The receipts are starting to land on this World Cup, and they tell a clear and uncomfortable story.
Nearly 80% of hotel operators across nine of the 11 US host cities report bookings “running well behind early projections,” according to the latest American Hotel & Lodging Association outlook published this week.
FIFA has cancelled or released around 70% of its room blocks, flooding inventory back into local markets and triggering cancellations of up to 95% of contracted rooms in some cities. Hotels that poured millions into fan zones, multilingual staff, upgraded security and transportation tie-ins have paused further World Cup-specific spending entirely.
The international visitor, the one this whole tournament was supposed to attract, is the one not showing up.
Visa delays, concerns about treatment by immigration officials, soaring airfares, a strong dollar in an already expensive country and increasing geopolitical tensions are the principle reasons travellers to the US are reticent to embrace this World Cup in person.
Those visitors were projected to spend an average of $5,048 each, 1.7 times more than typical overseas tourists. One-third were planning multi-city stays longer than two weeks. The flip side of this is that American fans are booking, but they cannot fill the gap.
The data underlying the World Cup hospitality business has become brutal.
More than 70% of operators in San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Boston report booking pace below expectations. Over 60% say the same in Los Angeles, New York, Houston, and Dallas. Even Miami and Atlanta, the cities with the rosiest outlooks, sit at around 50% reporting underperformance.
Do you think the World Cup will still deliver the big economic boost everyone expected, or is the travel slowdown already changing the story?
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