Over the last several months, there have been several signs that Walt Disney World is increasingly reliant on high income guests to fuel the parks & resorts’ strong performance and growth. This covers consumer spending data, statements from Disney’s CFO, how the rich rescued the theme parks industry from a spending slump, our commentary about this pattern.
Let’s start with the latest development, which is that Disney CFO Hugh Johnston has confirmed that Walt Disney World and Disneyland had a strong year thanks to guests at higher income deciles, as those consumers “continue to do well.” He went on to explain attendance and per guest spending trends, and how Disney increased the latter even as the former was down.
Johnston made these comments while speaking at the 2025 Wells Fargo Technology, Media, and Telecom Summit–the same event where he confirmed that Dynamic Pricing is Planned for Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Johnston is one of Disney’s senior executives, and is instrumental in setting and guiding the company’s business strategies. He came over from Pepsi a couple of years ago, and is beloved by Wall Street.
During the Wells Fargo Summit, Johnston was asked questions about the company’s most recent earnings call, during which he previously shared that Walt Disney World Still Isn’t Worried About Epic Universe Amid Attendance Decrease & Record Results. The moderator pointed to the downtrend in attendance, and asked about the health of the American consumer that Walt Disney World and Disneyland are seeing, and the overall story of demand for the parks?
Johnston revealed that the core consumer for Walt Disney World and Disneyland “tends to be at the higher income deciles, and those consumers continue to do well. So we certainly broadly feel good about where the consumer is.”
Johnston went on to explain that the Disney Parks & Resorts had a strong year last year. The company originally issued guidance for 6% to 8% operating income growth, and delivered 8%. The parks hit $10 billion of operating income for the year, which was the first time they’ve ever reached the $10 billion milestone.
Johnston pointed to that number to underscore why the company felt “very, very good” about the Parks & Resorts. As for the domestic parks, he said that those parks (which, as a reminder, includes Disney Cruise Line) grew earnings 8% for the year and 9% in the fourth quarter.
He reiterated that, attendance for the domestic parks was down 1% last year. Again, this is something we’ve already discussed at length in the commentary to last week’s earnings report. (We also discussed the overperformance on the hotel side, which is arguably the bigger story that Johnston did not touch on at the Wells Fargo Summit.)
Johnston pointed out that there was “a lot of concern going into the year” for Epic Universe, and that he felt Disney had managed it well. He said the parks’ performance post-Epic Universe came in within our expectations. He also added that the attendance decline could be explained almost entirely by the hurricane scares in the first quarter of Disney’s fiscal year.
This is also something we’ve covered previously. Those storms were so impactful that the company directly addressed them on multiple earnings calls over the last year, warning that Walt Disney World operating income would be adversely impacted by approximately $130 million due to storms. Hurricane Milton caused the parks to close and had a long tail of lower crowds due to cancellations in the days and weeks afterwards.
And in fact, based on the wait times data we saw, October 2025 was up fairly considerably year-over-year, suggesting that most (if not all) of the negative attendance could be attributed to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Both of those happened long before Epic Universe; meaning that Universal’s new theme park has, thus far, had no impact on attendance at Walt Disney World.
Johnston explained, essentially, that essentially flat attendance was normal in a year without any major new additions. That in years when Walt Disney World or Disneyland add new attractions, you’ll see “attendance jumps.” But when they’re not, attendance is basically about level.
He added that, over the long run, Disney balances attendance growth with pricing growth. Although in any given year, growth “could be more geared towards one versus the other.”
Despite flat attendance, Johnston explained that per guest spending (or per caps) were “actually quite good” last year, with domestic growth of 5%. He said that Disney “felt very, very good about that.” At the risk of (re)stating the obvious, this is precisely how Disney achieved record revenue despite lower attendance (and why this topic is such a hot one). It’s a simple math problem–a smaller pool of people spending more money.
Johnston also dropped a statistic that I hadn’t heard in a while but certainly will be using in future posts: “It’s important to realize is only about 40% of the people who attend our parks actually stay on one of our properties.”
The last I had heard, it was about 50/50 on-site versus off-site. It’s nice to have an updated number for future use when making my point that, actually, Walt Disney World needs to build more hotels–that room inventory is not the problem when it comes to crowds.
This is something we covered recently in the aptly-titled Why Walt Disney World Resort Hotels Still Sell Out Despite Lower Crowds. It was also one of the points in What Walt Disney World Fans Get Wrong About Crowds. More on-site room inventory would be a net positive for guests, especially when it comes to pricing. But I digress.
The moderator then circled back to the question about higher-income consumers being the core constituency for Walt Disney World and Disneyland, asking about the infamous yield management approach to improving margins.
