Joey Levenson is a writer and editor with a wealth of experience across art and culture. This includes working on the editorial team for 

 as well as freelance political and economic journalism for 

. They have conducted countless interviews and have shared their expertise on aesthetic trends with the likes of Facebook, Adobe, and Squarespace.

While people are craving memorable and immersive experiences, there's no longer a singular definition of what this might look like. Some are embracing maximalist hedonism through clubbing and extreme tourism, while others are tapping into more gentle, inward-looking, and contemplative experiences.

Experience Hunters

Sports tourism is worth an eye-watering amount to the US economy, and in 2024, the sector generated $47.1 million in direct spending. 

Sports Events and Tourism Association

But today, sports tourism is entering a new era, shaped by travelers who view major events as cultural touchpoints rather than single-day spectacles. And at its center is, of course, the Super Bowl. In 2025, the 100,000 visitors who attended the Louisiana Super Bowl spent an average of $5,553 each, contributing more than $351 million to the local economy, while non-attending visitors generated a further $148.6 million. 

Louisiana State University

 “Yes, it’s a football game, but for travelers, it’s really an event-based pilgrimage – food, music, spectacle,” says Bryan Kinkade, VP and publisher at 

. “It’s the feeling that you’re stepping into a cultural moment bigger than the sport itself.” 

Interview with Bryan Kinkade conducted by the author

 With travelers spending heavily on accommodation, dining, nightlife, and transport, the game is increasingly a catalyst for high-value, experience-driven travel.

In culture, more broadly, the premiership has evolved into a global moment. Interest from Europe, LATAM, and regions within Asia has surged, revealing a cohort of international travelers who are willing to cross oceans for American sports culture. 

Business Insider

In Germany, 9% of sports fans now watch the NFL, and 7% do so in the UK. 

S&P Global Market Intelligence

 For these travelers, it seems the game functions as a gateway into American identity – a blend of live sport, regional traditions, celebrity spots, and halftime performances.

This appetite for richer experiences is reflected in broader travel trends. Across the sector, experiential tourism is surging, from ‘readaways’ and ‘set-jetting’ to festival-led travel and sports-centric itineraries. 

Expedia

But the Super Bowl adds another layer – its audience skews toward older, wealthier generations (30–44, 45–64, and 65+), meaning it's observed by travelers with the financial flexibility to upgrade their trips. 

Statista

 For many travelers, the Super Bowl serves as a familiar cultural anchor that elevates domestic travel into a curated, culturally meaningful experience blending sport, status, and discovery rather than a simple weekend getaway. So, how can brands meet the expectations of this new cohort of ‘

’ and design offerings that match the increasingly layered ways people approach Super Bowl travel?

Audiences were itching to travel in 2025, and travel companies saw a 24% rise in the number of trips planned, compared to 2024. 

This shift has been accelerated by the rise of experiential travel, with travelers increasingly choosing destinations charged by cultural moments rather than a desire to get lost in a particular place. Travelers are choosing their destination based on the quality and range of local activities (63%) and the new experiences they can provide (61%) 

McKinsey & Company x Skift Research

 Within this evolving landscape, the Super Bowl has become a powerful driver of experience-led travel, drawing visitors seeking more than a once-off city break.

A 2025 global survey of sports tourists found that the average person spends more than $1,500 on a sports trip, including over $300 on tickets and nearly $500 on accommodation. 

 they’re spending. “The Super Bowl has basically become the Olympics of American pop culture,” says Kinkade. “People aren’t just buying tickets; they’re buying significance.” 

 This expectation has pushed the event far beyond the stadium. Cities such as Las Vegas and New Orleans built 

week-long programming around the Super Bowl

, featuring pop-up restaurants, neighborhood block parties, and brand experiences that tap into local culture. “Our audience is choosing destinations because of the story they get to tell afterward, and Super Bowl weekend delivers that in spades,” Kinkade adds. 

brands have also expanded their offers, from 

 to celebrity-hosted tailgates designed to shift the fan experience from passive observer to active insider.

The wider hospitality ecosystem has taken note. Booking.com offers fans an opportunity to board the fabled Madden Cruiser, a custom-built bus once used by football legend John Madden, while even fashion labels and tech companies, now activate around the event to align with the cultural moment rather than the sporting one. 

