Orange County recently celebrated some record-setting months of tourist-tax collections, including the highest ever collections for the month of June.
Orange County Tourist Tax
Specifically in Orange County, Florida, there is a tourist development tax placed on hotel stays and other short-term rentals that last for under six months. The tax, which totals 6%, is used to pay for the maintenance and operation of public destinations within the county, such as convention centers or museums, as well as promoting tourism. The taxes are collected monthly, and later a report is filed with all of the public information.
Recently, the office of Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond released the tax collections report for June 2025. The reports often lag a few weeks behind the actual end of the month, so June is the most recently released data. In a statement on the report, Diamond noted that “June 2025 collections were the highest June collections on record.”
Epic Universe
Epic Universe
In just one month, the total tax collections increased to around $33.7 million, which is a 10.3% increase over June 2024. Diamond goes on to state, “The strong collections in June represent the first full month following the grand opening of Epic Universe on May 22.”
As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, June 2025 is now the “second record-setting month in a row.” The tourist-tax income for May 2025 had already set records by reaching $30 million, which was a 5.7% increase over last year. The chart above, provided by the Orlando Sentinel, shows year-over-year percent change in collections from the tourist development tax in Orange County, compared to the same months in 2024.
However, it is important to note that the amount of additional taxes accrued solely by Epic Universe is not reported, as Universal’s parent company, Comcast Corp., does not break down its financial information by each individual park. However, the Orlando Sentinel notes that there was a similar bump in tax collections following the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom as well as Islands of Adventure, ” Disney World’s Animal Kingdom bumped collections 8% after opening, while Islands of Adventure at Universal drove a 2% increase.”
Overall, with the fiscal year beginning on October 1 of 2024, the current tourist-tax collections are already $16.3 million ahead of last year, so far. We will likely see more record-breaking months in the future.
In other Epic Universe news, Mark Woodbury, Chairman and CEO of Universal Destinations & Experiences, said in an interview that Universal is already thinking about ways to expand the park with “new attractions” and “new intellectual property.”
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