Overview

• Frank Santos, the new CEO of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, is publicly advocating lifting Orange County’s 6% hotel tax by one to four percentage points to pay for underfunded infrastructure projects.
• The tourism tax currently generates more than $360 million annually for Orange County, with the levy applied to hotel stays across the region.
• Florida lawmakers earlier this year scrapped Governor Ron DeSantis’s proposal for a statewide tourist tax, and a separate effort to broaden local uses of the tax has not been enacted.
• Current law caps county spending on tourism marketing at 25% of collections, and shifting more dollars to infrastructure or raising the rate would require legislative approval.
• Tourism industry representatives caution that higher room taxes could dampen demand, while Santos contends the county’s rate trails many major destinations.