Las Vegas Feels the Absence of Its Most Faithful Visitors: Canadians

Las Vegas — On a recent weekday afternoon, empty chairs ringed blackjack tables at a major Strip casino, slot machines blinked unattended, and hotel lobbies echoed in a way longtime workers said they had not heard since the depths of the pandemic. Las Vegas, a city built on constant motion, is slowing — and one of the most conspicuous absences is Canadian.

For decades, Canada has been Las Vegas’s most reliable international market, sending millions of visitors south each year to fill hotel rooms, restaurants, and casino floors. Now those visitors are vanishing. According to airport, tourism authority, airline, and academic data, arrivals from Canada have dropped sharply over the past year, contributing to a broader downturn that has left the Strip grappling with its longest sustained tourism decline since before Covid-19.

Harry Reid International Airport recorded a 9.6 percent decline in passenger volume in November 2025 compared with the same month a year earlier, following an 8.2 percent drop in October. It was the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Through October, total visitation to Las Vegas was down 7.6 percent, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), while hotel occupancy and average room rates slid across both the Strip and downtown.

Behind those numbers lies a geopolitical rupture that few in the tourism industry anticipated.

A Political Chill Crosses the Border

Canadian travel executives, economists, and tourism officials point to a mix of causes, but politics loom large. The downturn accelerated early in 2025, coinciding with renewed U.S. trade tensions, tariffs on Canadian goods, and rhetoric from President Donald Trump that many Canadians perceived as hostile, including repeated remarks suggesting Canada should become the “51st state.”

Airline data tell the story starkly. Air Canada reported a 33 percent year-over-year drop in U.S.-bound passengers in June. WestJet recorded a 31 percent decline, while low-cost carrier Flair Airlines reported traffic to the United States falling by more than 60 percent. By October, WestJet arrivals at Harry Reid Airport were down more than 33 percent from the previous year.

Statistics Canada reported that road trips back from the United States fell 38.1 percent in May compared with a year earlier, while flight volumes also declined. Canadian travel companies say Las Vegas, once a default destination, is now frequently avoided.

“There’s a surge of national pride right now,” said Wendy Hart, a tour booking agent in Windsor, Ontario, in interviews with Canadian media. “People are consciously choosing not to spend their money in the United States.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reinforced that sentiment in February, urging Canadians to “choose Canada” when making travel and spending decisions — a message widely echoed across Canadian social media and domestic tourism campaigns.

Billions at Stake

The economic consequences for Las Vegas are substantial. In 2024, Canadian travel contributed roughly $20.5 billion to the U.S. economy and supported about 140,000 jobs nationwide, according to congressional and industry estimates. In Las Vegas alone, economists at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas estimate that Canadian visitors supported about 43,000 jobs and generated $3.6 billion in annual economic activity.

That spending is now largely gone.

Executives at the Strip’s largest casino operators have acknowledged the impact. On a recent earnings call, MGM Resorts International’s chief executive, Bill Hornbuckle, said Canadian visitation began declining early in the year and has not rebounded. Caesars Entertainment’s chief executive, Thomas Reeg, similarly cited falling Canadian travel as a key factor behind weaker-than-expected quarterly results.

“These are not marginal customers,” said Stephen Miller, an economics professor at UNLV. “Canadian visitors are high-value, repeat travelers. Losing them has a multiplier effect across the entire local economy.”

Tourism and hospitality account for more than one-fifth of employment in the Las Vegas area. As visitor numbers fall, workers are already feeling the strain. Labor unions report reduced hours, fewer shifts, and growing anxiety among employees, particularly as immigration enforcement actions have intensified nationally.

More Than Just Canada

While the Canadian pullback is the most dramatic, it is not the only headwind. International visitation overall is down as much as 13 percent, and even domestic U.S. travel to Las Vegas has softened as inflation, high resort fees, and expensive entertainment push budget-conscious travelers toward cheaper destinations.

Federal policy has added further friction. Visa costs for many international visitors have risen sharply, and new entry fees — potentially totaling hundreds of dollars per traveler — are expected to take effect. Steve Hill, the president and chief executive of the LVCVA, has warned that the cost and complexity of entering the United States are discouraging foreign tourists at a time when global competition for travel dollars is intensifying.

In response, Las Vegas has launched its most aggressive discounting campaign in years: free parking on the Strip, waived resort fees, bundled hotel and entertainment packages, and sharply reduced room rates. Average daily room rates fell to about $165 on the Strip in July, down from roughly $170 a year earlier, while downtown rates dropped below $88.

The discounts underscore a deeper concern — demand has weakened despite the city’s high-profile events, from Formula One races to Super Bowl-scale spectacles.

A Structural Reckoning

Some economists argue that the current downturn is exposing longer-term vulnerabilities. David Schmidt, chief economist at Nevada’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, has noted that the casino industry’s employment peak came in 2006, suggesting that Las Vegas has been gradually shifting toward higher revenues generated by fewer visitors and fewer workers.

That model, critics say, is fragile.

In 2025, Las Vegas ranked last among major U.S. destinations in one national Labor Day travel index, down from sixth place the year before. Airport passenger traffic remains well below recent highs. And Canadian travelers — once among the city’s most loyal guests — show little sign of returning soon.

Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto recently traveled to Ottawa with a bipartisan delegation in an effort to ease tensions, acknowledging that the tourism decline is causing “real economic damage.” But for workers and businesses on the Strip, relief may not come quickly.

Waiting for the Return

Las Vegas has survived recessions, terrorist attacks, and a global pandemic. But the current moment feels different to many in the industry: a slow erosion rather than a sudden shock.

On casino floors, the blinking lights remain, but the crowds are thinner. At the airport, fewer flights arrive from the north. And in Canada, travel ads increasingly point inward, urging citizens to explore Banff, Quebec City, or the Maritimes instead of the Nevada desert.

Whether the decline is driven primarily by tariffs, political rhetoric, rising costs, or deeper structural changes, the result is the same: millions of missing visitors and billions of missing dollars.

For a city that depends on people showing up, Las Vegas is learning how vulnerable it can be when they decide not to.