Visit Orlando Announces Increase in Visitation Numbers for 2022 Ranking City #1 U.S. Travel Destination

- Michelle Snow
Visit Orlando - 2022 numbers
Courtesy of VIsit Orlando

Visit Orlando, The Official Tourism Association® for Orlando, announced 74 million annual visitors in 2022, which marks a 25% increase in visitors over 2021, and helps Orlando maintain its
leadership position as America’s most-visited destination.

Visit Orlando shared the news this week as part of National Travel & Tourism Week, the annual celebration of the contributions of the U.S. travel industry, to a gathering of over 900 tourism and community leaders.

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In Orlando, the travel and tourism industry supports 31% of the workforce, over 392,000 jobs, generates $67.1 billion in economic impact, and provides $5.3 billion in local and state tax revenue.

“Orlando’s tourism industry is essential to Central Florida’s economy, creating jobs and strengthening our community’s culture and identity,” said Visit Orlando President and CEO Casandra Matej.

“Because of tourism, each Orlando household saves $6,412 in annual taxes. The revenue from tourism enhances the quality of life for residents, and helps pay for critical services residents rely on such as such as education, public safety, and infrastructure.”

Visit Orlando - 2022 numbers
Courtesy of VIsit Orlando

According to Visit Orlando, in 2022, domestic leisure visitation completely recovered and reached a new record at 61.2 million, while U.S. business visitation is still in recovery mode at 7.9 million for a total of 69,141,000 domestic visitors.

They also say international visitation has recovered to 75% of pre-pandemic, reaching 4.9 million in 2022. Canada, U.K., and Brazil were the top three international origin markets to Orlando.

  • Canada: 860,700
  • United Kingdom: 809,000
  • Brazil: 575,000
  • Mexico: 394,000
  • Colombia: 287,000

“This past year proved to be a key recovery timeframe for Orlando’s tourism industry, with a lot of pent-up demand from our top U.S. and international markets,” said Matej.

“Our new international brand launch and strong commitment to strategic sales and marketing initiatives, combined with our destination’s continuous evolution of new unbelievably real experiences, helped Orlando maintain its leadership position and achieve strong visitation numbers.”

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Visit Orlando says visitation uptick comes off the heels of its new “Unbelievably Real” brand launch, first introduced in May 2022 to domestic visitors followed by an international marketing campaign in the U.K., Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru.

The comprehensive campaigns reached 54% of Orlando’s target market households and generated more than $8 billion in additional future direct visitor spending equating to $359 in visitor spending for each dollar of media spent.

Take a look at one of the ads:

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We all know Orlando has so much to offer visitors to Central Florida, but it’s nice to see the numbers backing that. Congratulations to Orlando on staying #1!

About Michelle Snow

Michelle is the owner and editor of CitySurfing Orlando. She also owns Zengrrl.com, is a freelance writer specializing in travel and entertainment, has authored/co-authored four guidebooks on Orlando and Florida, and is head editor/writer at TheDisneyBlog.com. She's lived in Orlando near Walt Disney World since 1995, and still finds there's so much fun to be had in Central Florida.
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