The Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau is celebrating record-breaking tourism success following the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n
According to a report released Tuesday, Arlington hotels generated a record $31 million in room revenue during the tournament. The city hosted nine matches, including a semifinal, and more than 631,000 people attended those matches. Average attendance topped about 70,000 fans per match.<\/p>\n
In Fort Worth, business and tourism leaders gathered Tuesday to review the tournament’s economic impact, highlighting record-breaking visitor numbers and the opportunity to showcase North Texas on the world stage.<\/p>\n
For 39 days, Fort Worth welcomed soccer fans from around the globe, with the Stockyards serving as one of the area’s most popular destinations.<\/p>\n
“It was something magical here, welcoming the world and seeing the passion and the excitement,” Monica Paul, president of the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, said.<\/p>\n
The Stockyards attracted nearly two million visitors during the World Cup \u2014 about a 45% increase compared with the same period last year.<\/p>\n
Local leaders also pointed to the international connections made during the tournament.<\/p>\n
“When we talked to Czechia, we were telling them, ‘Come to the rodeo, we’ll host you,'” Drew Hays, executive director of the Fort Worth Sports Commission, said.<\/p>\n
The Czech national team’s visit coincided with record-breaking rodeo attendance. Organizers said 55,000 tickets were sold over the 39-day period, marking the highest total in the Coliseum’s 118-year history.<\/p>\n
The influx of international travelers also created unprecedented demand at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which welcomed hundreds of visiting dignitaries during the tournament.<\/p>\n
“On an annual basis, that’s usually what we would do, about 316 over the course of 365 days, so to compress that to a period of about 30 or so days, very much significant for us,” Jerome Woodard, chief operating officer of DFW International Airport, said.<\/p>\n
With the tournament complete, regional leaders are already looking toward future opportunities, including the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup and other major sporting events.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of different opportunities, WNBA, All-Star game,” Paul said.<\/p>\n
Officials said they hope North Texas’ successful hosting of the World Cup leaves more than impressive statistics, creating lasting memories for both visitors and the communities that welcomed them.<\/p>\n
“Look how the North Texas region just delivered this World Cup. And that, for me, I couldn’t be more proud,” Paul said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau is celebrating record-breaking tourism success following the 2026 FIFA World Cup. According…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3691,150,152,151,116],"class_list":["post-389835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-fort-worth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}