For many northern visitors, a trek to the state's 825 miles of beaches and local attractions like Disney, Universal and SeaWorld marks the official start of summer.

After a slow 2023 and predictions that this summer will be about the same, Visit Orlando this week reported a 16% increase in vacation bookings compared to last year.

At Fun Spot, some of the visitors WESH 2 News spoke with said vacation is certainly a big part of the family budget, but they still felt it was important to get away this week.

Kearia Hilton took her son Ayce to the park for his 7th birthday.

“I would say it's more expensive. Gas is more expensive, rooms are more expensive, I would say they seem to have gotten more expensive,” Hilton said.

Park managers said record tourism in the country's first quarter appears to be continuing, with vacationers and locals already looking for day trips in early July.

“People still plan to come here every year during the holiday season to spend time with their family. It's not something you want to put off from year to year. You want to do it every year,” said John Chidester.

Brett Laiken of Visit Florida said the predicted weak year of visitors resulted in a surprising number of vacationers after the company invested $5 million in national TV and social media advertising since last fall.

The campaign, which includes biking, hiking and snorkeling trails in lakes, rivers and off our coast, was so successful that it was extended through last month. Another $5 million will be invested this month to extend the campaign through spring.

Central Florida has benefited most from this investment through both domestic and international visitors.

“When we ran our trails campaign, Orlando accounted for 17% of visits across Florida. That was the highest of any other part of the state and turned out to be just great,” Laiken said.

Some encouraging news from the latest Tourist Development Tax revenue report: May revenue increased 8.3% compared to May last year, reaching its highest level ever.

It was the fourth month in the last five, and revenue increased year-over-year.

Reserves total $395 million, but fiscal year revenues are flat due to weak summer and fall conditions last year.

The year 2025 could certainly turn out to be a successful year for tourism, as Universal is opening at least some parts of its Epic Universe theme park here on Universal Boulevard near the convention center.

In addition, 14,000 new jobs will be created. Disney recently announced an agreement with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to open a fifth major theme park.