Las Vegas is down on its luck as tourism drops. Why it's kind of California's fault

Yahoo

15 hours ago

Sin City is facing a summer swoon, and Californians — by far the largest tourist contingent, data show — are partially to blame.
Visits to Las Vegas were down 11.3% in June 2025 versus a year earlier, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Traffic on Interstate 15 at the California-Nevada border was down 4.3% over the same period, suggesting fewer visitors from the Golden State heading for Vegas casinos.
The number of air travelers into Las Vegas overall declined 6.3% over the previous June. In 2024, Californians made up more than a fifth of air travelers into Vegas, with nearly half of those coming from the Los Angeles metro area.
A demographic report from the visitors authority estimated that Southern California provided 30% of all visitors to Las Vegas in 2024.
Add it all up, and Californians could be responsible for a significant portion of the decline in Vegas tourism.
Tourism within the U.S. is only part of the picture, though, as experts previously predicted slumps in international tourism across the country. The convention and visitors authority estimates that 12% of the city's visitors are international.
A report from the World Travel and Tourism Council projected that the U.S. would lose $12.5 billion in international travel spending in 2025.
"While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the 'closed' sign,' Julia Simpson, the council's president, said in a statement.
The report cited air-travel booking data from March that showed a 15% to 20% drop in expected travel from major tourism sources including the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada.
Visitors from Canada and Mexico made up more than half of international tourists to Las Vegas in 2024, according to data from the visitors authority.
But President Trump's talk of making Canada the 51st state and his decision to hit Canada with tariffs have not endeared him to Canadian travelers. Meanwhile, media overseas have been bombarded with stories of capricious denials and detentions at U.S. border crossings.
Las Vegas is not alone in its travel woes. In May, Gov. Gavin Newsom predicted a "Trump Slump" in international travel to California brought on in part by the president's tariff regime.
"Las Vegas thrives on tourism," Rep. Steven Horsford wrote last week on X, "but under the Trump slump, the numbers are tanking." Horsford, a Democrat represents Nevada's 4th Congressional District, which includes a portion of Las Vegas.
By many metrics — including visitor totals, convention attendance and room occupancy rates — Las Vegas has yet to recover fully since the onset of the pandemic.
In dollar terms, however, Sin City continues to profit even as visitor numbers drop: Clark County collected $1.16 billion in gambling revenue in June 2025, up 3.5% from a year earlier.
In the end, the house always wins.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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