Disney warns of hit to US theme parks as foreign tourist numbers fall – Financial Times
Higher guest spending at Disney’s theme park and cruise ship business pushed the company’s revenues higher in the last three months of 2025, but the company warned of potential “international visitor headwinds” at its US parks.
Disney said there would only be modest growth in its experiences business in the current quarter. The guidance comes after a 6 per cent drop in foreign visitors to the US last year, according to industry body the World Travel & Tourism Council, amid tensions between the Trump administration and other countries, including Mexico and Canada.
The company said it expected higher growth in its experiences business in the second half of the year after the March launch of its eighth cruise ship, the Disney Adventure, in Singapore.
Disney on Monday reported net income of $2.4bn, or $1.34 per share, on revenue of $26bn in the fiscal first quarter. Adjusted earnings of $1.63 per share were above Wall Street forecasts. Its shares dropped by more than 6 per cent in Monday trading.
The earnings come ahead of a meeting this week of Disney’s board, which has said it will decide on a successor to chief executive Bob Iger early this year.
The leading candidates are Josh D’Amaro, the head of Disney’s theme parks business, and Dana Walden, co-chair of Disney entertainment.
Some investors, analysts and former company executives see D’Amaro, who is expanding the cruise fleet to 13 and overseeing the construction of a new theme park in Abu Dhabi, as the likeliest internal candidate to succeed Iger.
“Investors are expecting it to be Josh D’Amaro,” said Rich Greenfield, veteran media analyst at LightShed Partners. “I don’t think anyone owns Disney [stock] for any reason other than the theme parks now.”
Revenue from Disney’s streaming business, led by Walden, rose 11 per cent in the quarter. The company’s film studios had a number of hits in the holiday season, including Avatar: Fire and Ash and Zootopia 2. But marketing costs for the new releases offset the higher theatrical revenue in the quarter.
Disney said it expected to report double-digit earnings growth and repurchase $7bn of its own stock in 2026.
Iger returned to Disney in November 2022 following the brief tenure of his successor, Bob Chapek. The shares are up about 13 per cent since then.
Iger told analysts during a call on Monday that the “company was in a much better shape than it was three years ago”, saying that he had a “tremendous amount that needed fixing” when he returned.
He said his successor would take over a business that was now well positioned in its entertainment and parks divisions.
“Both have the ability to grow nicely into the future,” Iger added, though he predicted that the next boss would not settle for the “status quo” given how fast the industry was changing.
“You have to continue to change and evolve.”