Johnston explained that the company “very much” focuses on how to generate incremental revenue, via ticket prices, as well as on food & beverage, merchandise, and upcharge offerings, such as Lightning Lanes and VIP tours.
He added that the team has gotten increasingly better at getting that yield up, particularly in years where we’re not adding capacity in a particular park that’s going to be the primary growth driver is all of that yield focus.
This was where the conversation segued into dynamic pricing, as a way to increase yield in the future. (As we pointed out, that is the goal with dynamic pricing–they’re not investing a ton of money in new infrastructure to make prices cheaper, on average. But all of you already knew that. I’m preaching to the choir.)
Honestly, Johnston’s comments at the Wells Fargo Summit on their own wouldn’t be all that interesting or worthy of a standalone article. Not like Walt Disney World’s core audience being higher income is breaking news–just price out a vacation package for the Moderate or Deluxe Resorts!
However, they follow up a couple of interesting tidbits from last week’s earnings calls, as well as articles over the last several months about how theme parks are increasingly reliant on the rich. When pieced together, all of this does paint a fascinating story.
For one, this is an ongoing ‘conversation’ (and cause for concern). Last August, Johnston conceded that there there was “softness in the domestic parks.” At that time, he added that the lower income consumer is “feeling stress,” while higher income consumers are traveling internationally more.
This is similar sentiment to what fast food chains and retailers have reported during their earnings calls for the last year-plus. There’s a reason why McDonald’s brought back Extra Value Meals and other restaurants are aggressively courting their downmarket customers. If McDonald’s and other fast food chains are losing lower-income consumers, it stands to reason that premium-priced theme parks are facing the same issue.
During some of these same earnings calls, Johnston has indicated that Disney has tried to hold prices steady for lower-priced offerings at the parks and that most of the price increases have been concentrated among premium packages or during high-demand dates. He added that the company wants to “tap in to those families and build the habit of coming to Disneyland or Disney World, not one time, but multiple times.”
On the most recent earnings call, in November 2025, Johnston reiterated that Epic Universe has been in-line with expectations for Walt Disney World. He added this: “If anything, it seems to be impacting the rest of the competition down in Florida more than it’s impacting us. From a consumer perspective, we certainly feel good about it.”
This suggests that the “rising tides” thesis might be correct, at least for the two big players in Central Florida. The true casualties might be the downmarket offerings, which are already feeling the squeeze in Orlando and beyond, especially as more price-sensitive consumers scale back on spending.
We’ve wondered whether this might actually be the case for a while. That it wouldn’t be Universal or Disney that take a hit, but rather, the smaller players that exist and subsist (more or less) by picking up the table scraps. It’s entirely possible that both Universal and Disney grow stronger, while also moving further upmarket.
As that happens, the market for other Central Florida attractions might dry up. Affluent guests have fewer days to spare given the compelling reasons to spend more time at Universal and Disney. And lower income guests aren’t drawn to Central Florida in the first place, since Universal and Disney priced them out.
There was also an illuminating piece in Forbes titled Don’t Blame the Rich for Theme Parks’ ‘Lackluster’ Summer.
That shared new data illustrating how lower and middle-income Americans spent less at regional theme parks this summer, while affluent travelers spent more than before at pricier Disney and Universal destinations. This divergence revealed a premium product fault line that has come to define the travel industry.
Overall spending at U.S. theme parks was down 5% this summer compared to the same season last year, according to Consumer Edge, which analyzed year-over-year credit card spending data from May through August for Forbes. That demonstrated that weakness was attributable to guests earning under $100,000 per year.
However, that overall trend did not apply to the Disney and Universal theme parks. Visitor spending over roughly the same timeframe increased 8% at Disney parks and a whopping 22% per month this summer at Universal, driven by Epic Universe park in Orlando, according to data from Bloomberg Second Measure. (Worth pointing out that Universal “traded” pricier packages for higher attendance–which turned out to be the correct move–thus explaining that 22% leap.)
It was a very different summer for parks that target guests at the lower end of the income spectrum. United Parks & Resorts, whose portfolio includes SeaWorld, Busch Gardens and Sesame Place properties, saw a 4% year-over-year decline in visitor spending, according to that same data from Bloomberg Second Measure.
Six Flags Entertainment Group, which owns a portfolio of 27 regional amusement parks, 15 water parks, and 9 hotels across 17 states, saw an 8% year-over-year decline in spending this summer, per Bloomberg data.
All of this data paints a picture of spending that is bifurcated among income levels, with low to middle income consumers spending less than last year and affluent Americans spending more than ever before. This is hardly unique to theme & amusement parks.
