The Orlando travel market is highly dependent on direct to flights that originate from an overseas destination. These convenient direct flights bring in international travelers that on average spend a great deal more than the everyday tourist. This is very important for the local economy.

Some of the upcoming new direct to Orlando international flights include:

• Airtran – Aruba, and Netherland, Antilles Air Travel to Orlando Begins February 2010
• Airtran – Montego Bay, Jamaica Orlando flights Begin February, 2010

Direct international Florida flights also began in 2009 for the following airlines:

• Air Canada – Airline service to Halifax, Nova Scotia
• JetBlue – International service to Bogota, Colombia and Nassau, Bahamas
• Martinair - Amsterdam, Netherlands Flights to Orlando Began October 15th
• Mexicana Airlines – Flights to Florida from Mexico City
• Sunwing Airlines – Airfare to Orlando from Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto Canada
• Taca Airlines – San Salvador, El Salvador Airfare to Orlando Began November 1st
• TAM Airlines – Orlando flights from Sao Paulo-Guarulhos Brazil
• Westjet Airlines – Florida flights from Ontario and Winnipeg Canada

This is also good news for the Orlando villa rentals market. As the number of direct international flights to Orlando rises, so will the number of guests for vacation rentals. One example would be the presence of the UK to Orlando Florida flights with over 3 options daily to London Gatwick alone. It has never been a better time to visit Florida.

Canada is also a hot target with the introduction of the “Orlando for Canadians” tourism promotion. Internationally and especially in Western Europe, vacation villas have a much higher consumer awareness than in the United States, but this is changing.

As we have blogged in the past, short term villa rentals continue to become more accepted and mainstream domestically. Our contention  and mission, as stated on our main page, is the need for more information to bolster consumer confidence in the quality of vacation home accommodations in the area. Our website contains over 80+ reviews of vacation home communities in the Central Florida region.

Stacey Doornbos and Kyle Post (appropriately named for a blogger) from New York were selected as the new “Orlando Makes Me Smile” Tourism Campaign Ambassadors. They will blog about over 100 attractions the area has to offer. As stated earlier, this will include both the smaller yet high quality attractions along with news from the bigger more well known venues.

As active followers of social media, we applaude the actions of the OOCVB. Social media is a great way to create a crafted message to boost tourism and inform potential consumers.

Our mission mirrors this same goal along with promoting the advantages of Orlando vacation rentals. We believe there is power in vacation home brands based upon years of positive experiences at these resort communities. We review and profile over 80+ vacation home subdivisions, many located just minutes from area theme parks. Orlando villa reviews give you additional detail and insight for most communities in the area. You typically get all the amenities of home and then some including pools and common area amenities by booking in vacation villa subdivisions. Vacation rentals for many tourists visiting Orlando are now truly preferred over cramped hotels.

Orlando Tourism

We recently sat down with a senior Orlando hospitality executive and were stunned that they had almost no understanding of the “new media” and its impact on tourism.

As an update to our post on Growth Opportunities for Orlando Tourism, the World Bank has cut its 2009 global growth forecast down 1.2% (from a 1.7% decline to a 2.9% decline) .This roiled many financial markets amidst sharp asset price drops.

The wild card among all of this news remains to be high levels of unemployment both domestically and abroad. As we indicated on the last post, forecasts are subject to changes at any time. Unfortunately, the continuing rise in the employment is driving down tourism forecasts.

Assuming these downward forecasts to be accurate, it portends continued weakness or stagnation for Orlando travel and tourism. Although there will be pockets of growth, the Orlando travel market will be challenging for the foreseeable future.

With shrinking tourism budgets, what will the strategy be in this negative travel climate?

Our contention is that all levels of Orlando (and Florida) travel and promotion will need to be innovative and resourceful in getting the message out to maintain market share. Gone are the days of inefficient allocation of expensive resources that reap relatively little direct benefits to area businesses and taxpayers.

From a private sector standpoint, Disney has thankfully opted to provide additional value to area visitors rather than cut services or attractions. This helps improve the value proposition for any potential visitor and increases the chance that tourism volume losses can be kept to a minimum.

We hope to do our part by blogging and podcasting about Orlando travel, and by specifically promoting the benefits of staying in Orlando area vacation homes.

Our belief is the “new media” is one of the most effective means to get the benefits of visiting Orlando out in a targeted way. A good example is the fact the Universal Theme Parks have created a “Vice President of New Media” position to creatively promote its parks. In addition, the new media can be an effective tool for the public/private funded travel promotional areas if it is used in a creative, adaptive and strategic manner.

Orlando Tourism

Although somewhat controversial in its application, national GDP growth is a relative indicator for the health of an underlying macroeconomy. According to EU, OECD and IMF national statistical offices, the following forecasted country growth estimates are applicable for 2009:

• United States – 1.5%
• Canada – 1.2%
• Western and Central Europe – 1.7%
• Mexico – 1.0%
• Brazil 1.0%
• Much of Latin America 0-1+%
• China and India 5-6%

The problem for Orlando travel and tourism growth in 2009 is that the top countries with negative economic growth are the biggest current contributors to Orlando’s baseline level of visitor activity.  

Although projections can change at any time, Latin American economic growth should help stimulate the middle classes in those countries with the benefit of higher discretionary incomes and subsequent increased travel.

Moreover, there will be some pockets of growth and opportunity for Florida travel, but not enough to offset those areas that contribute such a significant amount to the local economy and provide needed resort tax revenues.

Orlando Travel

Bright spots for international travel to the United States include Brazil and Argentina. Brasilian travel to the US was up 26% vs. the same period one year ago, Argentinian tourism to America was up 10%, and French travel was up 4%. In fact, for Brazil and Argentina, this represents a continuing 2 1/2 year period for increasing tourism to the United States.

Based on feedback, international tourism may be down to the city, but it appears that market share trends for Orlando vacation home rentals in the overall accommodations market may be favorable. As we have indicated in prior posts, staying in a vacation rental has become more accepted by the American public in general, and this product has begun to rapidly gain market share over hotels. If properly marketed to consumers in developing markets, vacation rentals can be the accommodation of choice for these travelers.

Our site aims to provide independent consumer information which gives a prospective Orlando traveler a sense of confidence in the quality of the vacation home community based on their expectations.