Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Las Vegas has always been a city of resilience, adapting to shifting tides in the economy and global politics to offer visitors one-of-kind gambling, entertainment, nightlife and hospitality experiences. But President Donald Trump’s latest move to impose tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods risks shaking the very foundation of our city’s prosperity: tourism.
Combined, Canadians and Mexicans constitute the majority of all foreign tourists in Las Vegas. Mexican tourists outnumbered Canadians until 2023, when the situation narrowly flipped.
Last year, Canada was also the single largest source of international visitors to the United States, with over 20.4 million visits, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs, according to the U.S. Travel Association.
According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), 1.4 million of those Canadians visited Las Vegas, along with 1.08 million Mexicans.
The Canadian figure alone represents approximately 30% of all international visitors — and it’s growing. According to LVCVA, the number of Canadian visitors to Las Vegas increased by more than 50% from 2022. They spend money in our casinos, restaurants, hotels, showrooms and shopping malls, injecting essential revenue into the largest sector of the Southern Nevada economy.
Yet, this vital stream of visitors is now at risk, thanks to Trump’s aggressive tariff policies. Despite the one-month pause on the proposed 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods, Trump’s threats of a trade war with our neighbors have already triggered a strong backlash, especially from Canada.
Canadian social media has been rife with posts calling for boycotts of American goods and travel in recent days. Critically, the already weak Canadian dollar plummeted vs. the U.S. dollar during the initial reaction to the tariff threats. As a result, travel to the U.S. from Canada got massively more expensive.
On Tuesday, the value of the Canadian dollar was trading at $1.43 to $1 U.S. dollar. This means that a $100 hotel room on the Strip requires a $143 budget for Canadian tourists. That same exchange rate applies to gambling budgets, dining, shopping and entertainment, further discouraging travel.
The friendly sentiment Canadians traditionally harbor for the U.S. fell as fast as the northern currency.
Similar currency devaluation has plagued Mexico in the months since Trump first proposed tariffs on the U.S.’ closest trading partners. The Mexican peso has not traded for more than .05 dollars (5 cents) since right before Trump’s November election.
Despite Trump’s insistence on devaluing the currency of and imposing punitive tariffs on our neighbor to the south, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has sought to avoid a full-blown trade war. On Monday, she reached a deal with Trump to postpone the tariffs for a month while negotiations continue. That’s good news for Las Vegas because Mexican visitation is more than double any other country besides Canada.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addresses media members after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order to impose stiff tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, in Ottawa, Canada, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025.
Canada, on the other hand, has embraced its own form of nationalist pride. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several Canadian premiers (the approximate equivalent of U.S. governors) joined the social-media chorus and explicitly called on Canadians to spend their money at home, on Canadian products and Canadian travel opportunities.
“Now is the time to choose Canada,” Trudeau said. “It might mean changing your summer vacation plans to explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer.”
David Eby, premier of British Columbia, warned Canadians that Trump “wants to do economic harm to Canadians,” and encouraged his countrymen to “be thinking carefully about spending our money in that country.”
Already, several of the largest travel agencies in Canada have reported cancellations of U.S. vacations.According to the International Travel Association, even a modest 10% drop in Canadian travel would mean a loss of 2 million visits, $2.1 billion in spending and the potential elimination of 14,000 jobs in the U.S. hospitality sector — many of them right here in Nevada. These are real numbers with real consequences.
Trump’s promise to eliminate taxes on tips is little more than a hollow gesture when fewer visitors are leaving those tips in the first place. For the thousands of Las Vegans who rely on gratuities, the prospect of a shrinking tourist base is a far greater concern than the tax rate on a dwindling income stream.
We’ve seen this story before. When we anger foreigners or the U.S. dollar becomes too strong, international tourism declines, hitting destinations like Las Vegas, Orlando and New York particularly hard. This time, the impact is being deliberately accelerated by Trump’s economic brinkmanship, leaving Nevada businesses and workers to absorb the fallout.
And it’s not just the tourism and hospitality industries that will suffer if negotiations fail and a trade war ensues.
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, has already ordered American-made liquor to be removed from the shelves of the provincially controlled Liquor Control Board.
“Every year, LCBO sells nearly $1 billion worth of American wine, beer, spirits and seltzers. Not anymore,” Ford wrote on X.
Other types of small businesses will also suffer as the cost of moving raw materials and finished goods across international lines increases.
For Nevadans — including Trump supporters who backed him on promises of economic prosperity — this should be a wake-up call. Instead of recognizing the interconnected nature of the North American economy and working cooperatively with our neighbors, Trump has engaged in extreme brinksmanship that risks the welfare of average people everywhere. It was entirely unnecessary. Negotiations should have happened first and only if they failed then the brinksmanship could have been considered.
There are still opportunities to salvage our relationships with our North American neighbors and to work collectively towards our shared goals, but only if chambers of commerce, banks and business leaders of America — the people Trump is most likely to listen to — tell him to be more rational and less reactionary. Las Vegas and the nation need Trump to be less of a mob boss and more of the dealmaker he has always claimed to be.