North America Leads Global Sports Sponsorship Spend by Hotels in 2025

Driven by the scale and commercialization of the US and Canadian sports ecosystem, North America led the sports sponsorship spend of the hotel and holiday accommodation sector in 2025. This was largely due to the “big four” leagues, major college sports, and frequent high-attendance tentpole events, which create abundant premium sponsorship inventory and expensive hospitality/experience packages.  With 436 deals worth $303.11 million in annual value, the region accounted for 50.1% of the sector’s global sponsorship spend last year, reveals GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform.

GlobalData’s latest report, “Sponsorship Sector Report – Hotels & Holiday Accommodation 2026,” reveals that in 2025, soccer leads sponsorship deal volume and value because it offers unmatched global reach and year-round exposure. Basketball and baseball follow as the next most valuable sports across the sector, though their average deal sizes trail soccer’s. Europe is the other major driver of the sector’s global sponsorship, accounting for 18.4% of the annual spend.

Aside from North America and Europe, other regions still offer meaningful signals for 2025. Asia-Pacific’s portfolio is driven by growing sponsorship activity and tourism, especially in China, Japan, and Australia. The Middle East and Africa, as well as South and Central America, while remain underdeveloped, improving infrastructure and more international events are creating new opportunities. Global, cross-market agreements delivered 12 deals worth $117.69 million, fuelled by large cross-market agreements aimed at broad, platform-wide visibility.

Olivia Snooks, Sport Analyst at GlobalData

In the hotels and holiday accommodation sector in 2025, the biggest partnerships are concentrated in online booking services and hotel-brand tie-ups with major sports rights holders, showing how accommodation providers are using elite sport to generate high-intent demand.

The top 10 deals are top-heavy: the largest partnership, between the International Olympic Committee/International Paralympic Committee and Airbnb, is worth more than five times the value of the 10^th largest deal, between the National Collegiate Athletic Associations’ and Marriott Hotels & Resorts. Global mega-events and leading rights holders, including the Olympics, and FIFA, make up most of the remaining partnerships.

Snooks continues: “Travel marketplaces like Airbnb, and hotel groups like Marriott can both use tournaments to drive demand spikes, run promo codes and travel packages, and capture customer data. These aren’t unique capabilities. Likewise, loyalty and “VIP” style benefits aren’t exclusive to hotels; marketplaces offer similar programs too. The real difference is that hotels can capture more value across owned operations (rooms plus on-property spend), while marketplaces monetize primarily through distribution and commission, both can still justify higher fees than “logo-only” deals when tied to measurable performance.”

In 2025, Airbnb was the largest spender among hotel and holiday accommodation brands in global sports sponsorship. With an average deal value of $12.62 million, its approach appears focused and premium, prioritizing a small number of high-value, high-profile partnerships that deliver global reach and strong brand impact, (for example, its FIFA agreement), rather than pursuing many smaller deals. Booking.com shows a similar pattern, with an almost identical average spend per deal, suggesting a comparable strategy.

Snooks concludes: “This alignment reflects both brands’ shared DNA as digital-first, platform-led travel businesses with global ambitions. Unlike traditional hotel groups that often lean on physical property footprints and more regional marketing, Airbnb and Booking.com build worldwide brand salience through major “headline” sponsorships. Fewer, larger deals help them secure top-tier visibility and association with globally recognized sporting moments, well suited to business models that depend on attracting large international audiences.”