How World Cup visitors and spending stacked up
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Soccer fans fill Power & Light. Photo by Austin Johnson / AFP via Getty Images.
More visitors than expected came to the Kansas City area for the World Cup, giving the region its biggest tourism payday ever, but spending still fell short of projections.
Why it matters: The numbers, released by Visit KC on Thursday, are the first full measure of what the region got for committing roughly $250 million in public money to host six matches.
- Taxes from that spending help pay for first responders and street repairs, Mayor Quinton Lucas said, though the city is still calculating tax revenues.
By the numbers: Visitors brought roughly $570 million in direct spending, the most KC has ever seen from a single event. That's more than five times what the 2023 NFL draft brought in, said Kathy Nelson, CEO of nonprofit tourism marketing organization Visit KC.
- Yes, but: Spending still fell just over $80 million short of Visit KC's $653 million projection.
Where KC scored: Around 680,000 visitors came, about 5% more than Visit KC projected, with more than 4 in 5 coming from within the U.S. Visit KC counts each trip as one visitor.
- The airport screened around 24,000 departing travelers on its busiest day ever, and the KC Streetcar set a daily record of around 56,000 riders.
- Hotels outperformed expectations, taking in more than $119 million in room revenue even after FIFA, soccer's global governing body, canceled about 75% of the rooms it had reserved, Nelson said.
- Short-term rental revenue jumped nearly 77%, to around $16 million.
Where KC missed: Fewer international fans made the trip than planners expected, Nelson said. That cut into spending because international visitors typically spend more than domestic ones.
- Fewer Canadians traveled to the U.S., and international tourism overall was down.
- FIFA and others told planners to expect international fans to stay nine or 10 nights, she said. Instead, they tended to stay two or three nights.
What they're saying: Nelson told reporters Thursday she wasn't disappointed by the final number. "For all of us in our careers and in our lifetimes, we probably will never see anything else that would compare."
- Asked about businesses that saw the same or fewer customers, Lucas said, "We don't promise the same results for everyone. We know there were major results for this community."
What's next: KC2026, the local World Cup organizing group, is still calculating the tournament's indirect economic impact, and Lucas said the city will look at ways to give visitors reasons to stay longer for future events, like the NCAA Final Fours the city is bidding to host.