What the World Cup Could Have Been

For eight years, the promise was that the 2026 World Cup would be a massive windfall. A once-in-a-generation surge of international visitors, billions in fresh spending, hotels at record occupancy, and a hiring boom across every host city. The travel industry believed it, prepared and priced for it.

But what arrived was narrower and far more nuanced. Hotels made money, but not the way the industry expected. International arrivals actually came in not only below forecast but even below the year before. And an industry hiring boom shows up nowhere in the payroll data.

By no measure was the tournament a bust. Spain won, the stands were full, and many operators had a profitable summer. But the gap between what the industry was promised and what it received — between what it was and what it could have been — is substantial. It matters as the next megaevent on American soil, the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, is being financed on the same assumptions.