Obama to Visit Disney World to Do the Tourism & Travel Industry a Solid $DIS

(via) 

President Barack Obama will visit Walt Disney World during a planned trip to Orlando on Thursday, according to a White House aide. There, he will “unveil a strategy that will significantly help boost tourism and travel,” the aide added.

Details on that strategy were not disclosed. But it would be hard for Obama to pick a locale that’s better known than Disney for a tourism announcement. The resort giant in Orlando has four theme parks that collectively draw more than 45 million visitors a year.

It doesn’t appear, however, that he’ll get much love from local politicians. Aides to U.S.Sen. Bill Nelson said the Florida Democrat was unlikely to attend because the office “got word too late” of the visit and had meetings planned in other parts of the state. And Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer is scheduled to be in Washington that day for a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

While the details of the announcement are still unknown, there’s one topic at the top of the political wish list for Central Florida’s tourism industry: Visa reform. The tourism industry has been pushing Congress and Obama to make it easier for visitors from emerging nations such as Brazil, India and China to come to the U.S. as tourists.

In Brazil, where citizens have a reputation for loving Orlando’s theme parks, there are four consulate offices to conduct the required in-person interviews for people who want a visa to visit the U.S. That means families could have to travel several hundred miles before they are even approved to travel to the U.S.

But a recent Congressional appropriations bill gave the Secretary of State the authority to develop a pilot program to use videoconferencing to conduct remote visa interviews for leisure and business visitors. Such video conferencing would be high on Disney’s priority list, as it would likely cut the expense for international travelers who are interested in coming to see the Mouse.

Disney is bracing for heavy security around the Magic Kingdom. The giant resort recently reduced the Magic Kingdom’s hours for Thursday while extending hours and adding entertainment at its other three parks. The resort has also imposed parking restrictions around a nearby hotel, Disney’s Contemporary Resort.