One of the world's top destinations for vacationers, Orlando boasts an abundance of theme parks and entertainment attractions like nowhere else on earth. Between 40 and 50 million people come to Orlando each year, queuing up for the attractions at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, and Downtown Disney. Almost as famous is SeaWorld Orlando, with its entertaining shows featuring marine mammals and an amusement park replete with roller coasters and water attractions, Aquatica and Discovery Cove. Universal Orlando is the area's third major park, comprising Universal Studios Florida, CityWalk, and Islands of Adventure. According to Forbes Magazine, Orlando is America's most-visited city, out-drawing even New York and Las Vegas.

All of the major attractions have hotels on the premises, and many visitors choose to stay on the territory of their favorite playground. Doing so often includes significant discounts and other benefits at the park associated with the hotel. Other hotels near the major attractions typically feature discounts to the parks too, and most provide shuttle service not only to the major theme parks, but to shopping areas as well. Realizing that many shoppers in the Orlando area have come from distant cities, hoteliers have put up accommodations near the major shopping malls.

Once the center of one of the world's major citrus-growing regions, Orlando began its transformation into a tourist Mecca in the late 1960s, when Walt Disney announced his plans to build a major theme park in the area. Today, Orlando has more hotels than any other U.S. city, and only Las Vegas has a larger number of hotel rooms. With all those hotel rooms, it should come as no surprise that Orlando also is one of America's busiest cities for conventions and conferences. The principal venue for such gatherings is the Orange County Convention Center, which expanded to its present capacity in 2004, and is now the second-largest convention center in the United States. With the expansion of the Convention Center, Orlando's hotel stock evolved from catering primarily to budget-conscious family vacationers to becoming more oriented to business-class travelers. The Orlando area now boasts such luxury hotels as the JW Marriott Orlando, the Ritz-Carlton Orlando at Grande Lakes, and the Waldorf Astoria-Orlando. Only Chicago and Las Vegas host more conventions than Orlando.

While the development of Orlando as a convention Mecca and cinema production center has sparked the sprouting of luxury hotels, the longer tradition of the area as a destination for family vacations means that affordable hotel comfort is amply available as well. Visitors who crave the night life are likely to look for lodgings along Universal Drive, with the area's trendiest restaurants, bars, clubs, and shopping boutiques.