Get ready for the world’s biggest soccer stage

Major sporting events don’t just bring crowds, they attract high-value travelers. Given the costs of travel, tickets, and accommodation, most visiting fans fall into the premium-spending bracket, transforming downtown areas into high-activity retail zones.

During the summer games in Paris in 2024, spend on and around major events rose sharply across the platform. As we look ahead to what is likely to be the largest sports event in history this summer, we’re preparing for a similar surge from both domestic and international fans.

To understand the role of international shoppers in North America, we analyzed platform data from the summer of 2025 in the US. This shows that non‑domestic shoppers account for a significant share of retail spend, particularly in categories like clothing and jewelry. While local shoppers spend an average of $110.90 per apparel transaction, international visitors spend $186.52 – around 70% more per purchase.

European visitors account for 38% of international transactions, but tourists from Asia, particularly China, Japan, and South Korea, stand out as “super‑spenders.” Their average retail transaction is $306.40, nearly $188 higher than their European counterparts ($118.50). Among these, 1 in 10 purchases by Japanese tourists in luxury stores exceeds $442.70. Asian teams were among the first to qualify, giving them the longest runway to plan trips to North America: South Korea opens in Guadalajara, Mexico (June 12), Japan in Dallas (June 14).

Visitors from Latin America, notably Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, also outspend the European average, with an average transaction value (ATV) of $157.47.  Together, these insights highlight that hosting a major sporting event drives not only higher overall spend, but a distinct international premium segment focused on luxury and high‑margin retail categories.

During the summer games in 2024. This is most evident in the jewelry sector, where tourists spend an average of $1.7k, nearly double the local average of $888.80. Among jewelry shoppers, Chinese (ATV $4.5k) and Japanese (ATV $3.9k) accounted for 14% of non-domestic transactions each.

In the majority of instances, non-domestic shoppers prefer traditional card payment methods such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. However, data from summer 2025 indicates that specialized payment networks like China UnionPay (CUP) and the Japan Credit Bureau (JCB) command much higher ATVs of $492.20, compared to the $165.20 seen on standard cards. If a terminal cannot process these specific schemes and contactless methods instantly, businesses stand to lose out on a big spend opportunity.

High-value international shoppers expect frictionless checkout—especially when baskets hit $1,000–$5,000. Payment infrastructure that unifies global cards, currencies, and authorization rules captures revenue rigid systems miss.

Foreign visitors will drive ~1/3 of event retail traffic, a segment Deloitte flags as central to Mexico's tournament economy. Their data also shows hosting value exploding +300% from the 2002 tournament to 2022 while noting the effect the tournament has on ancillary industries.

To capture this opportunity: tokenization cuts repeat declines, premium card routing boosts approvals, and customer recognition IDs high-spenders across borders.

Major tournaments don’t just fill stadiums, they reshape transport patterns across entire regions. Airlines, rideshare services, rail operators, and mobility platforms see demand spike and then shift rapidly as fixtures change, teams advance, and fans adjust plans at short notice. This volatility drives a 40% increase in flexible or changeable bookings as travelers wait to see who advances before locking in their next move.

The data points to a clear prize, the premium tourist. While traditional cards make up most transactions, regional schemes such as Alipay+, CUP, JCB, and WeChat Pay are tied to an average order value of around $535.90. These journeys are highly concentrated by origin, with travelers from China responsible for the vast majority of CUP spend and Japanese fans accounting for most JCB volume. Visitors from the Americas, particularly Brazil, Argentina, and Colombia, also stand out, with an average transaction value of $160.86 that exceeds the European benchmark.

During a tournament, the booking window can collapse from weeks to minutes. A surprise result can send thousands of fans to their phones at once to secure a seat on the next train, flight, or rideshare. In these "scramble" moments, the merchant who wins the transaction is the one who offers the least resistance.

Treating payments as part of the logistics stack is essential. Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) helps fans understand costs instantly, avoiding exchange-rate calculations in the back of a cab. Automatic recognition of preferred methods, whether CUP, JCB, or a digital wallet, reduces drop-off by removing the need to retype card details under time pressure.

This is the first tournament of its kind where agentic commerce will play a major role. According to IDC, by 2026 AI agents will act as “digital watchdogs,” handling the logistical heavy lifting for fans in real-time. Instead of a fan manually refreshing a travel site, an agent can be tasked to monitor a match score and instantly book the best flight the moment a team advances.

