{"id":44981,"date":"2025-11-13T09:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/44981\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T09:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T09:50:11","slug":"hotelier-senator-draw-lively-debate-over-visit-orlando-public-transit-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/44981\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotelier, Senator draw lively debate over Visit Orlando, public transit funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

How can Orange County \u2014 home of Disney World\u2019s theme parks \u2014 capitalize on the 75 million visitors<\/a> arriving by beefing up the community\u2019s underfunded bus service or expanding the SunRail<\/a> that goes quiet on weekends and nights?<\/p>\n

In advance of the upcoming Legislature Session, a hotelier and a state Senator leading the charge debated each other on Wednesday in front of the League of Women Voters of Orange County<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To fund better public transportation, Frank Santos<\/a>, CEO of Rosen Hotels and Resorts<\/a>, wants a new hotel surcharge<\/a> that he dubbed the Tourist Transportation Tax on top of what the county currently levies, which is a 6% tax on short-term stays and hotels known as TDT or the Tourist Development Tax. Santos previously said a new three-cent surcharge on every dollar spent could generate around $180 million in revenue, according to Fox 35 Orlando<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need our employees to get to work faster,\u201d said Santos, who runs the largest independent hotel chain in the state, as some of his employees spend hours riding the bus daily.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith<\/a> filed more bills on Wednesday to reform TDT. Guillermo Smith\u2019s chief concern is over the $100 million of hotel tax revenue funding Visit Orlando, while the community struggles to pay for public transit and other needs, he told the crowd.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI think $105 million in public money to Visit Orlando is an insane amount of public dollars to give when we have so many community challenges,\u201d the Orlando Democrat said. \u201cWe know that tourism is a huge economic driver in our region. \u2026 But we also have to acknowledge that tourists put a large strain on our resources in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Santos countered, arguing that using TDT to advertise Orlando\u2019s tourism industry is essential.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the numbers that the Senator has quoted, he needs to realize that it\u2019s expensive to do marketing and sales around the world,\u201d Santos challenged.<\/p>\n

But Guillermo Smith said the theme parks themselves \u2014 multibillion-dollar companies like The Walt Disney Company and Comcast Corp. \u2014 should play a bigger role and pony up money to support Visit Orlando\u2019s marketing mission to attract visitors.<\/p>\n

Still, Santos and Guillermo Smith found common ground.<\/p>\n

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

Guillermo Smith said he supports Santos\u2019 plan to expand the hotel tax, even as he advocates for TDT reforms.<\/p>\n

Last Session, one of his proposals<\/a> was included in the Senate tax bill, although it was stripped out<\/a> in the last-minute budget negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that it almost made it across the finish line, I think, is a testament to the growing bipartisan support behind reform,\u201d Guillermo Smith told the crowd Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How can Orange County \u2014 home of Disney World\u2019s theme parks \u2014 capitalize on the 75 million visitors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[29660,8787,29661,1335,139,141,140,8794,11020],"class_list":{"0":"post-44981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-carlos-guillemo-smith","9":"tag-frank-santos","10":"tag-league-of-women-voters-of-orange-county","11":"tag-orange-county","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news","15":"tag-rosen-hotels-and-resorts","16":"tag-tdt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44981","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=44981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}