As Seminole County moves forward with plans to build an indoor events complex , officials hope the facility will boost tourist tax revenues at a time when the number of visitors to the county has remained stagnant.
Seminole — which lacks big-name theme parks and other glitzy tourist attractions like neighboring Orange and Osceola counties — has largely relied on amateur athletic tournaments to draw visitors for the past decade.
But county officials project tourist tax revenues will drop by $200,000 this year after its hotel occupancy rate dipped slightly to about 70% in 2025. Seminole charges a 5% tourist tax — also known as a bed tax — on every hotel room bill.
The projected decline comes after tourist tax revenues had jumped 7% last year to about $7.2 million.
Across the United States, the average occupancy rate for hotels in 2025 was about 58%, down nearly 3% from the year before, according to CoStar.
Gui Cunha, Seminole’s director of economic development and tourism, said the sluggish hotel performance is a result of a so-called K-shaped economy, where individuals with high incomes because of rising investments are booking luxury hotel rooms while lower-wage earners struggle with inflation.
About 90% of Seminole’s hotel properties are either mid-scale or economy. The remaining are slightly higher scale, including the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary and the Hilton Orlando in Altamonte Springs, but the county does not have any luxury hotels.
“The upscale properties are not seeing as much of a negative decline,” said Cunha, adding that the mid-tier hotels that appeal to the middle class are seeing less demand.
The average daily rate in 2025 for a hotel room in Seminole was $103.97, a drop of 2.4% from $106.55 in 2024, according to county data.
Still, Seminole officials said they are optimistic the county can pay for a new indoor events center using primarily tourist tax revenue. The facility would be used for athletic tournaments, such as basketball and volleyball, and also large events such as high school graduations.
“We are very confident,” Cunha said.
The planned 172,000-square-foot facility, projected to cost upwards of $100 million, would sit on an old farm field at Moore’s Station Road and East Lake Mary Boulevard, near the Orlando Sanford International Airport.
County commissioners are scheduled to dive into more details of the complex, including costs, size and design, at a March 10 meeting.
To help pay for the project, commissioners last year approved a new tourism improvement district fee, or TID, allowing hotels with at least 60 rooms to tack on a $1.75 per-night fee in addition to the 5% hotel bed tax.
Collections for TID tax began April 1 and brought in $1.6 million through September 2025. County officials project those TID collections will rise to $3.1 million for this fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30.
Still, revenues from the hotel bed tax and TID would not be enough to pay for the entire facility. Commissioner Lee Constantine proposed also using revenue from food, beer and parking sales.
Officials say the facility will bring more events, and in effect, lure visitors and increased revenues.
“The indoor complex will take Seminole County to the next level,” said Danny Trosset, Seminole’s tourism division manager. “As you can see, the [tourism] forecast is flat. We have to find creative ways to right the plateau. And the indoor sports complex is going to allow us to bring in new visitors and new events.”
In 2016, Seminole opened its Boombah Sports Complex, an outdoor venue off East Lake Mary Boulevard near the Sanford airport. The complex hosted 46 events in the last fiscal year, which brought in 99,136 visitors and led to 14,197 hotel bookings, according to county data.
Kids walk to practice at Boombah Sports Complex in Sanford on Tuesday, February 10, 2026. The facility attracts sports tournaments to Seminole County,and helps fill hotel rooms. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)
“Unfortunately, we have been limited with outdoor venues, and we are always at risk due to weather,” Trosset said of the county’s need for an indoor sports complex.
Skye Buckner, director of sales for the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary, said a new indoor facility will bring visitors and fill hotels throughout the year instead of just in the late winter and early spring, the peak time for visitors to Central Florida.
“I’ve been in Seminole County since 1999 in the hotel business, and the last time we saw an opportunity like this was with Boombah [opening in 2016],” she said. “You see the numbers. We’re starting to plateau. So this is the next big-demand generator for the county.”
