CELEBRATION, Fla. — Osceola County is a hot spot for tourists, but Tourist Development Tax numbers show a slight decline in recent months.

That slow down was reflected in Osceola County’s Tourist Development Tax funds, as current numbers are down 5% compared to last year. But DT Minich, President of Experience Kissimmee believes it is nothing to worry about.

“Last year was such a huge banner year it was unprecedented because last year was really the last full year after recovery from the pandemic,” Minich said. “We got all our air service back, meetings and conventions were back and the demand was just so strong people wanted to get out and travel, so it was just an absolutely record year.”

Susan Bona, who opened Celebration Town Tavern over 20 years ago after moving down from Boston, sees a lot of tourists in her restaurant. While she says business is booming, she did notice a slight slowdown in the winter. 

“When the pandemic hit, everything changes," Bona said. "So we were slow for a couple years, but we made it through which is great and then it got really, really, busy so the next year did seem like a little dip but nothing that is going to affect us.”

Minich also agrees that it is nothing to worry about. He explained the first quarter still makes up the second largest collection months on record, way ahead of what they were seeing pre-pandemic, and they expect to see things kick up again soon.

“Spring Break, Easter and Passover are very, very important months to us here in Osceola County for tourism,” Minich said. “We’ve been talking to our hotels, our vacation home owners also our tour operator partners, airline partners and travel agents and everyone is saying we are going to have a very, very strong springtime.”

He shared in order to help make this happen, Experience Kissimmee has done a lot of international ads.

Minich is confident TDT numbers will remain strong for the rest of the year, especially with all the new building happening around the Osceola area.

“We have a lot of development going, we have a lot of new vacation homes coming out of the ground which is additional revenue, some new hotel development,” Minich said. 

As for Bona, she’s ready to welcome as many people as she can.

“We have so many people that we serve, that we almost can’t serve many more,” Bona said. 

While TDT money is used for marketing and capital improvements around the county, it also goes to funding different organizations like Silver Spurs and Osceola Arts, which should keep their budgets despite the dip, according to Minich.

Minich says if things keep going the way they are expected to, those organizations might get even more money this year.