As international trips to Vegas drop, industry leaders say Trump changes hurt, not help
Las Vegas is the canary in the coal mine. International visitation began declining in March in response to tariffs and the president’s “disrespect” toward Canada. The drops are no longer just a Strip issue.
Gaming industry insiders expect Las Vegas tourism and customer spending trends will continue their downward pattern through the summer.
But fewer visitors to the Strip is a symptom of the overall decline being experienced by the national travel industry.
Tourism experts warned last week that fees added to the nonimmigrant travel visa required to enter the country, coupled with an 80 percent cut in federal funding for a program that promotes international visitation to the U.S., could have lasting negative effects.
Both were part of the Trump administration’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
U.S. Travel CEO Geoff Freeman said the gains realized from increased spending a few years ago to boost Brand USA, created to promote international visitation, would be jeopardized by cuts in other programs.
“The smart investments in the travel process make foolish new fees on foreign visitors and reductions to that much harder to swallow,” Freeman, who spent five years as the CEO of the American Gaming Association, told Travel Weekly.
Freeman said increasing fees “discourage visitation at a time when foreign travelers are already concerned about the welcome experience and high prices.”
He also worried that the new policies could have a lasting effect on international visitation as the U.S. prepares to host soccer’s 2026 FIFA World Cup in 11 cities while planning is underway for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“Raising fees on lawful international visitors amounts to a self-imposed tariff,” Freeman said.
Las Vegas is not one of the World Cup host cities, but Las Vegas benefits from those kinds of major events when they take place in key feeder markets such as Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
That’s one reason Las Vegas resort leadership is still optimistic, even as tourism volume is down 6.5 percent through May with more than 1.2 million fewer visitors than last year, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
“Operators are clear that they are not seeing any fundamental consumer issues,” Truist Securities gaming analyst Barry Jonas noted after June meetings with officials from 11 gaming companies, including MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment, which operate a combined 17 Strip hotel-casinos.
Jonas said Strip hotel room bookings are showing improvement heading into the fall after a “choppy summer.” MGM, he wrote, is pushing to complete a multimillion-dollar renovation of the MGM Grand in anticipation of improving business trends by the end of the year.
Strip gaming revenue is down more than 1 percent in the first five months of 2025, which includes a 3.3 percent drop in May. Average daily room rates are down almost 5 percent and hotel occupancy is off more than 1 percent.
International visitation through Harry Reid International Airport remains a concern. The Clark County Department of Aviation said international passenger counts, which reached more than 3.2 million in 2024 and nearly returned to 2019 pre-pandemic levels, have declined in each of the last four months.
In May, the three Canadian airlines with direct flights to and from Las Vegas showed significant year-over-year passenger declines. Air Canada was down almost 22 percent; Flair, which flies primarily out of Edmonton, Alberta, was off 64 percent and WestJet, Reid’s busiest Canadian air carrier, was down 34.6 percent.
The department won’t release its June passenger totals until the end of July, but another monthly drop is likely.
The National Travel and Tourism Office said international airline passengers declined 1 percent in June, which includes U.S. citizens returning from abroad. However, the number of non-U.S. citizens visiting the U.S. declined by more than 6.6 percent compared to June 2024.
Overall passenger totals at Reid Airport have fallen almost 3.7 percent through May.
Jonas said MGM acknowledged the decline in Canadian visitation, but company executives said visitors are still coming to Las Vegas from other countries.
Did an Indiana senator forget about the casinos in his state?
Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) blocked Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s (D-NV) motion for unanimous consent in the Senate to overturn a tax code change that reduced the amount gamblers can deduct on their losses from 100 percent to 90 percent.
Young suggested the Senate also consent to his bill exempting religious-based colleges from paying an endowment tax in exchange for supporting Cortez Masto’s bill. The Nevada senator said her bill and Young’s were unrelated. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said he supported the gaming tax change but not the issue favoring religious schools, which ended the debate.
Young might have some explaining to do back home.
Indiana produced nearly $3 billion in gaming revenue and was the seventh-largest gaming state in 2024, according to the American Gaming Association. Indiana is home to 13 casinos, seven of which are operated by Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and Full House Resorts.
“It’s a shame that we cannot pass this common-sense fix [to the gaming tax] because Republicans want to weigh it down with unrelated measures,” said Cortez Masto, a member of the Senate Finance Committee whose chairman, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), authored the tax code change.
A few days earlier, Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) introduced a bipartisan bill to fix the gambling withholding tax issue in the House.
Vegas arena project was in limbo before Leiweke indictment
The NBA has taken over Las Vegas for its annual Summer League.
The opening night game was nationally televised on ESPN and featured the Miriam Adelson-family-owned Dallas Mavericks with No. 1 draft pick Cooper Flagg. Mavericks governor and Las Vegas Sands CEO-in-waiting Patrick Dumont watched from a front row seat at the Thomas & Mack Center.
A day earlier, prospects for an NBA-ready arena to house an expected Las Vegas expansion team put up an airball.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiweke had been indicted on a federal criminal conspiracy charge related to allegedly rigging a bid to develop and operate the University of Texas basketball arena in Austin. Leiweke denied the allegation but stepped down as Oak View CEO, becoming vice chairman of the company’s board.
Oak View had been looking to develop a 20,000-seat NBA-ready arena in Las Vegas since 2022. The initial site on the south end of the Strip fell through earlier this year. The company explored a new location at the Rio Las Vegas. Speculation also centered on land along the north Strip associated with Resorts World Las Vegas.
Former Oak View President Marc Badain, who oversaw the development of the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, left in March and joined the Athletics as president. He is overseeing the development of the team’s $1.75 billion stadium.
So, where do these recent events leave the NBA and Las Vegas?
Last week, The Sporting Tribune listed Las Vegas and Seattle as favorites for landing NBA expansion franchises. The NBA’s board of governors was expected to discuss the topic in meetings during the summer league, though some franchise owners oppose immediate expansion.
Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley wants to share the 20,000-seat T-Mobile Arena, which opened in 2014, with an NBA team. In an interview on Nevada Week on Vegas PBS, he told host Amber Dixon he would invest $300 million to give the arena a facelift. T-Mobile, which cost $375 million, is co-owned by entertainment giant AEG and MGM Resorts International, which operates the venue.
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