NY, NJ are co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but will the tourists come?

New York City and New Jersey will be at the center of the soccer world this summer, when they partner as primary hosts for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the planet's most-watched sporting event. Still, a key question looms, besides who will win: Will the tourists come?

Business and tourism leaders, while hopeful for a big economic payoff for the region, are expressing concern that angst over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, trade tariffs and other White House policies could dampen the party and deter visitors.

The tourism and business leaders are airing their concerns in communications with world soccer officials and political leaders, and spreading a message in ad campaigns abroad that New York City is a welcoming and inclusive place — no matter what they might have heard.

The leaders say their abiding concern is that their message could be drowned out by ramped-up ICE activity and any counter-messaging from President Donald Trump on immigration and a range of issues.

“ The perception from foreigners in particular is, ‘Am I going to be caught in this dragnet?’” said Vijay Dandapani,  president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, which represents the owners of 300 hotels and 80,000 hotel rooms.

He said hotels stand to lose considerably if international tourists stay away, noting that they spend four to five times what domestic tourists typically spend. Given the high visibility of the games and the financial stakes, he likened the steady stream of threats over ICE and immigration to self-inflicted economic wounds.

“ Why would you cut your nose to spite your face?” Dandapani asked.

Immigrant rights advocates and elected officials say they're also concerned about the safety of the region's immigrant populations amid ICE's vows to maintain a visible presence near FIFA World Cup matches.

The local matches will be played at MetLife Stadium – dubbed the “New York New Jersey Stadium” – in East Rutherford, New Jersey, starting in mid-June and running through the World Cup final on July 19.

Signs of strain

But there may already be signs of the strain. July 2026 flight bookings from Europe to JFK and Newark airports are down 21% from July 2025, according to the aviation analytics company Cirium. The company said overall bookings from Europe to the United States have fallen 14%.

The numbers from particular European cities are especially stark, according to Cirium, with a 23% decline in travel from Amsterdam to the United States, 21% from Paris, 19% from Athens, 26% from Barcelona and 36% from Frankfurt.

“The drivers are concrete: The detention of European tourists at U.S. borders has received massive media coverage in Europe,” said Quentin Michelon, of the Association for Professional Tourism, a Paris-based trade group.

“And President Trump's rhetoric at Davos in January — calling Europeans ‘weak’ and ‘stupid people’ — landed hard over here,” Michelon said. “The cumulative effect is a feeling of simply not being welcome.”

Pressure, though, isn’t just coming from abroad.

Immigrant rights groups are using the spectacle of the games to draw attention to the fears of the city’s immigrant communities – as well as their leverage. Murad Awawdeh, the  president and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said “ an economic boycott” of the World Cup would be in order if ICE enforcement failed to ease up.

“If it comes to it, we may issue a travel alert to everyone who may be coming to New York and New Jersey to maybe not come to New York and New Jersey if the federal government continues to escalate their actions against our communities here,” Awawdeh said.

Immigrant rights groups have made similar threats elsewhere in the country, including in Florida, where the Florida Immigrant Coalition warns that travelers to any of the seven games in that state “may face unprecedented risks of racial profiling, wrongful detention in inhumane conditions without consular access, and heinous human rights violations.”

City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side and serves on the Council’s immigration committee, said she saw no need for anyone other than the NYPD to provide law enforcement during the games, and that ICE's presence would be “worrying.”

“ We would worry about our own residents,” Brewer said. “We would worry about visitors from all over the world.”

Brewer said so far, the Council had discussed the high cost of World Cup tickets and hotel rooms but had not ventured into the conversation around immigration enforcement and community safety during the games. “ I have not heard anything,” she said.

Hopes for outsize economic impact

Despite the concerns, the business and tourism leaders say they remain confident that the tournament will hit its goals, including a $3.3 billion impact on the region, with 1.8 million visitors throughout the summer and 26,000 jobs generated, according to projections by the host committee.

But they are taking little for granted and doubling down on their message that New York City is welcoming, inclusive and safe for international visitors.

Natalie Hamilton, a spokesperson for the FIFA World Cup 26 New York New Jersey Host Committee, said the organization was coordinating “a broad range of partners” for the event.

“The federal government has assured the Host Cities that World Cup operations will follow the same approach used for other large-scale events, with routine federal support focused on overall safety and security,” Hamilton said in a statement.

Hamilton added, “The Host Committee's focus remains on delivering a safe, welcoming, and seamless experience for visitors from around the world and NYNJ residents alike."

ICE did not immediately respond to questions regarding immigration enforcement during the World Cup, but acting Director Todd Lyons told a congressional committee on Tuesday that the agency would be “a key part of the overall security apparatus for the World Cup.”

“We are dedicated to securing that operation,” Lyons told the committee, “and we are dedicated to the security of all of our participants as well as visitors.”

Mayor Zohran Mamdani's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding immigration enforcement during the World Cup.

A new public relations campaign by New York City Tourism and Conventions, the city’s main tourism booster, aims to allay international concerns and promote New York as a global destination, said officials with the organization.

The branding extends to the organization’s website, where visitors are greeted by a Statue of Liberty-styled artificial intelligence host known as Libby — “short for Liberty” — who is fluent in 60 languages “and ready to make your visit unforgettable.”

The campaign was released in October in 20 international markets, the organization said, including Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. It has also included promotional events in a number of international markets, including Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and India.

Jessica Walker, the president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, said tourism had suffered in the city as a result of international tariffs — a threat from the very start of Trump’s second term – and that it was important to project New York as a “global city.”

“Certainly a lot of the conversation that we've been having is around trying to remind the world of that and to let people know that we welcome them here, that we do want our international visitors to come and have a good time this summer,” Walker said.

Richie Karaburun, a clinical associate professor at NYU’s Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, said the concern was “real but manageable,” and that outcomes hinged on building trust with the public.

“If officials communicate clearly that the event will be accessible and safe for international visitors, most of the anxiety fades,” Karaburun said. “If they don’t, people fill the silence with worst-case assumptions.”

‘Overall anxiety across’ the restaurant scene

Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, which represents the city’s restaurant and nightlife industry, said “ there's certainly an overall anxiety across the restaurant industry when it comes to over-aggressive immigration enforcement.”

Rigie expressed optimism, however, that the tournament was still “far off” and that the ongoing controversy over enforcement might have subsided by then. The Trump administration, however, has promised just the opposite – more enforcement in more communities.

“We hope that there's not going to be too much outside noise that's going to deter people from coming here,” Rigie said.

Likewise, Julie Coker, the president and CEO of New York City Tourism and Conventions, said, “We really are expecting a blockbuster summer.”

She said the advance messaging would be critical to the overall atmosphere.

Coker added, “We've just doubled down on what we are and certainly the Statue of Liberty is a visible sign of that. It is welcoming to all.”

Jessica Lappin, the  president of the Alliance for Downtown New York, said ultimately there was little the city could do to control federal immigration enforcement during the games, and that the controversy over the upcoming games was familiar to anyone who followed previous World Cups.

“ World Cup host countries are not without controversy,” Lappin said. “Look at Qatar, look at Russia. It's not unusual to have a host country that's facing some controversy, quite frankly.”