FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, has cancelled 40% of the hotel rooms it booked in Mexico City for the World Cup, according to Alberto Albarrán Leyva, the director general of Mexico City’s Hotel Association.
In an interview with the newspaper El Financiero, Albarrán Leyva said that in the last 30 days, 800 of the 2,000 rooms that FIFA booked to be occupied during the World Cup in Mexico City were released.
Meanwhile, the newspaper La Jornada quoted Albarrán as saying that in the lead-up to the sporting event, “there have been more cancellations than reservations.”
At the same time, Albarrán cautioned against reading too much into the cancellations. “FIFA booked 2,000 rooms months ago to prevent (running short) and guarantee its operation,” Albarrán told ESPN. “Over time, it canceled some reservations because it realized that it was no longer going to use them. There is no other reason or other type of context.”
FIFA’s mass cancellations of its hotel reservations were made public just 100 days before the World Cup. At this point, the Mexico City Hotel Association anticipates no further cancellations from the organizing committee.
Albarrán said that the hotel sector will need to redesign its marketing and sales strategies to accommodate the available rooms. The sector anticipates that by June 11, the opening date of the World Cup, hotel occupancy will reach 85% in the capital.
According to the consulting firm Deloitte, Mexico City expects to welcome some 836,000 domestic and international tourists during the World Cup. In contrast, the Hotel Association maintains its expectation of 1.5 to 2 million visitors in total, with an average stay of 1.8 days.
Albarrán said he expects tourists to use Mexico City as a “trampoline” to travel to other World Cup host states, such as Jalisco and Nuevo León, thus increasing tourist activity in various regions of the country.
Mexico City’s Tourism Ministry puts out a counter-narrative
On Wednesday morning, the capital’s Tourism Ministry issued a statement disputing Albarrán’s declaration of hotel cancellations.
“These versions do not reflect the reality of the planning process or the behavior of the international tourism market,” the ministry said.
Citing a report dubbed “Travel Insights: Football’s biggest event in 2026” by Amadeus, Sectur said that travel searches for the period leading up to the World Cup grew by more than 35% and that host cities are registering steady increases in travel intent and flight bookings.
“These indicators reflect a positive overall trend in tourism demand associated with the tournament,” the press conference concluded.
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup approaches, Mexico City has more than 63,000 rooms available across 800 hotels. According to Sectur, it is prepared to guarantee “enough capacity to welcome travelers during the event.”
Mexico News Daily
