Toronto and Vancouver’s role as Canada’s host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup helped drive a sharp increase in international visitor spending, according to new payment data released by Visa.
The company said inbound cross-border card-present volume in Canada increased by more than 35% year-over-year between June 11 and June 30, when the two cities hosted tournament matches.
The figure captures in-person purchases made in Canada using Visa cards issued outside the country. It provides an early indication of spending generated by international visitors during the tournament, although Visa did not disclose a dollar value or release separate results for Toronto and Vancouver.
As Canada’s only World Cup host markets, the two cities were at the centre of the country’s tournament-related tourism and commercial activity.
Visitors attending matches would have generated spending across hotels, restaurants, bars, transportation, entertainment and retail. Visa did not provide a Canadian breakdown by category, making it difficult to determine where the gains were concentrated or how spending differed between the two cities.
The national figure may also include purchases made outside Toronto and Vancouver, as international travellers could have extended their trips to other parts of Ontario, British Columbia or elsewhere in Canada.
Visa’s results therefore provide a broad measure of increased international payment activity during the tournament, but not a complete assessment of its economic impact.
Host Cities See Increased Spending
Visa released more detailed tournament spending data for the United States, where it tracked activity in individual host and destination cities.
From the tournament’s opening on June 11 through the Round of 32 matches on June 30, inbound cross-border card-present spending in U.S. host cities increased by nearly 25% year-over-year.
Card-present transactions rose by as much as 20% in certain host cities on match days, while entertainment and restaurants recorded the strongest growth in cross-border spending.
Some cities experienced particularly large match-day increases. Kansas City recorded cross-border card-present transaction growth of as much as 1,000% year-over-year on certain match days, while Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas saw increased spending ahead of knockout matches.
Visa also reported stronger use of contactless payments and public transit systems. Weekly tap-to-pay transit transactions in U.S. host cities reached a peak growth rate of nearly 40%, while Boston recorded an increase of more than 50% during the June tournament period.
The U.S. findings provide context for the types of businesses and services that can benefit from a major international sporting event. Visa did not provide comparable category or transit data for Toronto and Vancouver, and the American results should not be interpreted as a direct reflection of the Canadian market.
Mexico recorded an even larger increase in inbound cross-border card-present volume, rising by more than 70% year-over-year during the same period.
Together, the figures indicate that all three World Cup host countries experienced heightened international payment activity during the tournament, although the scale and distribution varied by market.
Cross-Border Commerce Remains Strong
The increase in Canadian visitor spending came during a strong quarter for cross-border payments more broadly.
Visa reported that total cross-border volume, excluding transactions within Europe, increased by 12% year-over-year during its fiscal third quarter.
Cross-border e-commerce volume rose 16%, while travel-related cross-border volume increased 10%.
The company said retail activity, including the timing of major promotional shopping events, contributed to the strength in online cross-border spending.
Through July 21, cross-border e-commerce volume was running 18% above the previous year, while travel-related volume was up 12%.
Visa cautioned that June and July were unusually strong periods for cross-border e-commerce. Management said growth would likely return to a more typical relationship with travel spending as the effects of promotional events and calendar timing eased.
Visa’s overall payments volume increased 10% in constant currency during the quarter, surpassing $4 trillion for the first time in the company’s history.
The number of transactions processed by Visa also rose 10% to 72 billion.
Visa described consumer spending as resilient, with continued growth across discretionary and non-discretionary categories. Its most detailed comments about consumer spending patterns, however, related primarily to the United States.
Digital Payments Continue to Expand
Visa’s results also highlighted the growing role of digital payment services across retail, e-commerce and delivery platforms.
Visa Direct transactions increased 21% year-over-year during the quarter. The service enables funds to be transferred directly to eligible cards and accounts.
DoorDash continues to use Visa Direct to provide payouts to delivery workers in Canada, the United States and Australia. The delivery platform also uses Visa virtual commercial cards that allow Dashers to pay for customer orders at physical retail locations.
Visa said tokenized credentials were nearing 60% of its global e-commerce transactions. Tokenization replaces sensitive payment information with a secure digital identifier, reducing the need for merchants to handle a customer’s actual card number.
The company is also expanding payment infrastructure for artificial intelligence-enabled shopping, digital checkout systems and other emerging forms of commerce.
The developments are part of Visa’s broader effort to expand its role as a technology and payment infrastructure provider serving retailers, financial institutions, platforms and consumers.
While additional city-level and category-specific data would be needed to fully measure the tournament’s retail impact, Visa’s payment network offers one of the earliest indicators that international visitors generated a meaningful increase in in-person spending during Canada’s portion of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
