ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Comptroller Phil Diamond released Orange County’s Tourist Development Tax Numbers for the month of July.
Diamond explained they are down year-over-year for the fourth straight month and believes the extreme heat may have played a big factor this summer.
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“There’s a lot of speculation about that. I think part of it is that it was so hot during July, and I think a lot of people may have said, ‘You know what? It is so hot. Why don’t we postpone this? Why don’t we go when it cools down a little bit,’” Diamond said.
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Collections for July 2023 were $27,171,100 a 5.2% decrease compared to July 2022.
Occupancy at area hotels was 73.8% down 4.0% year-over-year.
Diamond explained during the summer of 2022, Orange County saw a strong demand driven by “revenge travel.”
“I’ve often compared the TDT tax to a rollercoaster just because it goes up, it goes down. That happens in a blink of an eye,” Diamond said.
The Orange County Convention Center saw an increase in the number of groups with 19 events in July 2023 compared to 13 events in July 2022.
“I do think we need to pay attention to the trend. The trend is the TDT tax has gone down four months in a row now,” he said.
TDT collections for the month of August will be released in October.
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