By Hallie Milstein, Senior Marketing and Content Associate, Trove Tourism Development Advisors

This may be sacrilegious and very American of us to say, but for us, one of the most exciting games of the World Cup is the destination marketing competition. And the real winner isn't a soccer (sorry, football) team; it's a place.

From our headquarters in New York, we're feeling this tournament in the streets. Jersey-clad fans are flooding Midtown and the crowds at Penn Station have become a daily reminder that MetLife Stadium sits at the centre of the world's attention. At the same time, we're monitoring sentiment data and global digital channels, and what we're seeing confirms something we've believed for months: the destinations winning this moment started planning for it long ago.

The World Cup opportunity

FIFA reported cumulative engagement of approximately five billion people during the 2022 tournament in Qatar, and with 48 teams and 16 host cities spread across three countries, the 2026 World Cup has expanded that footprint dramatically. Airbnb searches in host cities are up 80% year on year. FIFA projected more than 1.2 million visitors to the New York-New Jersey region alone. The travel intent is real, and the destinations that are prepared are converting it.

The scale of the audience goes well past match attendance. International fans attending the 2026 World Cup plan to visit four to six destinations and spend approximately two weeks in North America. Eighty-two percent of soccer fans say they want to explore experiences outside the match itself. Average spend per visitor ranges from USD 900 to USD 2,000 for stays of two to five days.

The viewership map also tells a story. China led global online engagement in 2022 with 1.161 billion engagements. India recorded 745.7 million. Neither country had a qualifying team. Seventy-one percent of American World Cup fans are interested in music concerts during the tournament, and 69 percent want to engage in cultural and arts activities, rates significantly higher than the general population. This is a travel audience, not just a sports audience, and the destinations that recognise that distinction are the ones converting attention into bookings.

For host-country destinations, the challenge is conversion. Millions of international visitors are already in the country; the question is whether those visitors extend their trips, visit surrounding regions, and spend. The areas surrounding stadiums and fan zones on match days are the highest-density tourism touchpoints on the planet, and the destinations activating in those spaces with cultural programming, local food, and interactive destination storytelling are the ones turning foot traffic into real economic impact.

For destinations outside the three host nations, the opportunity is different but no less significant. Every match creates an editorial moment for the media of both competing nations, giving non-host destinations a window to pitch tourism narratives timed to their national team's fixtures and connect destination messaging to the emotional energy of the tournament.

On home soil, non-host destinations can turn themselves into watch party destinations through open-air screenings, cultural events, and live music that bring the atmosphere of the tournament to life locally. And the largest viewership markets are not necessarily countries with qualifying teams, which means the World Cup offers a rare opening for destinations to reach source markets they have never owned before.

So who's playing to win?

Portugal launched "It's Portugal Time" in partnership with the Portuguese Football Federation, presenting curated destination recommendations modelled after a team's starting eleven and timed to tournament moments. Portugal isn't even hosting, but with the 2030 World Cup on the horizon, the campaign doubles as a long-term brand investment.

Mexico rolled out a nationwide tourism strategy that weaves all 32 states into cultural routes, food festivals, and multi-destination itineraries, turning secondary destinations such as Nayarit and Quintana Roo into natural pre- and post-match extensions from host cities.

Here in New York, NYC Tourism + Conventions spent months building "Where the World Comes to Play", a campaign active across 20 global markets with creative tailored to soccer fans, culture seekers, and shoppers.

Making its first-ever World Cup appearance, Jordan launched its "Jordan: Unrivalled" campaign just before the tournament, linking the national team's historic debut to the country's tourism story. The campaign combines fan activations in the US, influencer partnerships, digital storytelling, public screenings across Jordan, and the launch of Royal Jordanian's new non-stop Dallas–Amman service.

Others are already looking beyond the tournament. This week, the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority signed a multi-year partnership with Arsenal Football Club as its Official Destination Partner beginning with the 2026/27 season. The agreement includes brand visibility at Emirates Stadium, integration across Arsenal's digital channels, joint marketing campaigns, and the development of an Arsenal Academy Hub on the island.

Saint Lucia may not have a team in this World Cup, but its leadership clearly understands what the strongest destination marketers already know: soccer audiences are travel audiences, and the clubs and competitions that command their attention are powerful platforms for destination brands.

What separates the winners from the rest?

Preparation and execution.

Every destination knew the World Cup was coming. The ones performing now treated it as a strategic campaign rather than a date on the calendar. They built geo-targeted campaigns timed to match windows in priority source markets. They structured airline partnerships with shared KPIs and co-branded landing pages. They brought soccer-focused creators to their destinations and integrated that content directly into paid media. Most importantly, they connected their destination story to the emotional narrative of the tournament itself.

The destinations falling behind are doing exactly what you'd expect: generic beach imagery, broad destination messaging, and campaigns that could have run whether the World Cup was happening or not. The World Cup rewards relevance. Copy-and-paste campaigns struggle to break through when every destination is competing for attention at the same time.

The tournament runs through 19 July, but the lesson is already clear: the World Cup does not automatically generate tourism growth. Execution is what separates the destinations that benefit from the moment from those that simply happen to exist during it.