ORLANDO-Randy A. Garfield, executive vice president, sales and travel operations, Walt Disney World, is the new chairman of the 2002 board of directors at the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Garfield and his new directors are racing the clock to create new marketing themes that will rejuvenate the area's sagging hospitality industry.

Resort tax collections were down 26% in November, slightly improved from a decline of 28% in October, according to Orange County comptroller Martha Haynie. December is expected to be another soft revenue month, both for the hoteliers and the county. The 5% room tax pays for a large share of the area's marketing and promotional programs in the United States and abroad.

Metro Orlando's 110,000 hotel and motel rooms posted a November occupancy of 52% versus 68% in the same month last year, according to the latest numbers from Smith Travel Research Inc. of Hendersonville, TN.

Nationwide, hotels average 53.5% occupancy in November, the first time in 12 months the national average has beaten Orlando numbers.

Average room rates were $79.31 compared to $89.44 in the comparable 2000 period. Room rates were down 23.5% versus an average decline of 8.9% nationwide.

New officers at the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau are John Grisworld, president, Tishman Hotel Corp., bureau chairman; mark McHugh, president/CEO, Gatorland, Orlando, bureau vice chairman; Keith Kasen, executive vice president/general manager, SeaWorld Orlando, bureau secretary; Barbara Koenig, president, Ten/United, bureau treasurer; Alan Villaverde, vice president/general manager, Peabody Orlando Hotel, bureau past chairman; and Ann Sontag, publisher, Orlando Business Journal, director-at-large.

Instant Insights /

Disney's Garfield Chairing Directors' Board at Hospitality Group

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