Jan. 14–Seminole County officials are touting plans for a 110-room hotel at the Orlando Sanford International Airport as another sign that the small — but fast-growing — airport is increasing in its importance to Central Florida tourism.

The new four-story Hampton Inn by Hilton will be the first hotel on airport property. Construction is expected to start in May in a vacant field off East Airport Boulevard near Golden Lake Park on the airport's southside.

With more and more travelers flying into and out of the Sanford airport every year, the hotel will provide visitors — including tourists, business travelers, sports enthusiasts — with a much-needed place to spend the night in an area that lacks overnight accommodations, officials said.

"This is great news," Seminole Commission Chairman John Horan said. "It will have a mixture of travelers, including business travelers during the week, and travelers wanting to use our new sports complex."

Seminole's new mega-sports complex — which opened last year — sits about two miles east from the future hotel site. The hotel project is expected to be complete in just over a year.

Within the past two decades, the Sanford airport — once known mostly as a place for corporate jets and pilot training — has grown into Central Florida's second-largest airport.

In 2016, the Sanford airport — which sits just south of State Road 46 — handled more than 2.5 million passengers, an increase of about 300,000 from the previous year. That's a surge from 1995 when the tiny aviation field hosted only 48,000 passengers.

Sanford officials say the appeal of their airport is that it's quicker and easier for passengers to fly in and out when compared with the giant Orlando International Airport, which served nearly 42 million passengers last year. In fact, the Sanford airport is marketed with the slogan "simpler, faster and better," a reference to its three-letter aviation code of SFB.

"We are thrilled about that," Diane Crews, the airport's president and chief executive officer, said of the passenger increase. "And this hotel will be used by passengers who may have very early flights, or people who arrived late and are looking for a hotel."

In the coming weeks, the airport will kick off a $43 million expansion project that will add new gates, baggage carousels and security lanes.

When Seminole opened its new sports complex last May, county leaders saw it as a way of filling up area hotel rooms and eateries with thousands of out-of-state amateur athletes and visitors taking part in large tournaments at the facility.

The new hotel will add to Seminole's current number of existing hotel rooms of just over 4,400.

"This is going to make using the airport more convenient," said Frank Ioppolo Jr., chairman of the Sanford Airport Authority, about the new hotel. "We are tremendously excited."

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