“People get it much better when they have an opportunity to see the show,” Case said. “There are relationships that are established at events like this that last us for many years.”

Nickelodeon Family Suites also hopes to benefit from see-for-yourself marketing next year, too, by inviting promising leads for a familiarization stay. Jim Struna, the hotel’s director of marketing and revenue management, said the business is a regular at Pow Wow and projected that the show will account for 17 percent of the hotel’s business this year.

One big benefit of the show is that it allows domestic travel companies to pitch their product to international buyers in person, something that might be too costly to attempt if it involved flying overseas.

Orlando marketing representatives started building some buzz for Pow Wow 2010 at this year’s Miami Beach show. The visitors bureau set up a “smile campaign” at its booth and is posting delegates’ photos to a Pow Wow 2010 page on Facebook, the popular social-networking Web site. Also on the site: A video commercial for Orlando’s varied vacation attractions.

In addition to generating a local marketing blitz, the coming of Pow Wow usually sparks a citywide cleanup. Before this year’s event, Miami embarked on an intensive beautification campaign that included politeness reminders for taxi drivers. About 30 officials took a two-hour bus tour to inspect the streets Pow Wow delegates were most likely to see or use during their visit; the day’s journey produced an 83-item punch list of problems that were then assigned to 15 agencies or organizations.

“We like to say Pow Wow is the Super Bowl of our trade shows,” said Rolando Aedo, vice president of marketing for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. As this year’s host, Miami-Dade County was planning to spend about $2.3 million on Pow Wow, Aedo said.

By the time Pow Wow arrives in Orlando next May, local marketers are hoping the hundreds of travel buyers will be in the mood for doing business.

“This has been such an unpredictable year for travel,” said Courtenay, the visitors bureau spokeswoman. “Hopefully, by that time, we’ll have seen some turnaround.”

Orlando Second Homes Market

The Orlando tourism marketplace claims an annual 48 million visitors. Although Disney attracts a large part of those tourists, it is not Orlando’s only attraction – Universal Studios, Sea World, myriad golf opportunities, dining, hotels and other entertainment, the opportunities are endless! This of course has created the perfect environment for second home sales to flourish. Orlando real estate buyers are also tempted with the idea of short term rental income. With such a healthy stream of visitors, the rental market is strong.

Right now the strongest pull to the Orlando real estate market is affordability. Many of the communities surrounding Disney are now much more attainable. Celebration and Windermere are two communities with close proximity to the theme parks that offer buyers many options. In Windermere you can find everything from a three bedroom townhouse in a non-gated community to a palatial single family retreat in a private, gated neighborhood.

Neighborhood Spotlight:

Reunion by Ginn Resorts - November 8th Reunion Real Estate Auction
Just six miles from Disney World, Reunion is a 2,300 acre master planned community. This gated community features more than 2,000 units (including single family homes, condos and townhomes), three golf courses, a water park, delectable restaurants, plus luxurious spa and fitness facilities.

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