New Delhi: Cabo Verde’s historic 2026 FIFA World Cup run has raised interest in the island nation as a holiday destination, with US searches for ‘Cabo Verde vacation’ rising by more than 5,000 per cent compared with the previous year.
Travel companies have also reported increased interest in Cabo Verde. Online travel platform Expedia recorded a rise of more than 800 per cent in searches from US users during the tournament, according to travel industry publication Skift.
European travel operator TUI said searches for Cabo Verde had doubled compared with June 2025; searches from Japan, specifically, rose by 110 per cent.
Cabo Verde, which has a population of about 5.5 lakh, was competing in the 2026 FIFA World Cup for the first time. It became the smallest country by population to reach the knockout stage and emerged as one of the tournament’s surprise teams.
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Popular destination among Europeans
Cabo Verde’s campaign ended with a 3-2 defeat to Argentina after extra time in the Round of 32.
The surge in interest also prompted predictions of a tourism boom on social media. X user CoFounders Nik said, “Cape Verde will make BILLIONS from the World Cup, while MK Harikumar wrote on LinkedIn, “A nation that rarely gets this level of global attention suddenly found itself on travel wish lists around the world. No massive tourism campaign. Just a team that kept surprising people on football’s biggest stage. Sometimes a memorable performance doesn’t just earn respect. It makes millions of people curious about the place the team calls home.”
Cabo Verde is already a popular destination among European tourists. Its hotels received 12,48,052 guests in 2025, 6 per cent more than the previous year, according to the country’s National Institute of Statistics.
The US, however, accounted for only 1.1 per cent of foreign hotel guests last year. The rise in searches during Cabo Verde’s World Cup run suggests that the tournament has introduced the country to travellers outside its traditional European market.
As there is no post-World Cup data yet showing a similar rise in bookings, visitor arrivals or tourism revenue, it is still too early to know whether the surge in interest will actually bring more tourists to the island nation.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)