Half of Toronto’s hotel rooms are unbooked heading into the World Cup
The city’s tourism industry has been let down with only two days until the tournament
FIFA’s promised hotel boom has arrived more as a whisper. While the Toronto portion of the tournament kicks off on Friday—with Team Canada taking on Bosnia and Herzegovia—roughly half of the city’s rooms remain unbooked.
The shortfall follows FIFA’s recent decision to cancel some 15,000 room nights in Vancouver alone after overbooking for its athletes, referees and staff. The number of cancellations in Toronto is unknown, but hotel occupancy in the city sits well below the levels typically associated with major international events.
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For years, politicians and tourism officials have pointed to the World Cup’s economic benefits as justification for the hundreds of millions of public dollars spent hosting the tournament. FIFA is currently projecting an estimated $940 million in added economic activity across the GTHA.
In an interview with Global News, Andrew Weir, CEO of Destination Toronto, said that he expects June, in terms of hotel bookings, to be busier on some days than others. “What’s encouraging is that May was fairly strong, and the rest of the summer is showing a good pace as well,” he continued. “So even if June ends up a little bit lower than initial expectations, the rest of the summer likely will balance out.”
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To be fair, there is still time for a late surge. It’s not unheard of for fans to book travel at the last minute, and Toronto’s matches run into July. But, with kickoff now two days away, the city’s long-expected World Cup windfall is looking less like a projection and more like a prayer.
Zakiya Kassam is a writer and fact checker whose work has appeared in Post City Magazines, This Magazine and Now Toronto. She was previously the associate editor at Storeys.
