ORLANDO, Florida -

The city of Orlando is the county seat of Orange County, Florida.  A 2003 local population count gave the city had a total population of 199,336 (metropolitan area nearly 1.8 million).  The city is best known for the tourist attractions in the area, particularly the nearby Walt Disney World, which is in the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Other area attractions include SeaWorld and the Universal Orlando Resort, the latter of which is in Orlando proper. Downtown Orlando has recently seen much redevelopment, despite being far from the main tourist attractions.

To no surprise, a large part of the Orlando area economy is involved in the tourist industry. Tourism surrounding Orlando is worth billions of dollars in the area's economy. Combined domestic and international tourism during 2004 is 48 million visitors. The convention industry is also huge in the area due to the proximity to the area attractions. The Orange County Convention Center is the one of the large convention complexes in the United States. The Orlando International Airport, a world-class facility, and is one of the most heavily traveled airports in the world.

The area's economy is also has other industries other than tourism, like the huge presence of manufacturing in the region. Lockheed-Martin has a large manufacturing facility for aeronautical crafts and related high tech research due to Orlando's proximity to the NASA Kennedy Space Center. The area is also home to many computer software and hardware firms located that here in the 1970's and 1980's such as IBM. Other areas of that are developing rapidly is in the film industry with the presence of Universal Studios and Disney-MGM Studios there for supplement. Numerous office complexes for large corporations popped up along the Interstate 4 corridor north of Orlando, especially in Maitland.