Mundial de Fútbol 2026: Lecciones aprendidas por Vancouver y qué sigue

Vancouver streets and restaurant patios near World Cup fan zones have largely been electric for the last four weeks, exceeding many expectations for how this city would embrace being a FIFA host. Place this week, politicians tried to bottle that enthusiasm by rushing to extend FIFA-related bylaw changes until summer’s end: Vancouver city council promised Granville Street could remain a pedestrian zone and the province extended temporary restaurant patio approvals.

But she tempered expectations for after the footie fans leave town: “I want to be really clear: It is not going to be exactly as it was during the FIFA World Cup. The (restaurants) told reporters my business is 50, 60 per cent over where it was last year,” told reporters Ian Tostenson, president of the B.C. That wasn’t the case, though, for many eateries and bars on the outskirts of those popular areas. “We have to make sure —. I don’t know what the answer to this is yet — but if we create these public spaces, we want to make sure that if you’re off the beaten track a bit, that you’re going to benefit as well,” Tostenson explained.

The final costs and revenue from hosting seven Cup games in Vancouver between June 13 and July 7 are still to be tallied. Place , and 330,000 people visited the PNE’s Fan Festival between June 11 and 28, in addition to the thousands at other watch parties in downtown Vancouver, Granville Island, North Vancouver and elsewhere.

It isn’t clear how many of those are out-of-town visitors who spent additional money on lodging and food, but both Talbot and Chwin believe the number of tourists will be high when official data is in. Going to Adyen, a financial technology business that processes credit card payments, tourist spending in Vancouver went up 15 per cent between June 13 and July 7 compared with the preceding three weeks in May and June.

When it comes to the entire province, the Cup is expected to generate one million new tourists, $1 billion in visitor spending and $900 million in labour income over the next five years, B.C. According to Hotels Bek Shamsiev, manager of the Azur Legacy Hotel in downtown Vancouver,, his bookings in June were down 20 per cent compared with the same month in 2025. “July is looking much better but still behind by 10 per cent compared to July 2025,” he explained Wednesday.

That’s in keeping with Destination Vancouver’s finding that, as of June 27, hotel occupancy was 16 percentage points below the same period last year. And CoStar, a business that tracks hotel bookings, said on July 6 that Toronto and Vancouver both had occupancy declines during the tournament.

Going to Charette, the two hostels she manages would typically be at 90 per cent capacity in the summer but are sitting at about half that right now, in part as some guests cancelled due to festivals and other events being rescheduled during the Cup. Maybe that was the case.” He pointed out one positive for hoteliers: the average daily rate in late June was about $500, 30 per cent higher than the same time frame in 2025.

An association spokesperson, though, wouldn’t comment until seeing “complete booking data later this summer.” Chwin stated that while many events were paused during the tournament, 10 major conferences are scheduled in Vancouver over the next few months, and hotel occupancy is expected to reach 90 per cent this summer. Liquor Distribution Branch: turnover to restaurants, bars and pubs between May 31 and June 27 were $51.5 million, which was $5 million, or 11 per cent higher, than in June 2025, a spokesperson stated.

Granville Strip It isn’t clear yet what exactly will happen on Granville Street after the Cup ends July 19. It in addition isn’t clear how the $4.74 million set aside to keep it open for seven more weeks will be spent, beyond the general plan to dole out portions of the money to the city for sanitation and engineering, Vancouver police for security, and Downtown Van for activities.

Talbot is optimistic this summer’s experiment will help carve out future plans for Granville Street. “There will be learnings about what worked well, what can be improved on for next time and what the street can do in terms of supporting pedestrianization.” Totenson explained restaurants and bars on Granville Street were also in favour of extending the pedestrian strip, as long as it came with additional police. He noted the 2010 Olympics were held in February, typically a less-busy time for hotels. Restaurants. “This really was an interesting experiment of holding a massive event during normally a very busy part of the year for Vancouver, and what it does to change travelling dynamics and displace existing business,” he explained.

He believes Vancouver is a very experienced host and successfully staged this tournament, but added: “We’ll learn from this in terms of when we’re being sold the next major event.” lculbert@postmedia.com Related 'The kids are just buzzing': How B.C.'s young soccer players benefit from World Cup legacy World Cup: Canada needs to go from good to great.