Disney World tries to lure Canadians back with cheaper tickets and hotel rooms

Disney stacks deals to draw Canadians back

Walt Disney World just rolled out a discount package aimed squarely at Canadian visitors. The deal starts with specially priced four-day or longer theme park tickets at about $115 per day.

Canadians can also save up to 30% on rooms at select Disney resort hotels when they book five or more nights. On top of that, kids ages 3 to 9 eat free when adults buy a dining plan.

The best part? All three deals stack together. The offer covers ticket start dates from Jan. 4 through Oct. 4, 2026.

Canadian visits to Florida fell sharply

There’s a reason Disney is pushing so hard.

Canadian travel to Florida dropped about 15.5% through the first nine months of 2025 compared to the same stretch in 2024.

The third quarter hit especially hard, with only about 507,000 Canadian visitors, down from 597,000 the year before.

That was the lowest quarterly number since late 2021, when pandemic restrictions still kept many travelers home.

For context, Canada sent about 3.27 million visitors to Florida in 2024. It has long been the state’s biggest international tourism market.

A broader boycott drove the decline

The drop goes well beyond Disney. Total foreign travel to the U.S. fell about 5.4% through November 2025, according to the Commerce Department.

But Canadian visits took the biggest hit, falling roughly 22%, or about four million fewer trips compared to 2024.

The decline ties back to trade tensions and political friction between the U.S. and Canada that started building in early 2025. In 2024, about 20.4 million Canadians visited the U.S. and spent an estimated $20.5 billion.

Some families picked Disney parks abroad

Some Canadian families still wanted the Disney experience but chose to skip the U.S. entirely. That shift comes from individual travel agents, though, not official Disney attendance data.

According to Reuters, one Canadian travel agency said about 30% of clients who normally book U.S. Disney trips shifted to options like Disneyland Paris instead.

Disney CFO Hugh Johnston said on the company’s most recent earnings call that the company had less visibility into international bookings for the upcoming quarter and had shifted its marketing focus toward domestic travelers.

This year’s deal stretches wider than usual

Disney has offered Canadian residents discounted tickets for years, typically in the 25% to 33% off range. But the 2026 version covers a wider window than past offers, stretching nearly a full year of valid travel dates.

It also includes Canadian March Break and summer vacation periods, which earlier deals have not always covered.

Industry observers say the extended date range and the ability to combine multiple discounts suggest Disney is working harder than usual to bring Canadian visitors back.

Overall Florida tourism held mostly steady

Despite the Canadian drop, Florida’s total visitor count barely budged. The state recorded about 109.8 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025, roughly even with 2024.

Domestic travelers made up about 91.7% of all visitors and showed a slight increase. Overseas visitors from countries other than Canada rose 4.5%.

The third quarter of 2025 brought about 34.3 million visitors, the highest third-quarter total since 2022. Still, tourism officials say the Canadian decline matters because those visitors tend to stay longer and spend more.

South Florida felt the hit the hardest

South Florida destinations like Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach County depend heavily on Canadian visitors. One Fort Lauderdale hotel reported Canadian visits dropped 32% by midyear 2025.

Palm Beach County typically draws about 370,000 Canadian tourists a year, but that number fell to roughly 253,000 in 2025.

Beyond tourism, Canadian homeowners in South Florida have been selling properties at a faster pace.

Federal Reserve Bank data shows Palm Beach County home listings hit a 10-year high shortly after trade tensions started.

Hotels and tour operators felt it too

The pain spread across the U.S. tourism industry.

Hilton Worldwide reported that per-room revenue and occupancy rates fell in the United States in 2025 while rising in every other region.

One tour operator that specializes in U.S. national park trips said Canadian bookings dropped 93% for 2026. Overall international bookings for U.S. national park tours fell 42% for the same period.

Marriott International’s CEO said in January that the company was working to convince government officials to be more welcoming to international visitors.

Canadians boycotted more than just travel

The travel decline was part of a much bigger picture.

The broader Canadian boycott of U.S. products and services kicked off in early 2025 in response to trade disputes.

By mid-February 2025, an Angus Reid survey found that 48% of Canadians had already canceled or were seriously considering canceling U.S. travel plans.

Statistics Canada data showed Canadians returning from U.S. car trips dropped about 36.9% in July 2025.

Meanwhile, Canadian travel to countries other than the U.S. rose 9.1%.

Spring break will test the recovery

Visit Florida plans to release fourth-quarter 2025 data and full-year estimates in the coming weeks. Griffin has described early numbers as “positive” but has not shared specifics.

Whether Disney’s discount package and outreach efforts can reverse the trend before the key spring break season remains unclear.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has recommended keeping $80 million in annual funding for Visit Florida in the upcoming 2026-2027 fiscal year.

The broader trade and political situation between the two countries continues to shift.

Canada sends Florida more visitors than anyone

Canada sends more visitors to Florida than any other country, about three times as many as the next largest international market, the United Kingdom.

In 2024, Florida set an all-time record with about 143 million total visitors, and about 3.41 million of those came from Canada.

Losing even a portion of that affects hotels, restaurants, theme parks, and tax revenue statewide. Florida tourism officials are also growing visitor numbers from Brazil, the U.K., and Colombia to help fill the gap.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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