ORLANDO, Fla. — Visit Orlando and Orange County staff will have 30 days to agree on what the tourism agency needs to do to comply with the findings of an audit of its spending and with the contract it has with Orange County.
The decision came after a lengthy Orange County commission meeting that discussed Visit Orlando’s return on investment and whether the organization was getting too much money – and how accountable it was for its spending.
Visit Orlando CEO Casandra Matej addressed different points of the audit, including why her staff needed matching orange sneakers that auditors questioned. Her team brought in a small army of business owners to speak positively about the organization, and she followed up by telling commissioners they were getting a 33-to-1 return on their investment.
“We want to be a good, transparent partner, held to accountability,” she said. “Every dollar in the Visit Orlando budget is accounted for.”
For some commissioners, it wasn’t enough. Upon hearing the total amount of misclassified spending was estimated to be near $20 million, Commissioner Mayra Uribe, a critic of Visit Orlando, called on the organization to return the money.
Mayor Jerry Demings said he supported funding Visit Orlando, though discussions would continue about the 30% of tourism development tax dollars they currently receive and whether that number should be lowered.
He was asked why Orange County didn’t install more guardrails and oversight over Visit Orlando when they created a new contract with the agency in 2019.
“Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know, and as we have moved forward… we learned some things from that, and so we’ll make some adjustments over time,” he said.agree on
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