This pattern echoes the rest of the travel industry, where major airlines and hotel companies downgraded their financial outlooks for 2025 in the spring. In their quarterly earnings reports, major U.S. airlines repeatedly noted softening demand for main cabin seats with continued robust demand for premium seats.
The hospitality industry has seen the same split in demand, with budget and mid-range hotel brands faring worse than luxury brands in this economy.
On Marriott’s recent earnings call, its CFO noted pointedly that despite “ongoing economic uncertainty,” the company was “extremely well positioned” in the luxury segment, which accounted for the majority of Marriott’s rooms and were “expected to continue to nicely outperform lower-end chain scales globally.”
As a result of this split, the travel industry has adjusted its strategy to chase higher-spending customers. Airlines are reducing their inventory of economy seats and replacing them with fewer premium cabins, while hotels are replacing standard rooms with suites.
Walt Disney World has been less aggressive in doing this, often instead converting hotel rooms to Disney Vacation Club villas. Similar animating idea, different means to that end. In fact, despite all of the new hotel construction, Walt Disney World’s hotel inventory is actually lower today than it was a decade ago.
Without having any supporting data, it’s probably safe to assume that new DVC buyers are largely from the top 20%. There’s a reason that Disney Lakeside Lodge is full steam ahead on construction despite several other properties in active sales, and direct DVC sales continue to show strong growth. Meanwhile, Disneyland has been expanding its inventory of premium suites and is adding more Club Level inventory to its resorts.
In terms of commentary, I don’t really know what to say that hasn’t already been said. We covered this topic at length back in the spring in Walt Disney World is Worried About Its High Prices and its progeny of posts.
We took that a step further in Is Walt Disney World Too Expensive for Middle Class Americans? by digging into data. That covered the average costs of a Disney vacation, typical consumer spending on travel at different income brackets, and more.
That also covered data indicating that the top 10% of Americans account for 50% of all consumer spending in the United States. This is a record going back to 1989, according to U.S. Federal Reserve data. Three decades ago, the top 10% accounted for about 36% of consumer spending. Households making about $250,000 a year or more are spending freely on everything from luxury goods to extravagant vacations, whereas lower income households are not.
Based on all of that–everything from McDonald’s customers being priced out and the chain needing to bring back the Extra Value Meal to Walt Disney World’s comments and actions–it seems clear that this is more of a bigger-picture problem and not a distinctly Disney issue. When the CEOs and CFOs of countless companies are saying more or less the same thing and altering their strategies accordingly, that suggests something systemic.
Of course, our focus here is Disney, so it makes sense that we’d analyze this through a Disney lens. There are also the public comments of the companies founder, and his original intentions for his theme parks.
Disney is arguably among the most distinctly American companies, and it’s something of a bellwether for middle class Americans as a result. And for mainstream media like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, using Disney parks as a proxy for economic anxiety (etc.) plays well with its affluent audience for a number of reasons.
Ultimately, if you want more thoughtful analysis about this, we’d again refer you to Is Walt Disney World Too Expensive for Middle Class Americans? This is an interesting trend, but it’s definitely not a new one!
We’d also once again reiterate that it’s likely that Walt Disney World and the travel industry as a whole will continue to aim upmarket. All of the data and earnings calls and everything else since we last tackled this topic in the spring suggests this is the most viable business strategy in the near-term, especially with rising economic uncertainty and declining consumer confidence. If there is a recession or downturn, Disney and other companies seem to believe that the best way to weather it is seeking out affluent consumers.
For our part, we continue to believe that Walt Disney World’s bread and butter is the middle class (realistically, probably the upper middle class). That even though wealthy guests are not the company’s core clientele in the long term, Disney will nevertheless continue targeting that segment with new and differentiated product offerings because, that’s clearly where the money and growth potential lie. For now.
This upmarket strategy will work…until it doesn’t. There are countless reasons as to why that could happen, but it could pose problems for the company. The potential for these issues increases in the long-run as consumer perceptions increasingly view Walt Disney World as a destination for the wealthy. (Something also discussed relatively recently in Disney’s Reputation Falls to Only “Fair.”)
Once that middle class reputational damage is done, it’s hard to undo. This is precisely why we’ve repeatedly emphasized the importance of improving the guest experience and satisfaction, as well as the hugely negative long-term ramifications to pricing out families and alienating longtime fans. Rich Americans have more money to spend on fancy one-off rite-of-passage vacations, but it’s still middle class families that are the lifeblood of Walt Disney World.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Surprised Disney is publicly admitting that its key demo is higher income guests? What do you think about Walt Disney World and Universal seeing their results over the last several months buoyed by wealthy consumers? Can Walt Disney World sustain itself with these big-spenders? Or do you agree with our assessment that Walt Disney World is inherently a middle class destination, and it needs this bread & butter demo? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!