Tourism and Hospitality Industry in Orlando

Orange County's private leisure and hospitality sector averaged 230,657 jobs at 5,418 establishments in 2025, about 26.5 percent of all private jobs in the county, according to BLS QCEW annual averages (BLS QCEW).

That count covers Orlando and the rest of Orange County by place of work. The sector added 5,642 jobs over 2024, a 2.5 percent gain, while all private employment in Orange County grew 0.4 percent to 870,276 jobs (BLS QCEW). The county's location quotient for leisure and hospitality employment (the BLS annual average employment location quotient) was 2.24, meaning the sector's share of jobs in Orange County is a little more than twice its national share.

Measured by where residents work rather than where jobs are, the Census Bureau's ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates show 28,290 Orlando city residents, 16.0 percent of 176,855 employed civilians, working in arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services, with a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS DP03). Countywide the share is almost the same: 123,779 Orange County residents, 16.3 percent of 759,566 employed civilians, margin 0.6 points (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS DP03). The two measures differ by design: ACS counts where residents work by industry, QCEW counts jobs by place of work.

Two industries carry most of the Orange County total. Theme parks and hotels together averaged 138,403 jobs in 2025, or 60 percent of the leisure and hospitality sector, and restaurants of both kinds added another 64,362 (BLS QCEW).

Amusement and theme parks are the largest single hospitality industry in Orange County, with 78,765 jobs at 43 establishments and average annual pay of $48,646 in 2025 (BLS QCEW).

Row labels are the BLS NAICS industry titles for each code (BLS industry titles). The concentration is extreme: Orange County's employment location quotient for amusement and theme parks was 60.37 in 2025, so the county's share of jobs in that industry is about 60 times the national share, and hotels came in at 6.29 (BLS QCEW).

Pay sits well below the county average. Leisure and hospitality paid $45,438 a year on average in Orange County, about 64 percent of the $70,495 private average, and the theme park average works out to $935 a week (BLS QCEW). The 2025 trend split in two: theme park jobs rose 6.9 percent and hotel jobs 1.6 percent, while limited-service restaurants lost 1,040 jobs, so growth in Orlando hospitality ran through the parks rather than quick-service food.

The tourism bureau's own count for 2025 is 76,663,200 Orlando visitors, of whom Visit Orlando puts 70,325,600 as domestic and 6,337,600 as international; those are bureau estimates, not a government count (Visit Orlando).

Visit Orlando's 2025 year-end hotel data show 132,685 rooms in the Orlando inventory, average occupancy of 71.4 percent, an average daily rate of $202.71 and hotel demand of 34.5 million room nights (Visit Orlando). Its visitor profile puts domestic leisure visitors at 62,403,400 for 2025, with an average stay of 2.9 nights and spending of $1,047 per person per trip; overseas visitors, excluding Canada, stayed 8.5 nights and spent $1,123.

The Orange County Convention Center, the county facility the tourist tax pays for, lists 2,053,820 square feet of exhibit space, 1,103,538 in the West Building and 950,282 in the North-South Building, plus 74 meeting rooms, 232 breakout rooms and 6,227 parking spaces (Orange County Convention Center). It names Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld Orlando and Walt Disney World as its Gold Key Members (Orange County Convention Center). Orange County Government's own summary says the county attracts more than 76 million visitors a year, in line with the bureau estimate (Orange County Government).

Orange County's tourist development tax is a 6 percent tax on hotel stays and short-term rentals of less than six months, and it raised $384.6 million in fiscal year 2024-25, the highest in its history (Orange County Government).

Orange County voters approved the tax, sometimes called the bed tax, and the county enacted it by ordinance in 1978 (Orange County Government). Florida Statutes Section 125.0104 governs how the money may be spent, which is why the county says TDT funds cannot be used for general civic needs like public schools, public safety, housing or local road maintenance. Orange County collects the largest share of TDT revenue of any county in Florida. The county points readers to the Orange County Comptroller for past news releases on TDT collections.

For a hotel guest in Orlando or elsewhere in the county, the county states the current rate as 6 percent of the total lodging bill (Orange County Government). The Tourist Development Council advises on TDT spending and reports to the Board of County Commissioners, which approves TDT uses.

A worked example shows the scale for a visitor. At the Visit Orlando 2025 average daily rate of $202.71 (Visit Orlando), the 6 percent Orange County tourist tax adds about $12.16 a night, or roughly $35 over the 2.9-night average domestic leisure stay. Those are illustrations built from the bureau's averages, not county figures.

Orange County tourist tax money pays for the Orange County Convention Center, tourism promotion, arts and venue debt, under a split the county publishes by percentage point (Orange County Government).

The county lists the split this way. The 1st to 4th percent pay for Orange County Convention Center debt, operations and maintenance, tourism promotion, tourism development plan uses and arts. The 5th percent pays convention center debt. The 6th percent goes 50 percent to tourism promotion and 50 percent to the City of Orlando for arena debt (Orange County Government). Named uses include Visit Orlando, arts, museums and events through Arts and Cultural Affairs, the grant Application Review Committee, the Sports Incentive Committee, the Film Incentive Program and venues such as Camping World Stadium and the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

One stale detail on the county page: it still lists Amway Center among the venues and words the 6th-percent share as Amway Arena debt. The arena's own page says Amway Center took the Kia Center name on December 20, 2023, and that Kia Center, open since fall 2010, is owned and operated by the City of Orlando (Kia Center).

A 2026 county task force is recommending uses for future unallocated TDT revenues, and the county lists a Special Board of County Commissioners Meeting, a TDT Work Session, on Monday, October 19, 2026 (Orange County Government).

The Tourist Development Tax Citizen Advisory Task Force was first convened in 2023; the 2026 task force reviews and recommends uses to the Tourist Development Council and the Board of County Commissioners (Orange County Government).

The task force met through July and August 2026 at the Orange County Administration Center, 201 S. Rosalind Ave., and the Orange County Innovation Center, 7149 W. Colonial Drive, with a Rewatch link listed for each session (Orange County Government). The October 19 work session runs 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., a Special Tourist Development Council Meeting follows on Friday, November 6, 2026, from 9:30 to 11 a.m., and a Regular BCC Meeting is listed for Tuesday, December 1, 2026, at 2 p.m., all at the Administration Center, 201 S. Rosalind Ave. All task force meetings are open to the public, with public comment time at the sole discretion of the co-chairs.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, with the meeting list re-read on the Orange County Government task force page, job figures from the BLS QCEW Orange County file and visitor estimates from Visit Orlando.