posted by orlandovacationhome on Jul 15
The only thing preventing an utter meltdown in public tax receipts in Florida is an increase in international tourism. The robust trend for growth of international tourism to Orlando is something we have blogged about in the recent past.
From a national perspective, international tourism was up 3% from April, 2009 to April, 2008 according to the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI).
Luckily for Florida, the growing middle class in many South and Central American countries has led to several sharp increases. Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina all increased year-over-year tourism to the United States by at least 20%.
From an international air traffic standpoint, international passenger counts to Orlando were up 13.6% in May, 2009 versus May, 2008. The domestic air passenger volume was down 10.2% over that same period according to the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.
The global passenger news certainly cushioned the overall drop of 8.6% volume decrease. Moreover, year-to-date international travel volume is up 3.4% with many of the countries mentioned above as star performers.
Brazil continues its 35 month continuous string of increasing tourism to the United States.
International Tourism to Orlando Up 2009
Tweet This Post
posted by orlandovacationhome on Jun 1
It might be a little surpising to many Floridians that the largest market for international travel is travel to the US and Florida from Canada. According to Florida tourism statistics, the number of Canadian visitors is almost double that of British arrivals (2.5 million vs. 1.5 million) which is the second largest bloc of international travelers for Florida tourism. In fact, about 2 million of the 2.5 million Canadian guests were from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
Why is that fact so surprising for travel to the US from Canada? Canadians tend to blend in a little more because of the perceived small differences in language. One can be at the retail store in line or some other public place and not know the person beside you or in front of you is Canadian. This is certainly not true for the British visiting the United States. Second, there is very little travel reciprocated from Florida to Canada. Ten times the number of Canadians visit Florida as vice versa. Canadian travel in general doesn’t receive the buzz that it deserves.
One additional reason the Canadian travel market is so potent for Florida is the fact that Canadians tend to hang around and enjoy the region more than most other international travelers (i.e. snowbirds). This translates into about $2 billion dollars for the state economy. As it relates to the Orlando vacation rental market, Canadians tend to be more of a “fractional” longer term guest which provides stability and lowers costs to market and rent homes for the vacation home owner.
For more economic information related to Canadian investment in Florida, please go to:
www.orlandoedc.com/edcPublic/communique/2009/images/Canada-FL%20Economic%20Study.pps
<font face=”verdana” size=”2″><a href=”http://www.travel-language.com”> <b>Travel and Language Directory -</b></a> Worldwide Travel sites and Language resources. Hotel, airline, tourism bureaus, State Tourism offices, Language Schools, Dictionaries and more. <br> </font>
[netinsert=0.0.1.10.11.10.1]
Tweet This Post
posted by orlandovacationhome on Nov 1
We started this blog with this tagline promise “… the inside scoop”. We never thought good news would be this hard to find much less discussed publicly.
Although it’s no large consolation for Orlando villa homeowners who are losing their homes to foreclosure, the recent 50%+ slide in petroleum prices
Gas / Petrol Prices Down
should be a big boon for the Orlando vacation home industry/market. This would include both the domestic and international travel market that is desperate for some good news. This drop in fuel should help bring about firmer occupancy demand for the Orlando vacation home market. We have established in another blog that vacation villas in Orlando can present a great value to consumers in general when purchased at a distressed level from a bank. Those on the ground in Orlando estimate that transient occupancy demand is now off by as much as 15% year over year due to the recession. Disney attendance by all accounts is off as well.
As stated in another area of the blog, one cannot be sure where the bottom is for actual vacation home pricing. There are many factors that come into play in evaluating this. However, one can be sure that lower costs for petro should eventually help turn the travel market in the right direction to the benefit of vacation home owners and consumers. Demand in the vacation home rental consumer market does play a role in the valuation equilibrium which is played out in the form of net rental revenues to the home owner. Let’s hope that will be the case moving into 2009.
Tweet This Post