OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — Osceola County tourism officials are ending 2025 saying this has been a “record year,” with tourism tax collections up 5% for fiscal year 2025, year over year.

What You Need To Know

Experience Kissimmee tourism officials revealed that vacation home rentals contributed more to tourism development tax numbers than hotels for Osceola County during most of 2025

During this week’s meeting, officials shared there was a “lagging” issue with TDT numbers for September due to a mailing issue. Some of the September reports did not arrive by the deadline

Experience Kissimmee said the numbers that did not arrive by the deadline will be presented as part of October 2025 numbers

This was presented during the Osceola County Tourist Development Council meeting on Tuesday. Experience Kissimmee officials shared that in almost every month of 2025, vacation home rentals have contributed more towards tourism development taxes, also known as TDT, than staying in hotels.

However, Experience Kissimmee Chief Marketing Officer Casey Leppanen also said there was an incident of “lagging” for September Osceola County numbers.

“There was a lagging in tax collection reporting. Some of the funds didn’t arrive by the deadline, so those funds have actually gone into October. Wish they would be showing up here in September, but we got a jump start in October,” Leppanen said during the meeting.

Leppanen said tax collections for October were up 22%, and he said October and September numbers will be presented together in the future to provide a “clear picture.”

“Normally we’re up in the 40s, maybe 50%, for hotels. As you can see, 27%, which is not the normal. So that’s the indicator of the funds that did not make it in on time,” Leppanen said.

September 2025 TDT breakdown numbers presented showed that 70% of TDT came from vacation home rentals, whereas 27% came from hotel stays. The other 3% was listed as “other.” This is due to the delay.

When asked what the reason was for the lag in tax collections for September, Experience Kissimmee COO Misty Johantgen said it was due to an issue at the post office.

“The check was mailed and postmarked, from our understanding, from the tax collector, was mailed and postmarked correctly. By the time it got to the tax collector’s office, it had gone to New Hampshire and had been postmarked again,” Johantgen said.

She continued, “It took that long for it to get back. So, it was post-marked correctly, but they don’t back-date deposits. When you see the October numbers, definitely as Casey said, you see the big spike back the other way. It’s unfortunate it happened across the fiscal year.”

Experience Kissimmee said October’s TDT breakdown should be finalized this week.

Leppanen also reported that in September, demand was up for vacation homes by 12%.

“Overall ADR down 10%, and the flipside for hotels. ADR was up. Demand was a little bit down,” Leppanen said.