{"id":262603,"date":"2026-05-07T22:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/262603\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T22:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:03:09","slug":"orlando-breaks-tourism-record-and-announces-olympic-qualifiers-are-coming-in-2028","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/262603\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando breaks tourism record and announces Olympic qualifiers are coming in 2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

An estimated 76.7 million people visited Orlando in 2025 \u2014 the most ever in the city\u2019s history \u2014 despite a steep decline in Canadian visitors.<\/p>\n

Visit Orlando<\/a> announced the new record during the annual National Travel and Tourism Week event at the Orange County Convention Center<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The 76.7 million travelers marked a nearly 2% jump compared to 2024. Helping drive tourism was the arrival of Orlando\u2019s newest theme park, Epic Universe<\/a>, that opened in May 2025.<\/p>\n

Canada plays a major role in Orlando\u2019s visitation because it\u2019s the No. 1 international market for Orlando. But last year, only about 1.12 million Canadians came to Orlando \u2014 a 13% drop from 2024.<\/p>\n

Canadian travelers skipped the Sunshine State following comments by President Donald Trump about annexing Canada. Gov. Ron DeSantis downplayed the situation, saying last year, \u201cThey said that the Canadians were going to stop coming to Florida. And I\u2019m thinking to myself, \u2018I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true, because who would want to be in Canada in the Winter or Spring when you could be in Florida?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit Orlando said more tourists from Mexico, Colombia and Japan increased to historic levels to make up for the Canadian decline.<\/p>\n

To help fuel more tourism, officials announced<\/a> Thursday that Orlando was chosen to host U.S. Olympic qualifiers in May and June 2028 ahead of the Summer Games in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Orlando was chosen along with Tokyo, Shanghai, and Montreal to host the Olympic Q-Series that will feature 3\u00d73 basketball, beach volleyball, BMX freestyle, climbing, flag football and skateboarding.<\/p>\n

At Thursday\u2019s event, Visit Orlando highlighted the importance of the tourism industry in shaping Central Florida\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n

\u201cNational Travel and Tourism Week<\/a> is the perfect time to announce our visitation numbers and recognize the people behind Orlando\u2019s tourism success, which supports local businesses, creates jobs and sustains a quality of life rarely found in destinations of our size,\u201d Visit Orlando CEO Casandra Matej said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the total number of visitors reflects Orlando\u2019s continued growth, it only tells part of the story. Beyond the numbers are the experiences that motivate travel, the memories created and the emotional connections that continue to draw travelers to Orlando year after year for the economic benefit of our community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The breakdown of Orlando\u2019s tourists shows about 81% were vacationers who live within the United States, 10% were U.S. business travelers and 8% were international visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An estimated 76.7 million people visited Orlando in 2025 \u2014 the most ever in the city\u2019s history \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9984,18181,139,141,140,2042,1316,11022],"class_list":["post-262603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-canada","tag-casandra-matej","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-theme-parks","tag-tourism","tag-visit-orlando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}