To add FIFA's reluctance to comment and details

From Dwinsola Oladipo and Aishwarya Jain

NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - With the World Cup underway, the anticipated boost to the travel and tourism sector from this year's biggest sporting event has yet to materialize.

For years, it was expected that the tournament would bring huge gains to the American travel and tourism sector, which is currently suffering from a decline in the number of visitors from outside the United States amid what human rights organizations have described as a climate of fear.

The crowds of fans that hotels had counted on have yet to arrive, forcing many to lower their prices. Flight bookings have declined in tandem with the sharp rise in ticket prices. Demand has also been affected by the exorbitant cost of match tickets. Industry analysts say that enthusiasm for this event, which is anticipated by hundreds of millions, is lower than in previous years.

This weak start suggests that the traditional World Cup travel strategy, which typically relies on fans from around the world being willing to travel long distances and spend considerable sums to support their national teams, is beginning to fade. Instead of this usual surge in popularity, rising costs, visa hurdles, and logistical challenges in attending matches across 16 host cities in three countries appear to be significantly hindering the usual influx of fans.

In the United States, where football is less popular than in Europe, domestic travel by Americans is not enough to bridge this huge gap.

“It’s a disappointment by any measure, and I can’t find any other way to describe it,” said Vijay Dandabani, CEO of the New York City Hotel Association. He added that the association had lowered its forecast for World Cup-related hotel room revenue by 60 percent to around $60 million.

FIFA declined to comment.

* Last-minute request has not yet been fulfilled

Data from travel and aviation tracking firm Cirium shows that bookings from Europe to most host cities in June and July fell by an average of 3.8 percent year-on-year, even after Europeans had already reduced their travel to the United States last year. The data also indicated that bookings from Europe to New York, which will host the World Cup final on July 19, dropped by 15.8 percent.

FIFA predicted that 1.2 million fans would flock to the city, but Dandabani said the New York Hotel Association was expecting only half a million.

Hotels are hoping for a significant recovery in last-minute bookings after the group stage ends, despite those disappointing initial figures.

Dandabani noted that a number of New York hotels are offering discounts on rooms, such as the Hilton Midtown, the city's largest hotel, which halved its prices during the tournament to $415 a night, compared to the prices it announced in December.

Andy Milne, a lifelong English football fan and author of "That World Cup Guy," believes it's all about cost. "Some fans won't even attend the World Cup," he said. "Some of my friends will go to Ibiza to watch all the matches on TV for a fraction of the cost. Others go to Vegas. That will cost money too, but it's far less than the cost of tickets, travel, hotels, and transportation to the stadiums."

Fans from more than half of the countries that qualified for the World Cup need visas to enter the United States, increasing costs and adding to the uncertainty for travelers already worried about tightened border entry procedures.

The Trump administration barred a Somali referee participating in the tournament from entering the United States due to allegations of his having ties to "suspected members of terrorist organizations."

FIFA's ticketing practices also drew criticism from some fans. Organizers imposed unprecedentedly high base prices and, for the first time, implemented a pricing system that increased prices as the tournament approached. Prices rose further after FIFA's decision to allow ticket resale without a price cap prompted scrutiny from regulatory bodies.

According to TicketData, the cheapest ticket in host cities such as New York and Miami is close to $1,000.