Thousands of visitors for 2026 events could bring $1 billion impact to Philly
The city of Philadelphia is expecting to see $1 billion in economic impact from visitors in 2026.
Tourists will be descending upon the City of Brotherly Love for the events celebrating America’s 250th birthday the FIFA World Cup, several conventions and more.
This week kicks off a full year of events as convention and tourism leaders from all over the world are meeting at the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA) Conference.
The PCMA convention is a meeting of the minds bringing tourism leaders together to learn and grow.
Philadelphia tourism leaders say 2026 has been almost a decade in the making and the impact of this year could set the city up for decades to come.
Philly leaders explained that getting to this moment has taken years starting with how they first submitted Philadelphia to host the FIFA World Cup back in 2017.
Since then, teams have focused on planning for major celebrations like America’s 250th birthday while also bringing in other high-interest events like the WWE and MLB All Star week.
The Philadelphia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau estimates from events alone, Philly will welcome over 1.5 million overnight visitors in 2026.
Those visitors are expected to spend more than $950 million which is projected to have a $1 billion economic impact on the city.
But, officials say that the challenge isn’t just bringing people in but getting them to come back.
To help with the visitor experience, the Visitor’s Center rolled out the Phambassadors Program which has seen around 8,000 Philadelphians sign up.
