FIFA World Cup 2026 - Photo credit: Unsplash+ License
The 2026 FIFA World Cup was expected to provide one of the biggest tourism windfalls in U.S. history, a $30.5 billion in U.S. gross output and a $17.2 billion contribution to U.S. GDP.
Two months after the final, there is not yet a comparable nationwide post-event economic impact calculation. But hotel data and early host-city studies are beginning to show what actually happened. And the picture is far more uneven than the forecasts suggested.
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