Occupancy at U.S. World Cup host cities has come in below hoteliers’ expectations, but room rates are telling a different story — and the biggest winner so far is Kansas City, writes Global Tourism Reporter Bailey Schulz.

Match-day RevPAR across host markets is up more than 40% on average through June 20, per CoStar. Kansas City led U.S. gains with a 167% jump during the Argentina vs. Algeria game, while Monterrey topped the tournament overall with a nearly 280% match-day spike. Miami is the surprise underperformer with 15.3% fewer rooms sold year-over-year.

An unlikelier winner: ranch dressing. International visitors are hauling bottles home in such large numbers that the TSA issued a reminder to pack them in checked bags.

The deadline is now Monday, July 6 at 11:59pm ET. Enter the travel industry's awards for design, innovation, and creative excellence.

Judges from Hilton, Accor, and Tourism Ireland score every submission on measurable impact, and winners take the Skift Global Forum stage in September.

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At Skift's Data + AI Summit, Travelport's Fahim Khan shared how a single API call returning live availability, images, and negotiated rates is how AI agents will close the gap between travel inspiration and completed bookings.

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Trip.com is sitting on one of the largest cash piles in all of OTA travel, roughly half the company's entire market cap. But according to Skift's reporting, the Cayman Islands holding company that shareholders actually own had about $1.6 million in cash at year end.

In this clip from Good Morning Hospitality, Brandreth Canaley, Michael Goldin, and Jamie Lane break down what China's anti-monopoly investigation, regulatory compression, and three years of zero material M&A actually mean for one of travel's most watched companies and whether any of that $15 billion is ever going anywhere.

How are public travel companies performing around the world? The Skift Travel 200 pulls the data you need to understand global market movements. Paid subscribers get full access here.

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