Airfares jump and hotel prices soar on World Cup demand spike

Spain players celebrate after the World Cup final soccer match between Spain and Argentina in East Rutherford, N.J., near New York, Sunday, July 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Customers paid a lot more for travel services last month, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver — the country’s host cities for the World Cup — Statistics Canada said Monday.

The cost of traveller accommodation in June rose 10 per cent overall, and about 20 per cent year-over-year in Ontario and British Columbia. Combined, their two biggest cities played host to 10 FIFA games in a 15-day span that month, plus three more in July.

Rental car prices rose nearly seven per cent across the country compared to June 2025 as travel demand increased, the agency said. In May, prices had fallen by nearly the same amount, suggesting a soccer-linked surge in rates for June.

As soccer fever set in, travel tours also cost nearly seven per cent more than a year earlier, as opposed to a year-over-year bump of less than one per cent in May.

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Booking a flight got more expensive too. StatCan said airfares jumped nearly 10 per cent last month from a year earlier, pushed up by vacationers’ urge for domestic trips as well as higher jet fuel costs caused by the Middle East war.

The spike in ticket prices marks the largest fare increase since February 2023, according to the agency.

In a note to investors, National Bank analyst Cameron Doerksen spelled out the reason: “Airlines are passing on higher jet fuel prices through higher airfares.”

Some experts say the pricier domestic fares likely won’t come down until early autumn as fuel prices start to climb again with hostilities flaring between the U.S. and Iran, and as Canadians continue to shun U.S. travel, turned off by tariffs and Trumpian rhetoric.

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Surging demand for plane trips spilled over into the realm of private air travel.

In Vancouver, the number of business jet arrivals rose nine per cent to 724 for the period between June 8 and July 12 — dates that bookended the World Cup in Canada — compared to the same five weeks in 2025, according to figures provided by analytics firm WingX.

Volumes tended to surge on game days. The daily arrival average for that period sat at 22, but on the seven dates when Vancouver hosted a cup match, the total averaged 28.

The day of the Canada-Qatar game saw 39 private jets touch down in Vancouver, and the Canada-Switzerland showdown helped draw 29. The final match in the city on July 7, when Switzerland knocked out Colombia to advance to the quarterfinals, saw 41 business jet arrivals, more than any other day in the five-week stretch.

“We did anticipate a surge, but we didn’t know how much,” said Harlan Simpkins, CEO of the Canadian Business Aviation Association.

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In Toronto, any connection between private jet traffic and FIFA matches was less clear.

“It’s also difficult because some people were coming in the day before, sometimes two days before,” Simpkins said.

“There is the FIFA aspect,” he said, but tourism more broadly as well as corporate travel likely account for much of the business jet travel volume on a given day, particularly in a global hub like Toronto.

A big rise in visitors from overseas — including among the private jet set and corporate elite — can be chalked up to a desire to steer clear of the U.S., Simpkins said, citing the “political situation” south of the border.

“We’re seeing a lot of companies that are hosting conferences in Canada, just because it’s easier to get into the country. The political climate’s just a little bit more stable.”

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Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2026.