Orlando cemented its place in 2025 as North America\u2019s top tourist destination, luring a best-ever 76.7 million visitors.<\/p>\n
But the much forecasted Canadian exodus came true: Fewer from that country were among those crowding the world\u2019s theme park capital.<\/p>\n
While the United States\u2019 northern neighbor remains tops among Orlando\u2019s international visitors \u2014 with 1.1 million of its residents counted among the 6.3 million foreign tourists who visited in 2025, the Canadian market was \u201csofter\u201d than usual here, said Casandra Matej, president and CEO of Visit Orlando, the destination marketing agency for the Orlando-area. She said 13% fewer Canadians visited.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very key market for us,\u201d she said, addressing reporters at Visit Orlando\u2019s annual National Travel & Tourism Week luncheon at the Orange County Convention Center Thursday.<\/p>\n
Matej did not offer an explanation for the fall off, but a decline was predicted a year ago amid controversies sparked by President Trump\u2019s tariff strategy and his musings about making Canada the 51st state, remarks that sparked diplomatic tension between the allies.<\/p>\n
Matej said several other international markets delivered record numbers, including Mexico, Colombia and Japan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are set up for great success here in Central Florida,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Overnight visitation remained strong, she said, accounting for 70% of domestic visitors, or 49.2 million travelers.<\/p>\n
The tourism event also featured an energetic musical performance by Orlando native and Broadway star Michael James Scott, best known for playing the role of the Genie in Disney\u2019s Aladdin musical nearly 4,000 times. He performed Thursday in a neon lime-green suit.<\/p>\n
![\"Recording](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/tos-l-visit-orlando-1291_fe9377.jpg\")
Recording artist and Broadway actor Michael James Scott speaks during the Visit Orlando luncheon during the National Travel & Tourism Week event at the Orange County Convention Center, on Thursday, May 7, 2026. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda\/ Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n
Geoff Freeman, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said Orlando\u2019s success \u201cis bucking the national trends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only question from where I sit: Is Washington going to be helpful or is Washington going to be harmful?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said government shutdowns impacted air-traffic controllers and created long security lines at some airports, hurting tourism.<\/p>\n
Freeman said the U.S. was the only country in the world to see a decline in international inbound travel in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know there are a lot of folks out there who want to draw easy conclusions as to why that may be happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The truth is more complicated, he said. Some international travelers fear they\u2019ll be detained on arrival at a U.S. airport; forced to surrender their phones or other communication devices for a social-media search; provide DNA samples; or pay an extra $250 temporary visa fee.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll countries see this as a violation of their personal privacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With the strong visitor numbers, the Visit Orlando board of directors rewarded Matej by extending her contract five more years.<\/p>\n
The board\u2019s unanimous decision was announced on the event stage by Barbara Bowden, managing director of Loews Hotels at Universal Orlando and the board chair. She said Matej helped navigate the tourism industry through the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the most disruptive periods in its history, \u201cand we emerged stronger than ever under her leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bowden did not offer any details of the contract extension. Matej earned nearly $700,000 in 2024, according to a tax form filed late last year.<\/p>\n
\u00a0shudak@orlandosentinel.com\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando cemented its place in 2025 as North America\u2019s top tourist destination, luring a best-ever 76.7 million visitors.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[558,28,114,266,1335,139,141,140,109,1316],"class_list":["post-263272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263272","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=263272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}