KEEPING TABS: Pricey World Cup keeps fans away, hits US hotels, airlines

Despite the World Cup’s arrival, many hotels are cutting rates as international travel lags, leaving the tourism industry grappling with unmet expectations and growing disappointment.

Hours before the World Cup kickoff, the boost to travel and tourism expected from this year’s biggest sporting event has yet to materialise.

For years, the tournament was expected to deliver a windfall for America’s travel industry, now grappling with declining international visitors amid what rights groups describe as a climate of fear.

The swarms of fans, hotels had counted on have yet to arrive, forcing many to cut rates. Flight bookings have slumped as ticket prices have skyrocketed. Expensive match tickets have further stymied demand, and industry analysts say excitement has been muted compared with previous World Cups.

The weak start suggests the traditional World Cup travel playbook – typically dependent on international fans willing to travel long distances and spend heavily to follow their teams – is faltering. Instead, the costs, visa hurdles and the logistics of attending matches across 16 host cities in three countries have proven a deterrent.

US travellers, in a country where soccer is less popular than in Europe, are not filling the gap.

It is “overall a disappointment. There’s no other word that I can say”, said Vijay Dandapani, CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City. He said the association has cut its forecast for hotel room revenue tied to the World Cup by 60% to roughly $60-million.

Flight bookings from Europe into most host cities for June and July are down 3.8% on average year-over-year, according to Cirium, even after Europeans had already pulled back from travel to the US last year. Bookings from Europe into New York, host of the 19 July final, have plunged 15.8%, Cirium said.

Fifa had projected that 1.2 million fans would descend on the city, but Dandapani said the New York hotel association is only expecting half a million.

Dandapani said there has been a small uptick in bookings from UK and Norway fans recently, which he called a “positive sign”.

Hotels are hoping for a last-minute surge after the group stage concludes, despite discouraging early data. Average bookings across host cities are up just 0.5% from a year earlier, according to analytics firm CoStar.

Several New York hotels are discounting hotel rooms, said Dandapani, including the New York Hilton Midtown, the city’s largest hotel, which slashed rates for the tournament in half to $415 per night, compared to advertised rates in December, he said.

Hilton in April said it