Tourism Game-Changer: Orlando’s Brand New Theme Park

Visit Orlando Shapes the Story of the City 

Casandra: Visit Orlando is the official travel and tourism sales and marketing arm for all things related to Central Florida tourism. I have the honor of serving as President and CEO where I drive strategy and grow our visitation numbers for our region. But one of the things people may not realize about Visit Orlando is that we also have services. We have complementary planning services. So, if people are saying, “Hey, I’m coming to Central Florida, I’ve been saving up for my big Orlando trip for the last year. Can you help me with planning?”  We actually have free visitor services. I like to say we’re a three-legged stool, we have sales, we have marketing and public relations, and then we have our services. 

How Tourism Powers Central Florida’s Economy 

Casandra: You’ll often hear me say tourism is big business and especially in Central Florida and the entire state of Florida. In Central Florida alone, because of the level of visitation each year, that represents a 92.5 billion dollar economic impact. But, sometimes that number is so large that it gets lost on people, so one of the things I like to share is that because of the level of visitation we have in our community, it saves households $10,200 annually on taxes. And that is something that you can really relate to, right? If all of a sudden, the visitor economy went away, it would cost us as residents living here, even more. 

And I can break that down because if you look at sales tax, as an example, we all, whether we’re residents or visitors, pay sales tax because they stay at our hotels, they shop, they dine, they go to a lot of our variety of attractions. What tourists pay into sales tax represents 50% of all sales tax that’s collected in our community. And then if you follow those dollars, that goes into our infrastructure, whether it’s streets, public safety, fire and police, or building schools. It really is a community impact that the visitor economy offers to our community.  

Stepping into the Future: Our First Look at Universal Epic Universe 

Casandra: We had the honor, my family and I, of previewing the new Epic Universe. And let me tell you, the name Epic certainly describes it. It is an absolutely amazing, immersive experience. There’s five different worlds, and what I really appreciate is the design, because it’s almost like each of the worlds has its own gate or portal into the world that you’re going to experience. When you talk about immersive and exactly what they were trying to accomplish, I think the world is going to be excited to experience Epic Universe.  

Audrey: Yeah, I was able to go a couple of times, and it is so technologically driven. I feel like it’s the future of where theme parks are headed. Every attraction, every land, is packed with technology, and the theming alone is amazing.  

What’s next for the Experience Economy? 

Casandra: I think it’s going to be so hyper personalized, like whether it’s you as an individual or you as your family. Technology is moving so fast, and we already have a lot of that personalization there, but I think where it’s going is personalizing the experience. I know you all as a company dream a lot bigger and create those experiences. But I think there’s going to be a way where you could almost walk up to a line queue and they’re going to know who you are and welcome you to the ride, as an example. I’ll give a great example, Guardians of the Galaxy in Epcot has different music, they may know what your favorite song is, and that’s what they’re going to play, so that’s part of the next level of value that we want.