Osceola County Commissioners have approved an extended contract with Experience Kissimmee, the area’s tourism marketing arm, to continue that work through 2034.
It’s current agreement is set to end in 2024.
Part of that agreement calls for utilizing $1 million of the 45% of Tourist Development Taxes — the “bed tax” each person who gets a hotel room or vacation rental pays each night — EK receives to advertise, market and promote a potential county-owned performing arts center.
D.T. Minich, Experience Kissimmee’s CEO, shared that Osceola County’s TDT collections in the fiscal 2014 year, his first year leading the bureau, were $44 million. In fiscal 2022, the mostrecently ended fiscal year, collections were a record $76 million, a 71 percent increase during his tenure.
“The tourism industry appreciates everything you’ve done for them,’ Minich told commissioners at Monday’s Commission meeting. “It’s clear this county ‘gets’ tourism.”
In 2014, commissioners approved a plan to restructure what was then called the Osceola Convention and Visitor’s Bureau from strictly a government entity to a public board to one with some private investment and oversight.
