Seminole County tourism office earns DMAP accreditation; sports tourism projected to double hotel room nights with proposed indoor complex

Seminole County on Feb. 25 celebrated its tourism office’s receipt of Destinations International’s Destination Marketing Accreditation Program (DMAP) credential and received an update on local lodging and sports-tourism performance. The commission heard that the county’s tourism office met more than 100 standards to earn accreditation and that sports tourism is a major driver of weekend hotel occupancy and visitor spending.

Guy Cunha, the county’s director of economic development and tourism, said staff pursued the DMAP credential at the request of local hoteliers seeking a long-term assurance of professionalism. Jack Wert, a consultant with Destinations International who helped guide the county through the process, presented the accreditation plaque and noted Seminole County is among roughly 250 destinations worldwide to hold the credential.

Performance and sports tourism: Using Smith Travel Research (STR) and Zartico data, Cunha and Danny Tross, the new tourism-division manager, told commissioners that Seminole County’s hotel sector shows a “plateau” trend: year‑over‑year occupancy changes around +/-3 percent, with an observed 3.3 percent occupancy increase but a 4 percent decline in average daily rate (ADR), resulting in a slight RevPAR (revenue per available room) decrease. County slides showed weekend occupancy averaging roughly 83 percent for the year and weekend RevPAR higher than weekdays.

Sports facilities accounted for a strong share of overnight stays: Tross reported that, in fiscal year 2023–24, the county hosted 89 sports events with more than 4,600 teams and 85,000 visitors, which resulted in about 29,000 tracked hotel room nights and an estimated $58 million in economic impact. Projections prepared for a proposed indoor sports complex estimate first-year room nights of about 17,000, rising to about 29,000 in later years; county presenters said the indoor facility could roughly double current sports tourism room-night production to about 60,000 annually and generate nearly $1 billion in economic impact over 30 years (projected year‑1 impact ~$11.8 million; year‑5 ~$22.5 million).

Vacation rentals and tax policy: Cunha reported the county’s vacation-rental listing supply is heavier on Airbnb than VRBO (about 1,347 listings reported) and concentrated in the county’s southwest. He said vacation rentals are not included in the draft tourist development district (TID) ordinance under consideration. The tourism team also flagged limits on the county’s tourist-development tax (TDT) rate — Seminole collects five cents (the statutory local maximum was described as five pennies) — and legislative uncertainty about potential changes to TDT authority as a continuing constraint on local revenue to fund tourism investments.

Challenges and next steps: Cunha listed the county’s top tourism challenges as the demand plateau, TDT revenue constraints, increased competition for sports and events, and venue limitations (most county sports venues are outdoor fields). Commissioners praised the tourism team’s rapid accreditation work and asked staff to provide additional research on vacation-rental impacts on hotel occupancy and to continue work on a tourism improvement district and the indoor sports-complex study.

"We became really one of only 250 organizations worldwide that have attained this accreditation credential," Jack Wert said during the plaque presentation. Guy Cunha added that the accreditation helps ensure consistent professional management for a possible long-term tourism improvement district. "We have our most expensive rates on the weekend...that leads us to have a RevPAR...of $94.73 compared to $75.39 weekday versus weekend," Cunha said while describing occupancy patterns that support sports-tourism strategies.