![\"Sebasti\u00e1n](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783557807_612_.png\"\/)
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Christine Vo<\/p>\n
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Fort Worth Report<\/p>\n
Sebasti\u00e1n Guti\u00e9rrez and Daniela Henao made the Fort Worth Stockyards their first stop on July 6, during their weeklong trip to North Texas for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. <\/p>\n
Fort Worth has geared up efforts to draw international attention to its Western heritage through citywide \u201cHowdy World<\/a>\u201d branding visible throughout the Stockyards and in other key cultural areas.<\/p>\n The Stockyards has welcomed 1,563,806 visitors in the past 30 days, according to numbers provided on Tuesday by the Stockyards Heritage Development Co. The historic area saw 974,200 visitors during the same time period last year.<\/p>\n Ethan Cartwright, senior vice president of marketing for Stockyards Heritage Development, said that hearing a dozen distinct languages alongside the clip-clop of the daily city herd cattle drive down Exchange Avenue proves that while the world has gotten bigger, \u201cthe spirit of this place remains exactly the same.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLong before stadiums and global broadcasts, this area was defined by the Chisholm Trail, a place where paths crossed and people from all walks of life found common ground,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cSeeing international sports fans fill the historic Stockyards feels like the natural continuation of that story.\u201d<\/p>\n During Henao\u2019s recent visit to the Stockyards, she and her family spent the remainder of their afternoon savoring barbecue and watching the longhorn cattle parade to \u201clive the full experience.\u201d They planned to travel to Dallas the following day.<\/p>\n Nearby, Karoline Machago posed for selfies and recorded videos of the Western scenes outside Stockyards Station. The tourist, originally from Brazil but now living in Boston, was on her first visit to Fort Worth.<\/p>\n During her one-day trip, she watched the rodeo at Cowtown Coliseum before enjoying brisket smothered in barbecue sauce. The trip cheered her up after Brazil\u2019s loss to Norway<\/a> on Sunday in New Jersey, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m loving it here, so excited, so cool,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so different from what I was seeing in Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n A few feet away, Frank Wang sat on the patio at Riscky\u2019s Trailboss Burgers as he and his family waited to order. Wang, who traveled from Singapore, had previously visited the East and West coasts, but this was his first venture to the middle part of the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cTexas, in our opinion, it\u2019s desert and hot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Wang had only been in North Texas for three days, but he had already fallen in love with the cultural spirit Americans have, especially when dressing up in red, white and blue for the World Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cThey dress themselves up on the face,\u201d he said in reference to face paint. \u201cThat makes a very deep impression.\u201d<\/p>\n David Moreno is the arts and culture reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Fort Worth Report\u2019s arts and culture coverage is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Virginia Hobbs Charitable Trust. At the Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n