Hotel Registers Ringing as Tourism Taxes Rise

ORLANDO-Resort tax collections in December 2003 totaled $6.9 million, 2.9% ahead of the $6.7 million posted in December 2002, a market indicator for the third straight month that the local hospitality industry is rebounding, area consultants tell GlobeSt.com.

“Cumulative collections this fiscal year are 6% ahead of cumulative collections for last fiscal year, as well as 4% above budget projections,” says Orange County comptroller Martha O. Haynie whose office monitors the monthly collections of the 5% tax on the area’s 116,575 hotel and motel rooms. The monthly collection numbers are watched closely by real estate developers, lenders and appraisers as a key barometer of the local hospitality industry’s health.

Haynie watches the collections even more closely to make sure the county’s annual bond payments of $78 million are met. The bonds were issued to pay for the $750 million expansion last year of the two million sf of exhibition space at the 35-year-old Orange County Convention Center.