U.S. Travel Association whose members include Disney asks for government investment of billions of dollars to stabilize the travel and tourism industry

Apr 03, 2020 in "The Walt Disney Company"

Posted: Friday April 3, 2020 1:30pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

In a letter to Chairman Powell and Secretary Steven Mnuchin, the U.S. Travel Association joined The American Hotel & Lodging Association, Asian American Hotel Owners Association, and the International Franchising Association in urging the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to provide a wide range of CARES Act-authorized financial tools to stabilize travel-dependent businesses.

Between them, the associations represent the Central Florida theme parks, including Disney, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, Cirque du Soleil, and thousands of smaller travel and tourism-based businesses.

According to the letter, the industry expects $400 billion in revenue losses from lost travel spending in the U.S. and 5.9 million jobs lost by the end of April.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, signed by the President on March 27, included $454 billion for an economic stabilization fund to support severely distressed U.S. businesses, States and municipalities.

You can read the full text of the letter on the U.S. Travel website.

Security Cast Members raise the flag at a closed Magic Kingdom due to COVID-19

The Walt Disney World theme parks have been closed since March 16 until further notice.

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peter11435Apr 13, 2020

Optimistic I wouldn’t consider anything safe at the moment. It really depends on how long this drags on and what the economic and public fall out looks like.

note2001Apr 13, 2020

Disney is diversified enough that it will come back strong. Even if the cruise industry all together were to capsize (which it won't as humans will continue to sail despite everything) Disney has hold in publishing, media, online stores and more. The theme parks and resorts don't account for even 50% of Disney's value. ESPN will come back stronger than before, and Disney+ is still just getting rolling. With some creative restructuring (cue Iger) the theme parks will come back fine. Do they need a bail out? Probably not. Will they take one? Of course they will.

disney4life2008Apr 13, 2020

Let's be honest honest. There are companies that will die but many will survive. Airlines for example, not all will survive. Theme parks, Disney and universal are safe. Sea world long term probably not.

LilofanApr 13, 2020

The 77K full time and part time cast pre corona working at WDW won't be the same 77K workforce when business levels are different and restructuring and consolidation are not just buzzwords.

peter11435Apr 13, 2020

You don’t agree that nearly every business Disney is in has been significantly impacted by this event? Or you don’t agree that many of those business are currently losing money? Because both are fact. Disney as a huge company with multiple businesses was well positioned to handle most issues. However nobody foresaw an event shutting down everything. No company, not even Disney can survive extend periods of losing money. If this continues on too long Disney very well would be one of those companies that die after this. They will ultimately run out of money and take on too much debt.

disney4life2008Apr 13, 2020

Sorry still don't agree. Disney will survive. There are numerous other companies that will unfortunately die after this. Nice argument though.

peter11435Apr 13, 2020

Really? Parks and Resorts has 12 theme parks, 4 cruise ships and dozens of resorts around the world sitting closed at the moment. All while continuing to pay tens of thousands of employees for the first 5 weeks and ongoing overhead costs for those properties that will not go away even after those 5 weeks. Combined with the uncertainty of how profitable and costly reopening will be. All Disney Stores are closed and while other retailers selling Disney and Disney licensed products may remain open, unless they are food, health or essential supplies they largely aren’t moving off the shelf. With movie theaters closed worldwide there is no box office revenue. Multiple films already pushed back or releases cancelled. With production stopped on new content not only is the studio seeing significant impact currently it will stretch out due to delayed production. ESPN has no content to air that people care about at the moment and ad revenue across the media network and cable industry is down. And all media outlets will continue to see issues with lack of content creation on the near term. Disney+ is adding subscribers but will still not be profitable for a few years and many of the subscribers you do have signed up for long term, discounted or free deals at the start. So exactly where are they not struggling?

disney4life2008Apr 13, 2020

Struggling

peter11435Apr 13, 2020

Are they what?

disney4life2008Apr 13, 2020

Are they really though?

peter11435Apr 13, 2020

Except nearly every part of that conglomerate is hemorrhaging at the moment. So them being a conglomerate is irrelevant to their need or deserving of money.

disney4life2008Apr 13, 2020

While I love Disney, they do not deserve any money. They are a congralamate.

RSoxNo1Apr 13, 2020

Also, Zoom.

THEMEPARKPIONEERApr 05, 2020

I pay enough to go there as it is, if my tax dollar is going into the Disney company they better put those prices back down to the way they used to be. Disney needs to slow it down a bit as it is. They need to go back to their old ways and maybe this is just what they need. They were starting to go over the top and killing the soul of the parks.