Are we doing enough to make sure World Cup visitors leave with the best possible impression of our city and province?
Tourists are looking for walkable streets, good food, entertainment, and accommodation, all at a price point that doesn’t make them regret coming. The last part is where Vancouver is most at risk
I grew up in Barranquilla, a coastal Caribbean city in Colombia, where football is life. I have always been obsessed with the “beautiful game” and half joke that life is what happens between World Cups.
So, when I learned that Vancouver, the city I have called home for seven years now, would host seven matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, I felt the same excitement fans across the province did.
But alongside that excitement came a question I haven’t been able to shake. Are we doing enough to make sure that visitors leave with the best possible impression of our city and province?
Most economists agree that, in pure economic terms, the costs of hosting mega-events outweigh the benefits. But that’s not the whole story. Major events like a World Cup shape how millions of people around the world experience a place for the first time and can raise a city’s profile while driving infrastructure investment.
Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics are a good example. Those games spurred the construction of tangible infrastructure like the Canada Line and Olympic Village, and built Vancouver’s international reputation, encouraging more tourism. The World Cup can do the same or it can leave a different kind of impression.
Whether visitors come back and recommend Vancouver to others depends on what they experience on the ground. World Cup tourists are looking for reliable transit, walkable streets, good food, entertainment, and accommodation, all at a price point that doesn’t make them regret coming. The last part is where Vancouver is most at risk. A recent Deloitte analysis suggests that during the World Cup, Metro Vancouver could face the equivalent of 7,700 visitors a day unable to find a place to stay. Rising to over 14,000 on peak days, such as when Canada plays.
And prices are already doing what prices do when supply is tight and demand is high. Among the 16 cities hosting the World Cup, Vancouver is expected to be the most expensive destination, with peak game-day accommodation prices averaging more than $1,400 a night. In some cases, downtown accommodations are already sitting at well above $2,000 a night for dates when Canada plays. At those prices, some visitors will shorten their trips or shift to more affordable host cities, and many will spend less at restaurants, shops and cultural venues.
Despite the obvious challenge of how to ensure affordable options for visitors during a peak load event, the City of Vancouver has not yet loosed any of its restrictions around short-term accommodation. In recent years, the city tightened its rules, going beyond the provincial requirements. But global events sometimes call for temporary flexibility.
Other host cities around the world have allowed time-limited accommodation measures during the World Cup, such as lowering licensing fees and allowing additional space (suite for in-laws, extra bedroom) to be used. With the tournament less than three months away, it’s puzzling as to why the city has not yet made targeted adjustments for the duration of the event. If the goal is to present Vancouver as a welcoming destination, then the city needs to ensure its policies reflect that.
Failure to address this issue will impact more than just World Cup fans. British Columbians who need to travel to Vancouver for medical treatment, family obligations, and/or work are already choosing not to travel here during the games because of high accommodation prices. For example, Indigenous health-care providers in northwest B.C. have already said they are unable to book patients’ medical appointments in Vancouver because of the cost of accommodation during the World Cup period.
Accommodation is not the only area where this kind of flexibility is needed. B.C.’s hospitality sector has been asking for a blanket extension of liquor service hours during the tournament, which is something other host jurisdictions have already done. Instead, bar and restaurant owners must apply night-by-night, with public notice and local approval, and are capped at six requests a year. Vancouver is hosting seven games. The math doesn’t work. Limiting the hours when tourists can spend money limits the economic lift from the games.
The good news is that these issues are still fixable. The policy adjustments required are time-limited and well within the control of the city and the province. When global demand shows up at our doorstep, do our policies allow local businesses and residents to respond? Millions of fans will arrive with expectations and what they encounter will shape how they remember Vancouver long after the final whistle.
Jairo Yunis is director of policy and project productivity lead at the Business Council of British Columbia.
As published in the Vancouver Sun on April 22, 2026.