Orlando Takes Center Stage for Huge Travel Industry Show

Top tourism officials from the Floridian city of Orlando are staging the biggest commercial tradeshow for the local market in the past five years.

An estimated 1,600 travel buyers from 70 countries and more than 200 international journalists kicked off Saturday in Orlando the Travel Industry Association of America´s International Powwow, a five-day event in which the city will be showcasing itself at a time when both local hotel occupancy rates and international visitors are on the decline.

Orlando will show off its standard goods with food and entertainment catered on separate nights by Sea World Orlando, Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World.

The U.S. market share of international visitors is at an all-time low, dropping 35 percent since 1992 with a cost of $286 billion in lost revenue overall, according to statistics from the Travel Industry Association.

The host city expects to reap a hefty chunk of the business at Powwow. About $4 billion worth of transactions are projected to take place with Florida capturing about $400 million, authorities believe.

That´s good news for Orlando where international visitors have not returned to the pre 9/11 pace of growth and local hotel occupancy has hovered around 70 percent in recent months and is declining.