Business of Fashion

The Hollywood Reporter

 Each of these touchpoints reinforces the idea that traveling for the Super Bowl is not just about being present for the game, but about 

 through food, design, nightlife, and community rituals. Ultimately, as sports, entertainment, and pop culture continue to merge, travelers see the Super Bowl as a way to participate in something bigger than themselves. In a world where 54% of travelers consider culture an important factor when picking a destination, it’s clear tourists want access, atmosphere, and authenticity. 

 The Super Bowl delivers all three, turning a one-day sporting event into a social pilgrimage rooted in identity, memory, and meaning.

In recent years, the NFL has seen global expansion beyond its US roots. 

ESPN

, Munich, and Mexico City have initiated audiences curious not only about the game but the culture around it. 

Reuters

Around 19 million Germans identify as NFL fans, making American football the second most-watched sport in the country after soccer. 

Sportfive

For one Buccaneers-Seahawks game, three million Germans tuned in to the German broadcast. 

This fascination hints at something larger than competitive sport, but a desire to engage with global sports culture, seeing international fans perceive the Super Bowl as an opportunity to experience the US at full intensity. 

ShareAmerica

 “International travelers don’t come just for the game. They treat the whole trip as a cultural study,” says Kinkade. “They want the neighborhoods, the breweries, the classic local joints. They want to understand why Americans care so much.” 

While the NFL is globalising, the Super Bowl still serves an overwhelmingly domestic audience. “This may be the World Cup for Americans, but it is not the World Cup for the world,” says sports historian Victoria Jackson. “Watching a US broadcast abroad can feel underwhelming because so much of the cultural experience happens in the adverts and halftime show.” 

Interview with Victoria Jackson conducted by the author

 These elements become global touchpoints, but usually in the days that follow rather than in real time. For the visitors who do travel, the game becomes a form of cultural immersion. Jackson explains that the match itself feels familiar to any fan of large-scale events. “What will showcase American distinctiveness is everything around the playing and watching of the game itself,” she says. “The consumer culture, the party, the spectacle. Americans and especially football-loving Americans know how to take things over the top.” 

 These layers allow travelers to access a version of Americana that is loud, proud and socially charged.

The result is a Super Bowl that acts less like a single event and more like a cultural gateway. Travelers extend their stays to explore the host city’s food scenes, music, nightlife and neighborhoods. Many are part of a growing group of affluent, experience-led tourists who view major events as a blend of holiday, social capital, and cultural decoding. In fact, 52% of Gen Zers say they splurge on experiences, while saving money on flights, local transportation, shopping, and food. 

McKinsey & Company

 Even if the Super Bowl has not yet reached World Cup-level global participation, it has become a meaningful international touchpoint, offering visitors a vivid and often surprising glimpse into American identity.

The Super Bowl is powering domestic tourism

While international interest in the NFL grows, the Super Bowl is also reshaping how Americans travel domestically. Domestic travel in the US is an enormous market, accounting for nearly 90% of all tourism spending in 2024. 

The World Travel & Tourism Council

While 2024 saw a decrease in average American travel, the sector is projected for future growth, with a forecast of 68% of all US-originating trips remaining domestic. 

, not because they lack curiosity, but because domestic trips feel safer, simpler, and become anchors for localized adventure. “Travelers are turning the weekend into a deeper dive into the host city,” says Kinkade. “They’re checking out new hotels, lingering in arts districts and booking restaurant tables months in advance.” 

Music-driven interest is shaping domestic flows as well, as the announcement of Kendrick Lamar as the 2025 halftime performer drew in 133.5 million viewers and a surge in demand for trips to New Orleans, revealing how performers now wield real influence over destination demand. 

Forbes

 Meanwhile, Jackson offers another viewpoint on this growing domestic pull. She notes that the Super Bowl fits naturally into American travel psychology because the event already functions as a major national ritual. “Americans like to throw and attend Super Bowl parties,” she explains. “Americans of means who enjoy football and parties and like to be seen at important things, will want to be immersed in Super Bowl week.” 

 At the crossroads of sport, social theater, and status, the event draws travelers in search of a culturally charged celebration.

This ritualistic quality is part of what makes the Super Bowl so potent as a tourism driver – American football is the people’s game, but the Super Bowl itself is often a luxury experience. 

, and high-end hospitality create a sense of occasion that turns travel into a marker of identity. The result is a domestic travel phenomenon that goes far beyond fandom. The Super Bowl is now a status-charged cultural getaway as much as a sporting pilgrimage, attracting travelers as interested in atmosphere and celebrity as the final score. With only 39% of the American public saying they feel at least somewhat satisfied with what is happening in the country, the game stands as a rare opportunity for national pride across political divisions. 

