Tourism agency gears up to attract World Cup fans to Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority will appeal to thousands of soccer fans worldwide in a bid to convince them that Las Vegas is the place to go to watch 2026 FIFA World Cup games.

The LVCVA’s Marketing Committee on Monday outlined its strategy to convince fans that Las Vegas is a less expensive place to watch World Cup games scheduled across North America June 11 through July 19.

Even though there won’t be any World Cup games played in Las Vegas, a team of marketers from the LVCVA and contracted R&R Partners will use social media to show how Las Vegas is the perfect place to watch games from the comfort of a race and sports book or with watch parties that are likely to be planned by local resorts.

“We’re actively focused on how do we create headlines for Las Vegas. How do we steal the spotlight for the destination, whether it’s through our traditional advertising campaigns that are important in telling the story from our voice to a very specific audience, to layering in events that we bring to the destination and figuring out how do we steal their spotlight for the destination and show how events are better in Las Vegas,” said LVCVA Chief Marketing Officer Kate Wik.

The marketers plan to use a heavy dose of social media, through Instagram, YouTube and TikTok to get the younger audience that is likely to engage with what will be the largest World Cup tournament in history.

There are 48 teams from six confederations playing in 16 cities, the closest of which is Los Angeles.

The message to fans will be that Las Vegas, while not a host city for the event, is an ideal place to gather and watch games together. The LVCVA argues that people can witness a timeless moment and make a great memory, but with the “crazy ticket prices” they could be “spending many thousands of bucks to attend a single game” and that instead, the best way is to “go to Vegas for a fraction of the price.”

Wik and the R&R team described the changing landscape of social media with the followers of influencers producing content that the public would gravitate towards.

The LVCVA plans to develop three YouTube pages to engage viewers in different aspects of Las Vegas that World Cup followers may find appealing.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.