It’s the first day of the new year, but we already know what one of the biggest events of 2026 will be in North Texas: the FIFA World Cup.
Games don’t begin here until the summer, but some data already shows that DFW will likely be a hotspot for visitors.
According to KAYAK, a travel search engine, DFW is the most-searched host city, second only to Boston.
“It even surpassed major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and even Miami,” said KAYAK travel trends expert Sarah Kennedy.
She said after FIFA’s group selection draw last year, global interest in flights to Dallas surged nearly 280%.
“Dallas is hosting a tournament-high nine matches in Arlington next summer for the World Cup. So, I imagine that’s going to be a large part of it is because there’s so many matches coming to Dallas,” Kennedy explained.
She said origin data shows, unsurprisingly, most searches are coming from within the United States.
But she said, surprisingly, the foreign country we’re seeing the most interest from is Germany. That team isn’t set to play in Arlington unless they win the group stage and make it to the semifinals.
“So, they are very confident that their team is going to make that semifinal game,” Kennedy said.
Another big country of origin is England.
Kennedy said they are also seeing hotel prices start to increase, in tandem with increased flight searches.
She said so far, it’s about a 12% year-over-year increase, coming out to an average of $220 a night.
“So, not too much right now, but I do expect that number to continue rising as we get closer to the tournament,” she said.
So, she encourages people to book their hotels or set price alerts.
If not, you may find yourself competing with a lot of German tourists.
“A big boom coming to Dallas next summer,” she said.