Survey Center on American Life

 In a year shaped by caution and uncertainty, the event offers both escape and immersion, packaged in a uniquely American form of spectacle.

Craft immersive experiences through strategic partnerships

As the Super Bowl becomes more of a cultural long weekend, brands have an opening to create richer, more memorable touchpoints through hospitality. Partnering with established providers such as 

 (the NFL’s official hospitality partner) gives brands access to travelers who want comfort, exclusivity, and a sense of arrival. As Jackson notes, “Super Bowl weekend certainly is a superlative one with the surrounding entertainment often proving as magnetic as the game itself.” 

, and Delta have already experimented with tailored Super Bowl-led experiences: private concerts, chef-hosted dinners, curated city tours and behind-the-scenes access. 

The range and quality of accommodation options, as well as dining experiences rank high in travel preferences in the US, at 64% and 62% respectively. 

 Bryan Kinkade points out that travelers increasingly “design trips around cultural moments and experiences, which positions the Super Bowl as the ideal canvas for immersive brand worlds.” 

 As fans expect a seamless, culturally rich Super Bowl weekend and brands seek deeper engagement, strategic hospitality partnerships deliver both.

Tailor Super Bowl experiences for diverse fans

As the NFL expands globally, Super Bowl travelers are increasingly diverse – from lifelong US fans drawn by tradition and loyalty to newer international audiences attracted by the halftime show, celebrity presence, and wider spectacle. In 2024, 7% and 9% of Super Bowl viewers were British and German, respectively. 

 Travel motivations and expectations differ, and brands can gain more traction by designing tiered or experience tracks rather than a one-size-fits-all program. For international fans, brands can offer access-driven itineraries that lean into the emotional pull of legacy fandom – guided stadium history tours, alumni meet-and-greets, or neighborhood food crawls that show the city through a distinctly American lens. As Victoria Jackson puts it, “What sets the Super Bowl apart is everything around the playing and watching of the game itself.” 

Airbnb’s city-led partnerships around major sport events

 show how major sporting events can be interwoven into immersive, locally driven weekend itineraries rather than purely sports-focused. With Super Bowl crowds valuing the game, culture, and social capital differently, tailoring experiences for entry-level fans becomes a strategic advantage.

Arts and culture are catalysts for hyperlocal tourism

As Super Bowl host cities see visitor surges, arts and culture help disperse travelers across neighborhoods and deepen their connection to place. In the US, sightseeing and art experiences rank as the top tourist activity (61%), while concerts and festivals ranked fifth (23%). 

 “International visitors increasingly approach Super Bowl weekend as a cultural study, seeking out the breweries, local joints, and neighborhoods that tell a city’s story,” says Bryan Kinkade. 

 For brands, it’s an opportunity to position culture as the connective tissue between event and location. Delta’s partnership with the Billboard MusicCon and associated neighborhood pop-ups showed how aviation and hospitality brands can spotlight local talent to create a sense of place. 

Billboard

 By anchoring experiences in culture rather than spectacle, brands help travelers unlock the real city with layered cultural moments that become the highlight, long after the game ends. For brands, it’s an opportunity to embed cultural, arts, and performance-driven experiences around larger tourism moments, to keep people engaged throughout their stay.

of Americans say wanting to explore “someplace new” is their top reason for choosing a destination, while 

 say it’s “quality and range of local activities”

Domestic travel in the US remains popular, with 

 of Americans preferring it for its affordability

Global demand for the experience centered around the Super Bowl is rising fast, transforming it from a US-centric spectacle into an international cultural and tourism event

As travelers seek premium and more curated trips, brands are shifting from single-day hospitality to multi-layered, immersive journeys that appeal to experience hunters

With domestic loyalists mixing with new international fans, brands now face pressure to replace one-size-fits-all activations with flexible, tiered experiences that cater to different needs

Vice president and publisher at AFAR Media, specialising in travel trends for affluent Americans in their mid-thirties.

Sports historian and clinical associate professor at ASU, specialising in the intersection of sport and society.

United States

Global

Sports

Booking.com

What happens when a sports event becomes a cultural pilgrimage, and travelers spend more for deeper immersion and status? As the Super Bowl maintains its position at the apex of the sports calendar, how can brands tap into the demand for experiential travel experiences?

Analysis

Joey Levenson

Bryan Kinkade

Victoria Jackson

Related Macro Behaviours

Experience Hunters