TORONTO — New Visa data suggests the FIFA World Cup brought a rise in spending among consumers in Canadian host cities.
The credit card company said Tuesday that match day spending rose as much as 24.6 per cent in Toronto and 12.7 per cent in Vancouver, when compared with the same days a year ago.
Toronto saw the largest game day increase in spending when Germany took on Ivory Coast on June 20, while Vancouver’s peak came when Australia faced Turkey on June 13.
When Canada played Qatar in a group-stage match in Vancouver on June 18, there was a 4.9 per cent increase in spending in the city, said Visa, which is a World Cup sponsor.
Vancouver and Toronto hosted a collective 13 games during the World Cup, which wrapped up last month.
Their economic impact has been hotly debated since before the soccer tournament kicked off. Critics expected the millions each Canadian city paid to host the event would far outweigh any uptick in sales restaurants, hotels and other local businesses would see.
A study Deloitte Canada prepared for FIFA estimated the World Cup could generate up to $940 million in economic impact for the Greater Toronto Area, but the city has yet to reveal what kind of revenue it raised.
Through the tournament, Toronto hotel associations lamented a drop in occupancy rates.
However, data previously released by payment processing company Moneris suggested Toronto saw a small boost in spending during the first weeks of the tournament but found it paled in comparison to spending during Taylor Swift’s Eras tour concerts in the city.
It detected a three per cent bump in spending at restaurants, while big box store sales and groceries were up four and six per cent, respectively. Spending on apparel dropped by five per cent.
Spending done by people with foreign-issued credit cards was a bright spot, up 34 per cent at restaurants and bars, 19 per cent on groceries and seven per cent at hotels.
— with files from Kathryn Mannie in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2026.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
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