ORLANDO—Tourism and travel is once again making its mark on Orlando’s office market. Although the summer months have seen slower growth, travel and hospitality tenants have inked three of the largest office leases in Orlando so far this year.

Walt Disney Co. leased 100,500 square feet. Planet Hollywood’s signed a 27,500-square-foot lease, and Priceline.com’s completed 26,625-square-foot deal.

“Every part of the tourism and hospitality industry in Orlando is expanding,” Yvonne Baker, a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, tells GlobeSt.com. She pointed to Disney’s Art and Animation Resort and Universal Orlando building a new hotel on site that should also drive more growth in the hospitality sector--and trickle down to the office sector--through 2014.

On the downside, JLL also pointed to signs that hiring numbers are dropping-off, with payroll expansion slowing each month since February 2012, according to its latest market report. The firm attributes this to the traditionally slower summer months, and continued economic concerns.

“We’re seeing some slow down,” Baker says. “Our researchers think tourism is going to remain strong, but not as robust as in the past couple of years because the Brazilian economy is slowing down.”

Interestingly, healthcare—one of the top growth markets statewide—is experiencing a shortage in labor supply despite rising demand. As JLL sees it, the most important question facing the commercial real estate market is whether these slowing hiring numbers are a sign of things to come, or just a temporary dip.

What is certain is that Downtown Orlando is the brightest spot o the local office market. Orlando’s CBD is experiencing a direct vacancy rate of 15% while vacancies in suburban markets are still hovering in the 20% range, JLL reports.

Along these lines, the urban core saw positive net absorption of 90,000 square feet while the suburbs saw net-negative absorption of 26,000 square feet. There remains no significant new supply slated to enter the market, the firm says, which should result in gradually falling vacancy rates and improving absorption levels.

“As markets like Downtown and South Orlando tighten up, concessions start drying up, rental rates start increasing, and that pushes the demand into other markets just like it always does,” Baker says. “We’re moving into a period of recovery on the leasing front.”