Orlando is not only a world-famous theme park mecca, it’s the most-visited destination in America. The Orlando area welcomed a record-breaking 75 million visitors in 2018, which secured it a spot among the most popular cities around the world.
The Metro Orlando area is defined as a tri-county region consisting of Orange, Osceola, and Seminole Counties. The tri-county area covers 2,538 square miles and is home to more than 2 million residents.
Known for its pleasant weather and Disney theme parks, Orlando hosts the largest number of visitors to Florida each year. The city is fueled by its tourism industry, making it a great place to open a travel business.
Here are all the Orlando tourism statistics you need to know before opening your tour business.
How many tourists visit Orlando each year?
- Orlando Tourists in 2021
- Orlando Tourists in 2020
- Orlando Tourists in 2019
- Orlando Monthly Tourism Numbers
- Orlando Weekly Tourism Numbers
- Orlando Daily Tourism Numbers
How much does tourism bring to Orlando?
Which Demographics Want to Visit Orlando the Most?
How many Americans visit Orlando each year?
How many international tourists visit Orlando each year?
How Much Do Tourists Typically Spend in Orlando?
Share of tourism spending / revenue in Orlando by country of origin
How Many Hotel Rooms Are In Orlando?
How many tours and attractions are in Orlando?
Top 18 Orlando Theme Parks and Attractions by the numbers
How many tourists visit Orlando each year?
Orlando became the first destination in the U.S. to surpass 70 million visitors in 2017. Visitation numbers continued rising until 2019.
In 2020, Orlando suffered from a lack of both domestic and international travelers due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As its theme parks reopened and the U.S. began softening its travel restrictions, tourists started to return in 2021.
Now, the destination is back on track to set a new record. During the first quarter of 2022, Florida’s total visitor numbers were up 38% on the same period in 2021. This is excellent news for Orlando, the most-visited city in the state.
Orlando Tourists in 2021
Tourism in Orlando began to make a comeback last year. The city welcomed 59.3 million visitors in 2021, compared to just 35 million the year prior. When the U.S. softened its border restrictions in November 2021, Orlando started seeing upticks in international visitors.
Orlando Tourists in 2020
Orlando’s visitor count fell to 35.3 million in 2020, a 53% drop off from 2019. This was the lowest number of visitors to Orlando in over 20 years. International travel was down by 75%, largely due to the U.S. travel ban that barred most foreign travelers from entering the country.
Orlando Tourists in 2019
Orlando welcomed a record 75.8 million visitors in 2019.
The Orlando International Airport, the busiest airport in Florida, saw 50.1 million travelers transiting through in 2019.
Orlando Monthly Tourism Numbers
In 2019, an average of 6 million people visited Orlando every month. The destination’s busiest months — summer and the holidays — likely saw a lot more people, while slower periods could have seen less.
Orlando Weekly Tourism Numbers
Meanwhile, an average of 1.5 million people visited Orlando every week in 2019.
Orlando Daily Tourism Numbers
Here are the number of daily visitors at the top 12 attractions in Orlando. Actual daily visitor numbers might be considerably higher during peak tourism seasons and holidays like Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. These figures could also be considerably lower during slower seasons.
- Magic Kingdom — 57,000
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom — 38,000
- EPCOT — 34,000
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios — 31,000
- Universal Studios Orlando — 29,000
- Islands of Adventure — 28,000
- SeaWorld — 12,000
- Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon — 6,000
- Legoland — 6,000
- Disney’s Blizzard Beach — 5,000
- Universal’s Volcano Bay — 4,000
- Aquatica — 4,000
How much does tourism bring to Orlando?
Visitors to Orlando bring in over $4 billion in state and local taxes from hotels and businesses. The overall economic impact of visitors in Orlando is as high as $70 billion during a normal year. At its peak, the tourism industry was responsible for over 440,000 jobs.
Which Demographics Want to Visit Orlando the Most?
Orlando’s 2021 rebound was driven by domestic visitors, with business and international tourist numbers still lagging.
The number of Americans visiting Orlando grew by 70% in 2021. Meanwhile, the number of business travelers only grew by about 50%. International travelers have yet to return in full force, with numbers growing only by 25%.
Of the 59.3 million visitors in 2021, about 50 million were domestic travelers visiting for fun. Another 7.5 million were domestic travelers on business trips. Only about 2.1 million visitors came from overseas.
In recent years, Orlando’s theme parks have noted a larger numbers of spring breakers.
How many Americans visit Orlando each year?
Of Orlando’s 75.8 million visitors in 2019, over 69 million came from the U.S. In other words, Americans made up more than 90% of Orlando’s visitors that year.
In 2020, the number of American visitors dropped to 33.6 million. Yet in 2021, domestic travel rebounded and 57.2 million returned to Orlando.
Domestic visitors by the numbers:
- 57.2 million in 2021
- 33.6 million in 2020
- 69.3 million in 2019
Top states that have the most tourists that visit Orlando
Most of Orlando’s visitors in 2021 came from the U.S. The top origin states for domestic visitors to Florida in 2021 were Georgia (9.5%), New York (9.3%), and Alabama (6.4%).
