Visit Orlando announced 74 million annual visitors in 2022, reaching 98 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. With a 25 per cent year-over-year increase in visitors from 2021, Orlando maintains its position as America's most-visited destination.
"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 Casandra Matej, president and CEO for Visit Orlando. "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."
Visitation uptick is credited to Visit Orlando's Unbelievably Real campaign, which launched in MAY 2022 to domestic visitors and was followed by an international marketing campaign in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Peru. The destination reports that its marketing campaigns generated more than US$8 billion in additional future direct visitor spending, equating to USD $359 in visitor spending for each dollar of media spent.
In 2022, domestic leisure visitation reached a new record of 61 million, while U.S. business visitation remained in recovery mode, totalling 7.1 million for the year.
International visitation recovered to 75 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, at 4.9 million in 2022. Canada, U.K. and Brazil were the top three international origin markets to Orlando.
In 2023, Orlando plans to introduce new experiences for visitors, including an eco-friendly high-speed rail service connecting Orlando and Miami and new theme park attractions such as a Minion-inspired diabolical family ride and the world's first surf coaster.
More information is available at VisitOrlando.com.
