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Occupancy rates of all Osceola County lodging, including vacation homes, has risen every month of 2021. PHOTO/EXPERIENCE KISSIMMEE
The tourism industry, the lifeblood of Osceola County, is making a post-pandemic rebound.
That statement’s not just from eyeballing the amount of traffic in our area and around the tourism-heavy areas like the theme parks and West U.S. Highway 192.
Travel analysis site RentCafe analyzed and compared travel-related searches for more than 900 tourist locations from earlier in 2021 to the same time last year.
Google searches for travel destinations went up a mind-boggling 224 percent in March and April 2021 compared to March-April 2020. Florida has five of the top 10 of RentCafe’s “Comeback Cities”, more than any other state, and among them, Kissimmee is the highest ranked Florida vacation spot at No. 3, right behind Cape May, N.J., a Philadelphia suburb, and Newport, R.I., a garden spot in the New York-Hartford-Boston area.
The research was based on a list of keyword combinations related to more than 900 popular U.S. travel destinations compiled from Google Travel recommendations. According to RentCafe’s study, Kissimmee saw a 446 percent spike in searches compared to 2020.
“A well-known family getaway, close to Orlando and its numerous resorts and theme parks, Kissimmee also flaunts a natural wild side, with easy access to the Everglades,” as described by the study. To see the full story, go to: https://www.rentcafe.
According to stats from Experience Kissimmee, Osceola County’s tourism marketing arm, hotel occupancy increased steady every month this year, from 27.7 percent in January to 46.7 in March (the heart of spring break) to 61.4 (the start of summer). Vacation home occupancy percent has doubled from 36.4 percent in January to 73 percent in June.
The Average Daily Rate of an Osceola County hotel room rose from $71.96 to $88.52 (peaking over $94 in April) during that stretch.
The collection of Tourist Development Tax (that percentage a lodging guest pays per night) in May 2021 ($4.5 million) nearly matched that of May 2019 ($4.7M).
Based on passenger traffic figures at Orlando International Airport (MCO), the area’s major airport, people who searched Kissimmee as a vacation spot are following up on their Internet surfing time and making the trip.
“Summer travel is back!” proclaimed an MCO release noting passenger numbers were higher on seven of 13 days of the 4th of July holiday (June 25-July 7) than in pre-COVID 2019. While the overall total of travelers was still short of the entire 2019 holiday period, passenger volume was higher on June 25-27 and July 2-5 of this year compared to those same 2019 days. Airlines are still reporting staffing shortages which impacted flights into and out of MCO, and Hurricane Elsa kept a lid on July 6 and 7 travel numbers, which forced the combined cancellation of nearly 100 flights over several days.
Another indicator of how travel has returned to the airport is in the number of vehicles parked at MCO. From Friday through Monday, July 2-5, more than 50 percent full with the “A”, “B” and Terminal Top parking garages all over 90 percent full on the 4th of July.
In total, some 1.6 million travelers moved through MCO during the July 4th holiday, more than three times as many as last year.
