British family say they’ve canceled $16k Disney World vacation because their young kids were upset by killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti
A British family says they canceled a $16,000 trip to Disney World in Florida after their children were distressed by the shootings of two anti-ICE protesters.
Michelle Cowley, a communications specialist from London, said she and her husband had spent nearly two years planning the vacation for their children, aged seven and 11. The family had been looking forward to visiting the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando.
However, they said President Donald Trump’s strict immigration policies influenced their decision to cancel. The children were reportedly upset by the deaths of protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.
Cowley also cited other actions by Trump since retaking office, including his threats to annex Greenland and his controversial comments about British military contributions in Afghanistan. “We have decided that it really is not the place we want to be at the moment,” she told the New York Times.
The Minneapolis shootings have shaken the U.S. and triggered weeks of protests. Good was shot dead by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in her car on January 7, followed by Pretti on January 24. Videos of both incidents circulated widely on social media.
The Cowleys are not alone in avoiding U.S. travel amid controversy. A recent study from the World Travel and Tourism Council found that the U.S. was the only major global destination to see a drop in foreign visitors last year. This trend has continued, with January 2026 seeing a 4.8% decline in tourism compared with January 2025, representing roughly 11 million fewer international visitors.
Ahead of the U.S. hosting the World Cup this summer, the Trump administration’s immigration policies and related incidents of violence have led to calls for a boycott. Tourism from Canada, traditionally the second-largest source of visitors after Mexico, fell by 28% in January 2026 compared with the previous year, a drop blamed in part on Trump’s policies and rhetoric toward Canada.
The decline has hit Las Vegas particularly hard, with the city losing hundreds of thousands of visitors monthly. Steve Hill, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal last February that Canadian visitors were frustrated by tariffs and political tensions. “We’ve seen consumer confidence numbers drop pretty significantly over the past couple of months,” he said.
Other major U.S. tourism sources, including Germany and France, have also seen significant declines, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Erik Hansen, senior vice president at the U.S. Travel Association, told the New York Times: “When 11 million international visitors aren’t showing up, the result is billions of dollars in economic losses to the travel industry.”
Experts attribute part of the decline to Trump administration policies that have made entering the U.S. more difficult. Measures include visa bans on more than a dozen countries, higher fees for overstaying visas, and increased social media scrutiny, with some travelers soon required to provide up to five years of social media history. The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates these restrictions could cost up to $15.7 billion in tourism spending.
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