Hospitality and Tourism Industry continues to grow in Central Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. — Theme parks, restaurants, and hotels are busy in Central Florida.

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In 2022, 74 million people visited the area. That’s a 25% increase over 2021.

“Almost 40% of our economy is driven by hospitality and tourism,” Pam Nabors, the President and CEO of CareerSource Central Florida, said. “There is big work force needed.”

Those packed establishments need workers to meet the demand.

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Almost 270,000 people work in the hospitality and tourism industry in Central Florida.

Nearly 60,000 work in hotels and lodging.

“Our unemployment rate is at 3.1%,” Nilda Blanco, the SVP of Workforce Solutions for CareerSource Central Florida, said. “Statistically, we don’t have a labor problem.”

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A booming industry does have its challenges.

“People are aging,” Nabors said. “Baby boomers are saying ‘maybe I don’t want to work full time.’ We have many people in leadership in professions in hospitality and other industries that need opportunities that maybe are part-time. Yet, our industry still needs full-time workers.”

Industry leaders say they will start to dig into the younger generations to continue on the upward trend.

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At Monday’s State of the Hospitality and Tourism Summit, research showed these industries contributed to a new all-time high total economic impact of $87.6 billion in 2022, a 31% increase over 2021.

This also included generating more than 449,000 jobs.

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