Summer tourism down 60% ???

[crzy4dsny]

I read an article in the newspaper that said summer tourism is expected to be down 60% this year. It stated alot of people who normally travel during the summer are not. The reasons it gave were terrorism and sars. People are going to take short trips that they can drive to. Do you think the crowds at Disney will be smaller this summer than normal? Has anyone decided not to go to Disney this summer because of these reasons?

 

[phanomouse]

I have a hard time imagining WDW crowds being down... I have been down twice this year and both time I have seen large crowds and booked resorts. I am going back down in august and decided not to use my DVC points but to just stay somewhere we haven't in a while, yeah right couldn't get anything we wanted so I pushed it back to Sept and still had a hard time getting what we wanted. So my final statement would be that I do agree that over all the travel industry is hurting and could be down by 60%, but I believe Disney has come up with some pretty good packages and I don't think they will be hurting this year as much as some have speculated.

 

[peachgirl]

I don't know what it will be like the rest of the summer, but if the crowds we experienced 6/10-6/15 are any indication it'll be a good one for Disney. Some of the crowds at MK during parade and fireworks times were worse than what we experienced at Christmas. Many of the busses we rode to and from OKW were standing room only. We were a bit disappointed. We were hoping that along with the reduced park hours we might at least not have to deal with huge crowds. I'm not sure where they're getting their estimates from, but business sure didn't seem down to me.

 

[wdwguide]

Visitation at WDW has been quite good this year, considering the circumstances that there haven't been any major new attractions in a long time and there are no special celebrations going on. When Mission: SPACE opens in August, it'll give them a nice boost through the slow August/September period as well.

 

[kilee]

A close friend of mine is going for 10 days, leaving 6/29. They had a really hard time getting the rooms they wanted. Actually they had to take their 2nd choice resort @ Disney. They booked quite a few months ago too.

 

[grinningghost]

We'll be at WDW in August, and nothing will stop us. It's been 3 long years since we've had a vacation and SARS, terrorism, the end of the world, whatever, I'm GOING!!!!

 

[minnieandmickey]

I also think if there is a drop in tourism it is also because of the economy. Alot of people have lost their jobs since 9/11, or are looking at losing their jobs because of state budgets being cut.

 

[CarolA]

Disney is still not where they were pre 9/11. For this upcoming holiday weekend there are vacancies at LOTS of the Disney hotels. That used to be unheard of.

I was there the weekend of 6/13 and the crowds were not near what I expected for summer. The last time I was there in the summer it was so packed I swore NEVER AGAIN. The only place I felt packed was at MK on Saturday. That same night at it felt like off season.

 

[philaround]

DW and I were at WDW 5/25 thru 6/7 and thought the crowds were only slightly smaller then any other time we had been there[except the once we went down Christmas week].

We did drive this time instead of fly and I noticed a lot of out of state plates the whole time we were there. I think every state east of the Mississippi was represented and many from west of the Mississippi.