Despite expectations that hosting the 2026 World Cup would be one of the biggest tourism drivers in sports history, preliminary data reveals that the tournament has not delivered the anticipated economic impact in most host cities, with a notable decline in hotel occupancy compared to the same period last year.

William Pate, CEO of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, said: 'When FIFA first announced that this event would be equivalent to hosting eight Super Bowls, we were excited because we are used to hosting such major events. But we later realized, especially during the first two weeks, that this was not the case.'

Statistics from the bureau show that hotel occupancy rates in Atlanta jumped to 80% on some nights, such as the night of the Saudi Arabia vs. Spain match, but generally fluctuated around 60% or less, representing a 12% decline compared to the same period last year, according to data from CoStar, a real estate information company.

Atlanta's experience was not an exception. CoStar noted that 'despite hosting a combined total of seven World Cup matches, the cities of Atlanta, Seattle, and Kansas City saw an overall 13.5% decline in hotel demand and an 11.2 percentage point drop in occupancy rates' compared to 2025.

In fact, among the 11 U.S. cities hosting World Cup matches, only San Francisco and Dallas recorded a net year-over-year increase in hotel occupancy, while the overall national average in the United States rose by 2.4%. This means that the number of visitors staying in U.S. hotels is higher on average, except for most World Cup host cities which saw a decline in bookings. The largest decreases were in Kansas City (24%), Seattle (15%), and Atlanta (13%).

According to International Business Times, this decline in hotel occupancy was not limited to the United States but extended to its neighbors. Mexico's three host cities—Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey—recorded low occupancy indicators. The same occurred in Canadian counterparts, with occupancy in Toronto and Vancouver dropping 12.4% and 20.9% respectively for the week ending June 20, according to CoStar data.

The overall picture from hotel data indicates that most host cities received fewer visitors compared to last year for most of the time, regardless of temporary spikes caused by match days. These declines are notable given that there was no general slowdown in overall travel, at least within the United States.

Instead of adding tens of thousands of new tourists to the usual annual flows, hosting the World Cup seems to have inadvertently altered the behavior of traditional visitors and businesses, who preferred to avoid traffic jams, congestion, and high hotel prices imposed by the world's most popular tournament.

San Francisco seems to have avoided this dilemma by hosting three AI-related business conferences concurrently with the matches, in addition to the 2026 Pokémon World Championships. Dallas, on the other hand, saw its hotel occupancy boosted by hosting FIFA's International Broadcast Center, which served as the logistical and media backbone for all 104 matches of the tournament.

These results will not surprise academic researchers who have studied the economic impact of one-time major events, as the current experience confirms historical data. Economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson examined the 1994 World Cup and found that hosting matches failed to deliver the promised economic returns to cities. A recent study conducted in 2022 covering 43 Olympic Games and World Cups showed that more than 80% of these events cost more to organize than they generated in economic revenue.

New York City is a clear example of this concept. The city's comptroller's office expects to spend $70 million on security and other services, while the city will only collect a maximum of $55 million in additional tax revenue.