U.S. Travel Association: FIFA 2026 World Cup Task Force a Welcome Development

President Donald Trump has signed many executive orders since moving back into the White House, but for the U.S. Travel Association and its President and CEO Geoff Freeman, the order signed on March 7 was the most important.

That particular order created a task force to focus on the staging of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, starting June 11, 2026. The task force will be chaired by Trump. Vice President JD Vance will serve as vice chair, and an executive director — to be named soon — will run day-to-day operations.

“We’re thrilled to see the Trump administration make the World Cup a priority,” said Freeman. “We believe strongly that we need some type of White House coordination to bring together these disparate agencies — Department of Transportation, State, Homeland Security, Commerce — everybody playing a role in building a successful event.

“We’ve got to get moving. The World Cup is only 16 months away and the window is closing to get some of these key issues, visas and customs really worked out. We can’t move fast enough. We’re excited to see this group come together and we’re eager to work with them.”

The task force order came two weeks after the U.S. Travel Association released a report saying the United States needed immediate action within the travel industry ahead of the 2025 Ryder Cup, 2026 FIFA World Cup, 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games and other events. The report cited aging infrastructure, slow visa processing times and outdated security technology as to why wait times for visitor visas in countries such as Colombia can run up to 700 days.

“Colombia has already missed their window to get a visa if they don’t have one already,” Freeman added. “And there are other countries around the world where we have stunningly long visa wait times. We’ve got to move with urgency.”

Trump’s task force announcement was made with FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the Oval Office. The 2026 World Cup is FIFA’s first 48-team tournament, meaning more fan bases than ever trying to get into North America to watch their teams play.

“The World Cup is going to be a fantastic event,” Freeman said. “The question is, do we welcome 1 million international travelers to enjoy the World Cup, or do we welcome 8 million? Can we bring in the culture and the passion of the many countries that participate? Can we get them into the country in the numbers that they want to come? They can come here, spend their money, go home and tell people what a great time they had. That’s going to be what determines degree of success. Did we make this the come-all, seminal global event? Or did we miss the opportunity?”

While many questions seem to linger for those in the sports tourism and travel industries with the creation of the task force, another large question looms over the proceedings — what took so long to get this done?

Delay in Movement

Trump was president in 2018, when the 2026 tournament was awarded to North America, and his administration had a role in the bidding and lobbying process. However, the most recent administration didn’t get moving on a World Cup task force until late 2024.

“I don’t know that anybody has the answer to what took so long,” Freeman said. “We urged the Biden administration to do this. We were told that they would do something after the Olympics in France. They finally did do something shortly before the election. But frankly, it was too little, too late. If you’re going to make an event like this a success, you need to be working many years in advance. And that’s the simple truth. We’ve got to do in 16 months what others take three years to do and that’s what we’re committed to helping the administration do.”

In August of last year, United States Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), co-chairs of the Senate Travel and Tourism Caucus, led a bipartisan group of 19 senators in calling for a White House task force for upcoming major sporting events.

Along with the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the 2026 World Cup, the United States must also prepare for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games, the 2029 World University Games in North Carolina, the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup and 2033 Women’s Rugby World Cup, and the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

“The World Cup is the urgent event on the horizon. It’s a call to action,” Freeman said. “The success of this task force, though, really does need to bleed into what we do for the 2028 Olympics, what we do for the Rugby World Cups, what we do for the Winter Olympics that are coming. We need to ensure the success of all of these events.”