Orlando's Economy (Sales)Total$78.7 billionTourism$21.8 billionTechnology$8.9 billionConstruction$7.4 billionAgriculture$1.26 billionFilm, TV and digital
media production$586 millionSources: Dun & Bradstreet, Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Metro Orlando Economic Development CommissionFlorida's Economy
(Gross State Product)Total$540.3 billionTourism$51.5 billionProfessional & business services$140.5 billionRetail services including tourism$113.5 billionConstruction & real estate$124.3 billionSources: Visit Florida, Enterprise FloridaDisney gave Orlando a worldwide identity as a tourist center. Meanwhile, the company also supplied the seed of what has sprouted into an independent, burgeoning tech hub. Today, Orlando markets itself rightfully as a center for "digital or dynamic media," boasting the largest concentration of modeling, simulation and training companies in the world, according to the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission.
The company's bulk has continued to overshadow Orlando's non-tourist economy, however. And recent trends have provided a wake-up call that the region shouldn't slacken efforts to diversify its economy -- more than a third of which is tourism-related -- and carve an economic identity for itself independent of tourism.
Roy Disney's campaign against CEO Michael Eisner and an offer by cable TV giant Comcast to buy the entertainment company have provided ample evidence that Disney's relationship with the community could become less reliable.
"Our biggest concern is that the people who are managing Disney now have shown themselves to be exceptional community partners," says Maureen Brockman, vice president of marketing and communications for the EDC. "While they're not a corporate headquarters here in Florida, they certainly operate as such, plus they employ 60,000 of our friends and neighbors. The issue is if they were to leave that commitment, could we withstand that?"
Nurturing technology
Even as Disney and other tourism leaders, including Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld and the Orange County Convention Center, continue expanding, the EDC has been working to develop other industries.
The EDC is concentrating especially on central Florida's second-most-prevalent industry: Technology. With resources including the University of Central Florida, home to one of the top 10 technology incubators in the nation, and Full Sail Real World Education, a 4,500-student digital-media school that has grown 29% annually in the past five years, Orlando is finding new applications for its tourism-based technology. A prime example: The Navy awarded a $1.4-million contract last year to i.d.e.a.s., a company based at Disney's MGM Studios, to modernize a training program called "Battle Stations" in Grand Rapids, Mich., where sailors will feel as if they're in a theme park ride by experiencing lifelike scenarios.
Brockman sees the project as the perfect convergence between tourism and technology.
"Our strategy has been not to deny the heritage our tourism base has built for us but to build on that and take it in other directions," Brockman says.
Around the Industry
Theme Parks
Some theme parks are using creative payment options to build customer loyalty. SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, which traditionally have offered Florida residents a Fun Card that gives them free admission for the rest of the year if they purchase a one-day pass before the end of April, are now letting anyone purchase the card at the gate or through AAA for $59.95, or $6 over a one-day admission. The parks also offer an E-Zpay option this year that lets customers pay for the Fun Card for $5.99 a month plus tax for 10 months. ... Meanwhile, Universal Studios Florida now lets customers purchase a two-park Preferred Annual Pass for $15.08 a month for a year instead of a lump sum of $169.95 plus tax. ... Cypress Gardens could reopen to visitors as soon as Memorial Day, says theme park operator Kent Buescher, who's carrying a $7-million mortgage on the property under a deal crafted by the state, local leaders and the non-profit Trust for Public Land. A $36-million overhaul to update the renamed Cypress Gardens Adventure Park is expected to take 18 months.
Hotel Renovations
Caribe Royale All-Suites Resort and Convention Center at Walt Disney World is refurbishing its 1,200-plus one-bedroom suites this year after a $30-million expansion project that doubled its convention space to 150,000 square feet. ... Miami Beach tourist landmark Fontainebleau Hilton Resort has started work on a 36-story, 462-unit oceanfront tower to attract the high-end leisure traveler, and plans are in the works for a second tower with 18 stories and 314 units. Developers are selling each unit as a condominium that owners can rent out as a hotel room when it's vacant. ... Word has it that the Peabody Hotel near the newly expanded Orange County Convention Center in Orlando expects to have a design in hand by the end of the year for a 1,000-room tower and more convention space, with construction starting early next year. ... Grande Lakes in Orlando, which opened last July with a 584-room Ritz-Carlton and a 1,000-room J.W. Marriott, is already expanding its convention space, opening a $10.5-million Coquina Ballroom in September that will boost Marriott's meeting space to 107,000 square feet from its current 72,000. The Ritz has 33,500 square feet of meeting space. ... The family-owned Best Western Pelican Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale is wrapping up a multimillion-dollar renovation this month that expands the property to 180 guest rooms and amenities, including a restaurant and a heated out-door pool with a lazy river ride. The resort has been running with 24 rooms since it tore down eight buildings to make way for the construction.
Recognitions
Orlando International Airport ranked No. 1 among the nation's large airports as tops in customer service throughout the facility, according to a poll by Airport Revenue News. ... Florida is the top destination this year among U.S. leisure travelers, followed by California and Las Vegas, according to a study of vacation package trends by Vividence Corp. and PhoCus Wright Inc. of 1,500 consumers who used the internet to plan their getaways. ... Miami's hotel industry grew the fastest last year among the 25 U.S. metropolitan markets with at least 33,000 rooms, according to Smith Travel Research, beating out New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans, Oahu, Washington, D.C., and Orlando, among others. The study measured the growth rates in occupancy, average daily room rate and revenue generated per available room. ... The Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, which sports two 18-hole championship golf courses designed by Greg Norman, has been named Best New Course/Renovation in the 2004 Golden Links Best of Corporate Golf Awards by Corporate Meetings & Incentives magazine. The resort's 730-room Mediterranean-style hotel is scheduled to open in October.