Beyond just flights, these agents can also act as trip architects, instantly stitching together local dining, transport, and entertainment that fits a fan’s specific profile and location. For travel and mobility businesses, this means “discoverability” is evolving.

Aside from the main tournament itself, host cities are building full fan ecosystems around the matches. Mexico City, for example, will turn the Zócalo into one of the world’s largest FIFA Fan Festivals, with giant screens, concerts, sports activities, and cultural exhibitions, while additional fan zones across its 16 boroughs are designed to keep visitors in the city’s museums, food markets, and nightlife between games. Between matches, fans will look for ways to extend the experience through food, culture, and shared activities, and these visitors are outspending locals even in some everyday categories such as casual dining.

According to Expedia Group, the majority of sports travelers (62%) now opt for “marathon stays” of between 2 and 6 days, with nearly one in five staying for a week or longer. These visitors consistently outspend locals.

Our data from summer 2025 across the US found that tourists spend roughly $10 more per meal than locals (this was even more in California at $20) and around $5 more in fast-food outlets. Chinese and Hong Kong visitors sit at the top of this “downtime economy,” with average spends above $40 per person, compared with local averages closer to $29–$30.​

Because many of these purchases are spontaneous and mobile-first, the payment often becomes the most decisive step in the journey. Whether a fan is booking a same-day museum slot or a last-minute post-match celebration, they expect a few taps and instant confirmation. Providers that minimize friction for these same-day, high-intent transactions are best positioned to capture incremental revenue on rest days.

To capture high-intent demand, operators must shift from simple processing to a high-speed, globally reliable strategy. By implementing unified payments, entertainment providers can connect mobile discovery with in-person attendance on a single platform. 

This cross-channel visibility is vital for managing tournament volatility, as it allows systems to spot repeat guests and stop high-value declines during sudden peak windows. A unified approach also lets entertainment and experience businesses tailor interactions to real-time nationality mixes, ensuring local e-wallets and home-currency pricing are always available to reduce purchase hesitation.

Vancouver's Fan Festival at Hastings Park (PNE grounds)—with capacity to host 25,000 fans will feature not just game broadcasts but also live concerts and immersive fan experiences. It can expect to draw crowds from the likes of Australia, Qatar, New Zealand, and Egypt alongside locals in the tournament's early stages.

Kansas City's Fan Fest at the National WWI Museum also boasts 25,000 fan capacity and features stages, video boards, skills challenges, and watch parties while the city hosts those from Austria, Algeria, Ecuador, Curaçao, Tunisia, the Netherlands, and Argentina—Messi enthusiasts will no doubt abound.

When the world’s biggest sporting event comes to town, hotels become the heart of the host city’s ecosystem. Demand spikes, stays lengthen, and international guests dominate bookings across host cities. 

Early signals from US host cities already point to record pressure on inventory. In markets around MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, hotel booking volumes for the week of the 2026 final are up more than 100% year over year, with average daily rates more than 70% higher than the same period a year earlier. For the US opening match in Los Angeles, nearby destinations are seeing booking volumes up over 80%, with double‑digit rate growth as hotels lock in early demand.

Our data from our 2024 Summer Games in Paris proves this spending power is real. Chinese shoppers spent nine times the industry average per transaction in luxury retail. This reveals a critical operational need for the upcoming tournament. These same guests expect their hotel to reliably authorize luxury-tier stays and incidental holds that frequently range between $1,000 and $5,000 without the friction of international fraud flags.

This impact will be felt on a grand scale. Deloitte expects the tournament to be a massive revenue driver for Mexico’s hospitality sector, predicting a surge in hotel spending and employment that will spill over into neighboring states, creating a nationwide economic win.

To capture this opportunity, hoteliers should look beyond occupancy and toward total wallet share. Tournament-driven travel can be fluid, with guests changing cities or extending stays as teams progress. Properties that handle these changes smoothly can protect revenue and guest satisfaction, while fragmented systems risk friction exactly when their most valuable guests are most active.

The ‘luxury multiplier’ isn’t captured at the front desk alone. It's built through each spontaneous decision a guest makes from a late-night bar tab, a last-minute spa booking, or a premium viewing experience.

By unifying payments across the property, hotels remove the small barriers that discourage these decisions. When a guest can seamlessly charge to their room or pay via a preferred digital wallet without re-authentication, incidental spend becomes a core revenue stream rather than an afterthought. The aim is a consistent loop where high intent is matched with instant ability to pay, at every touchpoint.