Disney PANICS as Canadian Attendance Reaches ALL-TIME LOW

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Travel agencies and companies specializing in Disney vacations say many Canadians are following through on promises to boycott travel to the US.

[00:00:09]>> The new year means some new announcements when it comes to things happening at [music] the theme parks here in our area.

[00:00:16]>> Trips to the United States used to be common for Kelly Bergquist, but the ongoing trade war made her reconsider.

[00:00:22]>> 1.29 million Canadians walked through Walt Disney World's gates in 2024. It was a record, the highest single-year Canadian attendance in Orlando's entire history. [music] And then the trade war started. And then came the tariffs. And then the 51st state [music] comments.

[00:00:40]And then one by one, those 1.29 million Canadians started booking [music] Disneyland Paris instead. This is not a story about theme park attendance. This is a story about what happens when a country's best customers decide [music] collectively that they are done. Let's start with what Disney itself is saying.

[00:00:58][music] On its most recent earnings call, Walt Disney's CFO, Hugh Johnston, admitted that the company is shifting its marketing and sales efforts away from international [music] visitors and toward domestic American travelers. That is a direct on there confession from Disney's own finance chief that the [music] international audience, led by Canadians, is no longer showing up at the rate the company needs. Disney issued a formal warning about international visitation headwinds going into 2026 and said the slowdown was deepening yearover-year.

[00:01:33]The company's own 10K filing confirmed that domestic attendance at US parks was down 1% in 2025, the first decline since co. [music] And Disney's internal analysis points directly at the international drop as the reason why aggressive discount [music] offers, the likes of which had not been seen in years, were being pushed to fill the gap. Think about that for a second. Disney, the most powerful entertainment [music] brand on Earth, the company that has never needed to beg anyone to come, is now running emergency discount campaigns targeted specifically at Canadians. A 4-day park pass for $115 per day. Special pricing for Canadian March breaks. A website banner that literally says you can even get specially priced tickets for Canadian March breaks and summer. [music] The most visited theme park destination on the planet is on sale [music] for Canadians because Canadians stopped coming. And Canadians are not just declining Disney, they are replacing it.

[00:02:33]Christine Fiorelli, the owner of a Canadian travel agency called Fairy Tale Dreams and Destinations, [music] told Reuters that 30% of her clients who normally book a US Disney [music] vacation are now booking in different countries. 30% gone in a single booking cycle. her exact words. Many travelers are still eager for that magical Disney experience, but prefer to avoid supporting US-based parks at this time.

[00:02:59]It still holds a place in their heart.

[00:03:02]But not now. Not now. That is the phrase that should be pinned to every boardroom wall in Orlando. April Scott, a British Columbia resident who has taken her family to Disney World for years, booked [music] Disneyland Paris for 2026 instead. She told CNN exactly [music] why. Quote, "It is not that far-fetched that we fly down to Florida and all of a sudden Trump says he hates [music] Canada and he seizes our passports and we are stuck. That is not a fringe thought. That is a mother making a rational calculation about what could [music] happen at an American airport in 2026."

[00:03:37]And she chose Paris. [music] Katherine Norris from Toronto told Reuters she is a huge Disney lover, but given the current political climate, [music] her family is not traveling to anywhere in the United States. They are booking Disney vacations in Europe and boarding Disney cruises that depart from Singapore. Susan Morurell, a retired government communications director, canled a Disney World trip she had planned with her grandchildren after reading about the political climate.

[00:04:03]These are not radicals. These are the exact demographic that Walt Disney World was built to serve. Families [music] with disposable income, deep brand loyalty, and the travel habits to match.

[00:04:14]And they are choosing Paris. They are choosing Singapore. They are choosing anywhere that is not here. Now, here is where the numbers become genuinely alarming for the American tourism industry as a whole. Canada is the single largest source of international visitors to the United States. In 2024, Canadians made 20.4 million visits and [music] generated $20.5 billion in spending, supporting an estimated 140,000 American jobs. The US Travel Association ran the math on what even a modest pullback would cost. A [music] 10% reduction in Canadian travel alone would mean 2 million fewer visits, [music] $2.1 billion in loss spending, and 14,000 job losses. That was the 10% scenario. The actual decline in 2025 was 21%. [music] Total Canadian arrivals to the US fell by roughly $4.2 [music] million visitors. The estimated spending loss $4.5 billion in a single [music] year, more than double what industry groups had projected. And the trend is accelerating, not stabilizing. According to Statistics Canada data released in April 2026, Canadians driving to the United States are down 35% compared to March 2024 before the trade tensions began. [music] Air travel is down 14% yearover-year in March 2026 alone. That is [music] the 10th straight month of doubledigit declines. 450,000 Canada US airline seats were cut in the first quarter of 2026. Airransat suspended 11 routes to Florida and the US altogether. WestJet [music] cut American capacity by 19%. The infrastructure to move Canadians across the border is being systematically dismantled [music] because demand has collapsed. Meanwhile, Canadian international travel everywhere except the United [music] States is up 5% yearover-year as of March 2026.

[00:06:18]For the third straight month, more Canadians flew to international destinations than drove south into the US, flipping a pattern that had held for decades. [music] London is capturing what Orlando lost. Disneyland Paris is booking what Disney [music] World expected. Mexican resorts are selling out to Canadians who would have been in Fort Lauderdale. A yuggov survey commissioned by Flight Center Canada found 62% of Canadians say they are less likely to visit the United [music] States in 2026. 62% of the country that generates $20 billion a year for the American economy.

[00:06:55]And Disney World has now removed the Canadian Pavilion attraction from [music] Epcot, the park that literally has a section dedicated to Canada, a section Canadians have visited for decades with a sense of pride and recognition. It is gone. At the same time, Disney is running discount [music] campaigns trying to lure Canadians back.

[00:07:13]It removed the one feature of the park that was specifically theirs. [music] The message that sends, intentional or not, is exactly what Canadian travelers say they already feel. Unwelcome. Here is what makes this boycott different from every other tourism downturn. Price drops and promotional campaigns can fix a recessiondriven decline. They cannot [music] fix a sentiment-driven one. Amir Islon, president and CEO of Longwoods International [music] and a 37-year veteran of the travel industry, told Forbes he has never seen anything like what the Canadians have pulled off in his entire career. This one is being felt, [music] and it is not going away quickly. When 30% of a travel agency's Disney bookings redirect to Paris in a single year, those families discover Disneyland [music] Paris. They find out it is actually excellent. They come home and tell their friends. The behavior gets rewired and the next year the 30% [music] becomes 40%. Not because of the politics but because of the habit.

[00:08:18]Disney is already deep in that dynamic.

[00:08:21]It warned of headwinds. It pivoted to domestic marketing. It [music] launched discount campaigns that would have been unthinkable 2 years ago. and it is competing not just with the boycott but with Disneyland Paris, Tokyo [music] Disney Sea and the Singapore cruise departures that Canadian families are now genuinely [music] excited about. The magic did not disappear. It just moved.

[00:08:42]So, here is the question Disney and every American theme [music] park, hotel, airline, and tourism board has to answer right now. How do you win back a customer who left on principal, found out they did not actually [music] need you, and is now happily spending their money somewhere else? Because 1.29 million Canadians visited Disney World in [music] 2024. And right now, 30% of them are already in Paris. What do you think? Is Disney's Canadian problem [music] temporary or permanent? Drop it in the comments. And if you want to keep following how political decisions are emptying out America's most iconic destinations, [music] subscribe. The data keeps moving and it keeps moving in one