Destination Update – Orlando, Florida April 2020
April 1, 2020
A message from George Aguel, president & CEO of Visit Orlando :
“As our industry adapts, Visit Orlando has been pivoting in response to the evolving COVID-19 news and working to ensure our efforts support the most current, relevant needs of our local travel industry, businesses and residents.
Today I’d like to highlight just a few initiatives that we recently launched, along with new research detailing the impact to our local and national economies.
We will continue to provide you the most topical insights and updates on a regular basis. However, as always, please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any particular areas where we could provide further information.
Rescheduling Conventions:
In conjunction with the Orange County Convention Center, our sales team has been working hard to reschedule groups that have been forced to cancel their conventions. Of 36 impacted groups, 15 are now meeting later this year; that represents 204,419 attendees and an estimated economic impact of $365 million. Unfortunately, 21 groups have canceled altogether, meaning a loss of 235,284 attendees and $555 million in economic impact.
Meanwhile, we have received verbal commitments from four groups (combined attendance 157,705, economic impact $318 million) on contracts for future years. At the same time, another three conventions (121,500, economic impact $282 million) are considering dates between summer 2020 and December 2021.”
Stay safe,
George Aguel, President & CEO