Football fever is building ahead of the world’s biggest sporting event. After years of preparation, billions in investment, and promotional campaigns, only days remain until the FIFA 2026 World Cup kicks off. Jointly hosted by the US, Canada, and Mexico, it will be the largest tournament in the competition’s history, featuring more teams, more matches, and more host nations than ever before.
Yet, away from the stadia, star players, and tactical forecasts—and despite its billing as a historic event that would inject tens of billions of dollars into the North American economy—figures reveal a less-than-rosy reality.
A week before the opening whistle on 11 June, indicators from the hospitality sector, one of the industries expected to benefit most from the tournament, show far less demand than anticipated. A May report by the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) found that around 80% of hotel owners in host cities said bookings were well below expectations, with some cities, including Kansas City, recording occupancy rates even lower than those of an ordinary summer season.
The reasons for this lower-than-expected demand are varied. However, between 65 and 70% of respondents across host markets said visa restrictions and broader geopolitical concerns were having a significant impact on the decline in international demand, according to the report. These factors consistently ranked among the main obstacles preventing fans from travelling to the tournament.
Although US consulates have recently opened urgent fast-track pathways to accelerate visa processing for holders of confirmed tickets, these measures have come too late to fundamentally alter international flight plans.
FIFA’s advance reservation of hotel rooms also created misleading early signals of heightened demand before estimates returned to more realistic levels. Around half of the respondents in host cities reported significant releases of room blocks, while in some cities 90% of reserved inventory was eventually returned to the market.
“Hotels in host cities have spent years preparing for the World Cup, and while there is still genuine excitement, the data point to a more complicated outlook than many had hoped,” said Rosanna Maietta, president and chief executive of the AHLA. Although a number of factors have tempered the early optimism, she added that unnecessary increases in visa costs and transport to and from matches must be avoided if the tournament’s remaining potential is to be realised.
Low global demand
The deeper problem is the composition of demand itself. Domestic visitors dominate current bookings, while international interest has remained far weaker than expected. Some analysts believe both FIFA and hotel operators overestimated the US market's ability to attract large numbers of international fans, leaving many host cities with far more rooms than demand could absorb.
The combination of weak international demand and the release of previously reserved room blocks has created an oversupply, triggering a price war. Traditional hotels have entered into competition with short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb, which continue to attract families and groups of young travellers thanks to their flexible pricing. Hotels, in turn, have been forced to offer released rooms at steep discounts, up to 20%, to clear inventory quickly.
