As a kid growing up in South Florida, I didn’t have an annual pass to the Most Magical Place on Earth. I spent my childhood dreaming of Cinderella’s castle and meeting Mickey Mouse. A world so close in mileage yet so far in income, Walt Disney World was an idealized haven to a barefoot girl with braces and French braids. In lieu of princesses and parades, I played by palm trees and in dirt. It was a true Florida childhood.
Can the kids in Central Florida say the same thing today?
Walt Disney World first opened to the public in 1971 and in the 55 years since the doors of the Magic Kingdom opened, it’s been a pillar of the Central Florida community and economy. It’s widely known the site chosen for Walt Disney’s famous ‘Florida Project’ was a largely uninhabitable swamp, filled with flora and fauna native to Floridian wetlands.
Walt Disney World’s conception was the first trace of its future in Florida: building an empire for guests while harming an environment no longer natural for the natives. Over-tourism and overdevelopment are negatively impacting Central Florida’s environment.
Racked with hurricanes and warming temperatures, Florida’s facing the long-term effects of climate change. Florida has a vastly different atmosphere than most other states. But that, and the beaches, are integral to that. But every year, the beaches change—the air gets hotter, the water gets warmer, and the oceans acidify. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 10 years ago, Florida reached 95 degrees on an average of 15 days per year. In 60-70 years, that number will rise to 90 days per year. With those higher temperatures, water will evaporate faster, and for rural wildlife, its water supply will diminish rapidly.
Regarding climate change, Florida is unique as a wetland-turned-tropical climate, and the introduction of the far too overdeveloped tourism industry has made the situation even more dire.
When discussing tourism in Florida, there is rarely a bridge formed between overdevelopment and environmental issues.
“If you look at the tourist news in Central Florida, it’s all about the big changes Disney and Universal are making,” says Orange County resident Cayleigh Tyrell-Smith. “No one realizes those stories are related to all the thunderstorms and hurricanes coming through.”
Tyrell-Smith, a self-proclaimed ‘Disney Adult’ says she also cares deeply for the environment she grew up in.
“I have a lot of concern, because I have so much care,” she said of how the environment in Central Florida is deteriorating due to its visitors.
As long as the tourism economy is growing … why do we ignore what’s happening to Florida?
Our local government cares deeply for its tourism industry and helps to create magic for its visitors, yet it doesn’t hold care for the trade-off, although the industry does create a stronger, healthier base for our economy. There’s no denying the economic importance of Central Florida tourism—Governor DeSantis’s office reported a record of 143.3 million visited Florida 2025, the No.1 tourist destination in the country.
Tourism is a solution to economic problems, but it’s also an investment; The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved an electrical system expansion for the brand-new areas coming to Magic Kingdom with an initial budget of $6.7 million. What’s never mentioned in budget meetings or news articles is that almost every part of an electrical system has “effects on plants, animals, and ecosystems that result from the air, water, waste, and land impacts above,” per the EPA. How can a tourism industry survive if the land around it can’t?
Just this month, the Central Florida Expressway Authority filed a claim to build a new state toll road through conservation land in Orange County Interstate 4 is already known as one of the country’s most gridlocked and dangerous highways and plays a strong role in Central Florida’s air pollution problem.
While the Expressway Authority says their new roads will “improve the region,” how is destroying preserved land a means of improvement? It’s not improving the natural state; it’s only improving the pockets of those who wreck it.
While there’s no reversing the damage that’s been done, there are ways to move forward, changes and additions can be made as environmentally friendly as possible, and reports need to be made on environmental impacts. Tourism companies need to explicitly share how they consider their impacts. More needs to be done to offset the effects.
Transparency, understanding, and solutions need to be at the forefront of tourism and tourism news, so that this industry that dominates Central Florida does its part to preserve Central Florida, because as Tyrell-Smith put it, “There is no Universal or Disney World if there’s no swamp to build it on or animals to steal it from.”
Willianny Reyes is a composition student at Valencia College.
