The 2026 FIFA World Cup highlighted a trend in the U.S. hotel sector where revenue growth is relying more on higher room rates than on increased demand.
Before the event, 14 tournament markets showed no sustained advantage over the 55 other hotel markets tracked by Moody’s Analytics. From January through May, median monthly revenue per available room (RevPAR) growth was about 3.7% across both groups. Once matches began in June, however, RevPAR growth in World Cup markets reached 11.6% in June and 11.7% in July. By contrast, other markets posted 5.7% growth in June and 5.3% in July.
The June advantage was broad-based. All 14 World Cup markets recorded higher RevPAR than a year earlier, including the weakest-performing World Cup host markets....