Gabrielle Russon
A new Orange County audit is raising concerns about Visit Orlando’s spending public money on everything from the CEO’s car allowance to arena sky boxes and a $75,000 Michelin event in New York City as the probe questions the organization’s return on investment for Central Florida.
Visit Orlando (VO) receives $100 million annually from the countywide hotel tax — otherwise known as the tourist development tax (TDT) — to advertise Central Florida tourism. Still, the audit accused the organization of inappropriately spending some of that public money. The 66-page audit released Tuesday by Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond’s office comes as VO is facing growing scrutiny from local officials who are pushing to use the millions of hotel tax revenue to expand SunRail or toward other community problems.
“The long-awaited audit of @VisitOrlando is out — and it’s not good news for taxpayers. Improper use of public $$, lavish spending, questionable ROI,” wrote Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat who sponsored legislation to reform TDT this Session.
Meanwhile, VO leaders defended the organization and insisted they are good stewards of taxpayer money, although they acknowledged they are willing to make changes based on the audit’s findings.
“Recognizing that audits are opportunities to learn and improve processes, Visit Orlando has already worked through and implemented many of these new requests and will be working with the county to clarify others. We value our work and partnership with Orange County, which continues to result in significant economic and community impact,” CEO Casandra Matej said in a statement.
The audit found VO spent $860,000 on three luncheons in 2023 to celebrate VO’s milestones and discuss the tourism trends as well as $20,600 for two Kia Center sky boxes at the 2023 NCAA March Madness tournament.
For the arena boxes, “Only eight of the 48 attendees were potential clients. The rest were VO staff, VO members, and elected officials,” the audit said. “As only eight clients attended, the second sky box does not appear necessary for entertaining clients and should not have been paid for with TDT Funds.”
Matej responded to the audit by saying the sky boxes were used for “client engagement and tourism sales at a high-visibility national event which had an economic impact on our community.”
Another time, VO spent $75,000 on taxpayer money to showcase a Michelin-starred Orlando restaurant in New York City — a questionable return on investment, the audit said.
“We identified several events where the ROI was unclear, primarily due to their geographical location. One example is the Michelin Event held in New York City, which was intended to promote tourism by showcasing a Michelin-starred Orlando restaurant. The event was marketed as featuring Capa, an Orlando restaurant. It was held at The Musket Room in New York City and primarily featured dishes prepared by The Musket Room’s chefs,” the audit said. “This dinner, which hosted 40 guests, was paid for with TDT Funds totaling $75,000 — $1,875 per guest. Given that the event was held out of state and did not prominently feature the promoted Florida restaurant, we question whether it delivered sufficient value in terms of promoting Orange County tourism.”
Matej argued it was not a “dinner” but an ‘expansive media event” leading to promoting Orlando in People Magazine, Travel + Leisure and Michelin Guide website, equal to a $5.7 million media value.
VO also paid Matej’s $12,210 car allowance from the hotel tax proceeds, the audit said in addition to “$6,505 of TDT Funds on architectural design, a personal refrigerator for its COO’s office, and posters and window clings for non-client-facing areas — none of which promote tourism.”
The audit’s finding said the county did not appropriately monitor VO and also pointed out the county government has not done an independent economic analysis on VO.
“This analysis could enable the BCC (Board of County Commissioners) to better understand the benefits and costs associated with its spending on VO and other TDT recipients,” the audit said, adding, ““VO has received more than $100 million in TDT Funds every year since 2022. This amount has regularly increased. This Agreement is the County’s largest annual TDT commitment and warrants ongoing oversight.”
Among the audit’s findings was VO inappropriately classified several million dollars from the hotel tax as private dollars and then failed to reimburse hotel tax money.
“VO commingled TDT and Private Funds in one reserve account. As of Dec. 31, 2023, the account had a balance of $15 million. We confirmed that 52% of the amount had been transferred from TDT Funds, and only $875,000 had been transferred from Private Funds,” the audit said. “VO is unable to provide evidence of the source of funds for the remaining balance of $6,367,794.”
VO also appeared to be lobbying state lawmakers without county board approval, the audit said.
In March 2023 Matej spoke with lawmakers about bills impacting TDT and VISIT FLORIDA’s future, according to the audit.
When reached for comment, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said he accepted the audit’s results.
“It is my expectation that Visit Orlando will fully comply with all audit recommendations, Demings said.
Matej defended VO in a statement, saying VO worked collaboratively with the comptroller’s office for the audit and she was proud of her organization’s “ongoing commitment to transparency and financial accountability.”
“Visit Orlando is a good steward of the funding it receives, both TDT and non TDT, which directly supports our mission to inspire, promote and grow global travel to Orlando for economic and community benefit. The audit centers primarily on new requests to re-classify funds (for accounting purposes) to our non TDT account. We’re working with the county on some of these re-classifying requests as a majority of funds did not originate from hotel tax collections and nearly half of the funds in discussion were a COVID era tax credit,” her statement said. “In addition, recommendations were made to update certain processes and procedures that were not addressed in previous audits.”
VO, whose job is to market Central Florida to grow tourism, received more than $100 million from a portion of the county hotel tax in 2023. That year, the hotel tax brought in $353 million in revenue as tourism is big business in Orlando, home of Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and SeaWorld Orlando.
This year, state legislators eyed tapping the hotel tax money for public transportation or to lower property taxes. But during the last-minute budget process this Session, the Legislature ultimately nixed an hotel tax reform and kept things status quo.
