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Leisure, Tourism & Sport · Local to national

Orlando

Our own city: a regional economy built substantially on a single visitor industry.

How this page works

Six sections are filled in: the parts that are stable and factual. Four are yours — evidence, perspectives, evaluation and the current connection. Those four are where the marks are, and they are deliberately empty. A case study only counts once you have completed them.

↧ Download the Orlando template Word · ready to fill in · the six given sections already completed
Before you write about this one

You live inside this case. That makes it easier to research and harder to stay detached about.

§ 01

The ten-part record

01 · Location Filled in for you

Orlando, Florida
28.5°N 81.4°W · scale: Local to national

See this case in context on the case study map.

02 · Geographic context Filled in for you

A fast-growing inland Florida metropolitan area whose economy is dominated by a concentration of large purpose-built attractions, supported by hospitality, transport and construction. Visitor volume drives employment, wages and land use.

03 · Processes Filled in for you

What is changing here, and the mechanisms driving it.

  • Purpose-built attraction development as a growth pole
  • Employment concentration in low-wage service work
  • Land use conversion to tourism and housing
  • Vulnerability of a single-sector economy to shocks
04 · Evidence You build this

Find these, and write the year beside every figure. A statistic without a date is not evidence.

  • Annual visitor numbers to the region
  • Share of regional employment in leisure and hospitality
  • Median hospitality wage against median housing cost
  • What happened to both during the 2020 shutdown
Your figures go here
05 · Stakeholders Filled in for you

Who is affected, and separately, who holds the decision-making power.

  • Hospitality workers and their housing costs
  • Major attraction operators
  • Local government dependent on tourism tax revenue
  • Long-term residents facing rising costs

Named above as a starting list. For each one, add what they actually want, and note where two of them want incompatible things.

06 · Perspectives You build this

Find two sources that disagree about this case — not two summaries of the same view. Record who each is, what they claim, and what interest they have. A perspective without a holder is not a perspective.

Your notes go here
07 · Concepts Filled in for you

Which of the six apply here, and what each one reveals.

  • Place. A destination manufactured rather than inherited.
  • Power. A small number of very large operators shaping regional decisions.
  • Possibility. Diversification is discussed far more often than achieved.
08 · Evaluation You build this

How significant is this? How effective was any response? What are the limitations of your evidence? What else could explain the pattern? Reach a judgement and defend it.

Your notes go here
09 · Current connection You build this

One dated development from the last twelve months. Does it strengthen, weaken or complicate the case as recorded above? Update this every time you revisit the case.

Your notes go here
10 · Exam use Filled in for you

Tourism at the local and national scale; economic dependence and its risks.

Now go and build the other four

Reading this page is not the same as having a case study. Take the template, find the evidence, and fill in sections 4, 6, 8 and 9 in your own words.

↧ Download the template Or take the blank version for a case of your own
§ 02

Where to look

Start here. Prefer the organisation that produced the data over anyone summarising it.

  • Visit Orlando research visitorlando.com
    Publishes the visitor numbers. It is also a marketing body — note that when you cite it.
  • US Bureau of Labor Statistics bls.gov
    Employment and wages by sector for the metro area. Independent of the tourism industry.
  • Orange County, Florida orangecountyfl.net
    Tourist development tax collections — a direct measure of visitor spending.

Links checked 27 August 2026 · external links open in a new tab

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