How the FIFA World Cup is hurting Canada’s tourism towns

Despite being promised a slew of football tourists, the reality has been anything but, with small businesses and tour operators struggling with a downturn in holiday-makers.

Before the tournament, Vancouver and Toronto hotels raised prices up to $1200 a night ahead of what was promised to be a tourism boom.

The move forced tour companies who normally travel through the major cities to put operations on hold during what is a peak holiday time for Canada.

While there were tourists roaming around, the promised boom never came.

In mid-May, Royce Chwin, CEO of tourism agency Destination Vancouver, revealed hotel bookings for June were actually down 20 per cent when compared to last year.

“You’ve got a whole number of economic pressures and issues against the backdrop of the world’s biggest sporting event coming, which is not an inexpensive event to attend,” he said at the time.

Toronto posted an increase in occupancy rates of short-term rentals of just four per cent.

The result has meant fewer tourists to surrounding towns, with small businesses – such as Mt Robson Store & Gift Shop in the Canadian Rockies – hit the hardest.

“Don’t even get me started,” owner of the gift store, Bruce Baker, told news.com.au.

“It’s not the gold mine everyone thought it was going to be. At least in Qatar, it was all in the same place. Sometimes across the road. But it is all spread out, and people are following their teams. They come for one game and then leave.

“The whole town is ready for the World Cup to be over.”

For the town of Jasper, which is still in recovery after one third of the town was wiped out during a horrific wildfire in 2024, the loss of tourism could not have come at a worse time.

Brian and Katrina Turcot, who own Jasper Raft Tours, lost all their rafts in the wildfire and said the town needed the influx of summer tourism.

Ms Turcot said her family spent last summer “rebuilding everything” with the company forced to buy a whole new fleet of rafts.

“FIFA; it’s affecting everyone,” Ms Turcot said.

“We are all finally ready to welcome people now with open doors.”

Ms Turcot said that if anyone was considering a trip to the Canadian Rockies – now was the time.

“It is what the town needs,” she said.

The town lost two of their major hotels in the wildfire, however, have spent the last two years rebuilding, with the area returning to its former glory.

During the wildfire, the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge was narrowly saved after the manager engaged the hotel’s sprinkler system before evacuating, which proved vital to the building’s survival.

Cosmos Tour Director Lynda Brown said the average cost of a hotel in Vancouver had soared to $900 a night during the tournament, with many rooms left unsold due to the huge costs.

Ms Brown said some of the major hotel chains “blocked out” the dates years ago to tour groups in anticipation of increasing the prices.

“It really has put a powerful punch into all the tour operators,” she said about the World Cup.

‘30 to 40 Super Bowls’

Earlier this year, Vancouver’s mayor Ken Sim told CBC News: “We are literally getting the equivalent of probably 30 to 40 Super Bowls in our city over a month-long period.”

However, it seems the World Cup’s northern cities were hardest hit by a lack of tourism.

While occupancy was up almost 30 per cent in Miami, around 30 per cent in Mexico City, and 90 per cent in Guadalajara and Monterrey – Vancouver and Seattle were the only two host cities to post year-on-year declines. Toronto came in at third-last with its mild four per cent increase.

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