How many international tourists visit Orlando each year?
Of Orlando’s 75.8 million visitors in 2019, about 6.5 million were international. In 2020, that number steeply dropped. Only 1.6 million International travelers visited the tri-county region in 2020. Numbers started to slowly recover in 2021 when 2 million international visitors traveled to Orlando, a 25% increase from 2020.
International visitors by the numbers:
- 2.1 million in 2021
- 1.6 million in 2020
- 6.5 million in 2019
Top countries that have the most tourists that visit Orlando
In 2019, 1.2 million Canadians visited Orlando, representing 18% of the city’s international visitors. Canada was the tri-county region’s top international market.
The U.K. was the second top market with 1 million travelers, followed by Brazil with 830,000 visitors, Colombia with 303,000, and Argentina with 232,000.
As expected, international visitor numbers dropped dramatically across the board in 2020.
International travel started to pick back up in 2021. About 2 million international travelers visited Orlando last year, and 1.6 million of those visitors came from overseas.
In 2021, Orlando’s international visitor demographic began to shift. Mexico took the top spot with 323,000 visitors, followed by Colombia with 297,000 tourists. Only 79,000 visitors came from the U.K., which used to be one of the region’s top markets.
How Much Do Tourists Typically Spend in Orlando?
The average visitor spends $615 per trip to Orlando. Overall, visitors spend a total of about $44 billion, which generates an economic impact of nearly $71 billion.
Share of tourism spending/revenue in Orlando by country of origin
Tourists from Brazil and China are the top spenders in Orlando. Chinese visitors spend as much as $7,000 per visit, while Brazilians are spending an average of $5,000.
How Many Hotel Rooms Are In Orlando?
There were about 129,000 hotel rooms in Orlando in 2021. The average occupancy rate was 57.8%.
Up until 2019, the destination was pushing its tourism industry to new heights, adding more rides and hotel rooms at record speeds. There were 120,000 hotel rooms in Orlando then — the second highest in the nation behind only Las Vegas — and even more were in the pipeline.
How many tours and attractions are in Orlando?
Theme parks:
There are 10 main theme parks in Orlando. Walt Disney World itself is home to four of these theme parks, including Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios. Universal Orlando is home to two more theme parks: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure.
Then there’s SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, LEGOLand, and Busch Gardens, which is technically in Tampa but often viewed as a part of Orlando’s attraction mecca.
Large attractions:
There are several more large attractions sprinkled in the mix — including the two most-visited water parks, America Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. Both are located within Walt Disney World, where you’ll also find an entertainment, dining and retail Complex known as Disney Springs and three championship golf courses.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure each have their own fair share of hit attractions like Harry Potters Diagon Alley and Harry Potters Hogsmeade, respectively. The water park Volcano Bay is also located within Universal.
Smaller tours:
There are dozens of smaller tours available in Orlando, giving visitors a wide variety of entertainment options other than theme parks. The region has a rich ecosystem that gives way to unique ecotourism tours like educational swamp visits and alligator encounters. There are scenic sightseeing tours by bus, trolley, or boat; airboat and kayak tours; walking tours; hot air balloon rides; and more.
Top 18 Orlando Theme Parks and Attractions by the numbers
Let’s take a look at the 18 most-visited theme parks, waterparks, and attractions in Orlando.
- Walt Disney World receives over 50 million visitors each year, making it the most visited vacation resort in the world. The major attraction is home to four theme parks, two water parks, more than two dozen resort hotels, golf courses, a camping resort, a shopping center, and more.
- Magic Kingdom was the world’s most-visited theme park in 2018, with a whopping 20.8 million visitors.
- Universal’s Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure welcome about 20 million visitors per year between the two theme parks, which are home to extremely popular attractions like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
- Disneyland Park at Disneyland Resort welcomed
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom was one of the top visited theme parks in Orlando in 2019, welcoming nearly 14 million visitors.
- The popularity of Pandora – The World of Avatar helped boost attendance at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Disney World. Visitor numbers soared 10% to 13.7 million during the attraction’s first full year.
- Walt Disney World’s Epcot theme park followed with 12.4 million visitors in 2019.
- Hollywood Studios, one of the several theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort, welcomed 11.5 million visitors in 2019.
- Islands of Adventure — one of Universal’s two theme parks — welcomed 10.4 million visitors in 2019.
- Orlando’s SeaWorld sees about 5 million visitors every year.
- Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park attracted 2.2 million visitors in 2019.
- Disney’s Blizzard Beach welcomed nearly 2 million visitors in 2019.
- Universal’s Volcano Bay water park sold 1.8 million tickets in 2019.
- The Aquatica water park had 1.5 million visitors in 2019.
- Legoland welcomes 2 million visitors annually.
- SEA LIFE Orlando Aquarium has over 5,000 species of sea creatures and is one of the most-visited attractions in the city.
- About 300,000 people visit the Central Florida Zoo every year.
- Discovery Cove welcomes about 1,300 guests per day, making it one of the most popular attractions in Orlando.
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These Orlando statistics prove that the destination has a bright future ahead. As the tourism industry recovers, Florida’s top destination is poised to achieve many record-breaking years.
