ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County’s comptroller, Phil Diamond, said the tourist development tax dollars from hotel and resort stays around the county continue to go up after the initial plunge this spring due to coronavirus closures.
Diamond announced Monday the September numbers further the trend of increasing collections every month since April.
He said the county brought in TDT collections totaling more than $7 million for the month of September.
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Diamond said that’s a 60% decrease from the same time last year but he added, in looking at the numbers, there are signs of hope.
When you compare September, which is just over $7 million, to the more than $5.7 million in TDT dollars in August of 2020, that’s an increase of over 22%.
Diamond also said travel has slowly been increasing since the month of April, which he attributed to the fact that there hasn’t been widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 at the theme parks.
Diamond said September is the final collection month for the fiscal year, and in comparing the numbers from 2020 to last year, he said they’ve seen a 41% decrease in collections.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said while the promising COVID-19 vaccine news reported by Pfizer was encouraging, he said they may not see a significant improvement in the TDT numbers until late first quarter or second quarter of 2021.