Although the 2026 World Cup marks the first time the planet's biggest football event has expanded to 48 teams, with a total of 104 matches spread across 16 cities, hotel occupancy rates in some host cities remain lower than the same period last year. This conclusion is based on data from real estate analytics company CoStar.
According to The UK Times, cities like Mexico City, Monterrey, Dallas, and San Francisco are experiencing relatively strong bookings. However, the picture is less promising in many other areas.
In Vancouver, hotels averaged only 39% occupancy on match days, down from 53% during the same period last year. In Boston – where Norway will face Iraq on June 16th – occupancy rates hovered around 32%, compared to 44% a year earlier.
Even the Brazil-Morocco match in nearby New Jersey didn't boost New York hotels' growth as expected. Occupancy rates on June 13th were only around 31%, a sharp drop from 43% during the same period last year (without the World Cup).
According to another recent report by the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the World Cup "craze" may not be as profitable as expected. In a survey of hotels in 11 host locations, including New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, and Seattle, up to 80% reported lower bookings than initially anticipated.
Meanwhile, about two-thirds of accommodations in New York reported weaker-than-expected demand. Nearly 80% of hotels in markets such as Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Seattle said they were seeing lower-than-usual bookings during the summer travel season.
According to the New York Post, approximately 65-70% of respondents believe that visa barriers and broader geopolitical concerns are reducing demand from international visitors. Only about 25-30% of markets saw a significant increase from the tournament, primarily those with already high tourism demand or locations where a team chooses to "base" for the duration of the tournament.
Jan Freitag, National Hotel Analyst at CoStar, warned that the tournament only attracts visitors during certain peak periods. Numbers may be lower in the early rounds, before demand surges in July, when the World Cup enters the crucial knockout stages.
The World Cup is taking place against a backdrop of rising airfares, inflation, and increasingly expensive event costs for travelers. These issues are further exacerbated by global geopolitical tensions.
While previous World Cups were held in a single country, the 2026 tournament spans three nations. This makes travel more complicated and expensive for fans wanting to follow their teams across multiple cities, while over 100 matches could be overwhelmingly spread out. Airfare costs also make it a more difficult decision for fans to consider.
US President Donald Trump had previously criticized the high price of World Cup 2026 tickets in an interview with The Post, saying that even he wouldn't be willing to pay $1,000 to watch the US opening match against Paraguay in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, FIFA President Gianni Infantino joked that black market tickets for the final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium could reach $2 million.
Gianni Infantino also stated that the average ticket price for the final is approaching $13,000, a sharp increase from around $1,600 in 2022, while some seats at the SoFi Arena are being offered for sale from $1,079.
Experts believe that the rising prices could exclude ordinary fans from the game, even though FIFA still claims this is a World Cup with "record demand" with more than 5 million tickets sold.
Source: https://tienphong.vn/khach-san-mua-world-cup-nguy-co-e-chong-e-cho-post1844890.tpo
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