Orlando is hosting a whopping 51 citywide events through April 2025, amounting to a 21% increase in citywide attendance over the same period in 2024. A citywide event is a meeting or convention that makes its home base at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) and utilizes multiple hotels in the area to house their attendees. With the convention center's busy schedule, rooms blocks booked at area hotels, and attendees enjoying our restaurants, venues and attractions, our entire community benefits.

These events mean more shifts for local workers—from waitstaff and housekeeping to local artists who help provide entertainment during many events in and around conventions. Small businesses like Parramore-based RTW Photography even benefit from convention business. Learn more about their story here.

The estimated economic impact for these 51 events is a staggering $1.87B. The range of events includes long established shows who have long called Orlando home, like Surf Expo and PGA Show. Your Visit Orlando team, alongside the OCCC has been working hard to drive new business and in the first quarter, we are excited to welcome Vision Expo East 2025 and Annual Gasparilla Classic 2025, new to Orlando.

Here’s a closer look at some of those recent and upcoming events:

• Surf Expo (Jan. 8-10): Attracting over 750 exhibitors and thousands of retail buyers, Surf Expo is the premier gathering for the watersports and coastal lifestyle industries. 
   
• PGA Show (Jan. 21-24): Hosting over 30,000 golf professionals, the PGA Show offers a platform to discover innovative products, test the latest game technologies, learn business strategies, and build connections with peers and golf leaders. 
   
• MegaCon (Feb. 6-9): With more than 160,000 attendees expected, MegaCon is one of North America’s largest events for comics, sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming enthusiasts.
   
• Vision Expo East (Feb. 19-22): Expecting 10,000 ophthalmic professionals, this expo is where eyecare meets eyewear, and education, fashion and innovation mingle. 
   
• Annual Gasparilla Classic 2025 (Feb. 21-23): Welcoming a projected 20,000 gymnasts from around the world, this event is a three-day gymnastics competition.

Organizations choosing Orlando as the host city for their citywide events highlights why Orlando is named the Top Meeting Destination in North America by Cvent, an industry-leading meetings, events, and hospitality technology provider.

Data & Trends

Metro Orlando’s hotel occupancy rate for the week ending Jan. 18, 2025, was 75.7% which was up 12.9% from the same week last year. The average daily rate for the week was $217.97 which was up 10.2% from last year. Room night demand surpassed prior year by 13.3%.

Across the Industry

Appointment to the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board (TTAB)

This week, I was reappointed to the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board (TTAB) for a second two-year term. TTAB members provide the Department of Commerce with advice and counsel on the opportunities and challenges that affect the U.S. travel and tourism industry. Serving on this board is both exciting and rewarding as I collaborate with industry leaders and government officials in shaping policies that promote and strengthen our nation’s competitiveness in travel and tourism. It's a wonderful privilege to continue representing our destination as we further the mission of advancing America's travel and tourism industry.

Around the Destination

Visit Orlando Hosts Membership Power Lunch

Visit Orlando’s membership team hosted the first Power Lunch of the year for 100 member organizations at the Hilton Orlando’s TodoVos Restaurant. Power Lunches foster connections among members and offer learning sessions on various engaging topics. This meeting focused on opportunities with Visit Orlando’s meeting and conventions and travel industry sales teams. Attendees heard from Elaine Blazys, Visit Orlando’s VP of travel industry sales, and Stephanie Naegele, Visit Orlando’s VP of sales & services.

Molding Future Industry Leaders

The Central Florida Career Academies recently hosted its annual Hospitality Competition at the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management. This event gave high school students in hospitality career programs the chance to shine as they demonstrated their skills and talents in dynamic, real-world scenarios. It also serves as valuable preparation for the state competition, where these talented students will proudly represent the Central Florida region.

Register for CFHLA's State of Hospitality & Tourism

The Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association is gearing up for its 2025 State of Hospitality & Tourism event on Feb. 6 at Caribe Royale Orlando. Nilda Blanco, senior VP of strategic initiatives at CareerSource Central Florida, and Isaac Collazo, VP of analytics at STR, will provide insights on Central Florida’s market trends—average daily rate and occupancy in 2024, national and local forecasts for 2025 and career growth opportunities in the hospitality and tourism industry. Sign up today—registration closes Jan. 31.

Visit Orlando Engaged!

Brazilian Journalists Experience Sports-inspired Group Press Trip

As we work to promote Orlando as a premier sports destination, one effort is organizing press trips for media and journalists. These trips allow them to experience our destination’s offerings firsthand, enabling them to share with their audiences. During our latest sports-inspired press trip, we hosted Brazilian journalists, representing major outlets, including Estado de Minas (34M), UOL (60M), BandNews (1.1M) and IstoÉ (14M). They enjoyed soccer matches as part of the FC Series, Orlando Magic and Orlando Solar Bears games and toured the United States Tennis Association (USTA) National Campus, which included a pickleball training session.

Pitching NYC Media at TravMedia's International Media Marketplace

Visit Orlando’s public relations team represented the destination at the TravMedia International Media Marketplace (IMM) North America event in New York City. IMM is the leading global networking event connecting the travel industry with editors, journalists, broadcasters and influencers.  The team attended panels with top travel editors on trends and held one-on-one appointments with more than 40 editors, travel writers, freelancers and content creators to discuss what’s new in Orlando.

Promoting the Destination at MPI Future Forward

Lisa Messina, Visit Orlando’s chief sales officer, spoke to members of MPI Greater Orlando at their first event of the year, “Future Forward,” held at The Stadium Club at Caribe Royale. During her presentation, she provided insights on local meetings and conventions, as well as updates on the travel industry in Florida, highlighting key trends and developments that are shaping the region’s tourism landscape.

Lisa shared that Visit Orlando saw record meetings demand in 2024 while the team also posted the largest booked room nights into the destination in history. The outlook for Orlando is strong due to the continued investment the community has made in the convention district including the Orange County Convention Center expansion and the welcoming of EPIC Universe in May. Several of our largest conventions posted record attendance in 2024 and the base of business on the books for the future is ahead of pace.

The continued growth of the meetings sector promotes diversity in our markets, higher value budgets that generate higher taxes for our community while also bringing organizations that have goals to make an impact in the community through community service when they meet here.

In the News

Exhibit City News: Inspire and rejuvenate in Orlando 
 
Gotta Go Orlando: 25 Epic New Experiences to look forward to in Orlando throughout 2025 
 
Condé Nast Traveler: The 15 most visited cities in the US, from NYC to Houston