Canadian Tourism to Las Vegas Plunges 17% Amid Trump Trade War as Nevada Election Nears

Canadians can’t vote in Nevada. Their absence is on the ballot anyway.

About 252,400 fewer Canadians visited Las Vegas in 2025, as Donald Trump’s trade war and his talk of Canada becoming the 51st state turned many off U.S. travel. With Americans voting in the midterms on Nov. 3, Nevada Democrats are now blaming the slump on Trump, and on the state’s Republican governor. The White House says they’ve got it wrong.

Meanwhile, the Canadians still aren’t coming back.

The numbers

Canadian visits to Las Vegas fell 17.4% in 2025, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Canada had the steepest drop of any North American market. Mexico went up.

That gap is the point. This wasn’t just a bad year for international travel to Vegas. It was a bad year for Canadians going there.

It’s still happening in 2026

At Harry Reid International Airport, Canadian airlines carried far fewer passengers in the first half of 2026 than in the same months of 2025, which were already down:

WestJet: down 23.7%

Air Canada: down 16.2%

Porter: down 35.7%

For Albertans, the WestJet number hits closest to home. The Calgary-based airline has long run frequent, cheap flights to Vegas from Calgary and Edmonton. In June 2025 alone, its Vegas traffic fell 31%. Then it fell again.

Airline numbers don’t count individual tourists, and some of the drop reflects airlines cutting flights. But they match a wider trend. In the first six months of 2026, Canadians made even fewer overnight trips to the U.S. than in the same stretch of 2025, according to U.S. government estimates reported by The Associated Press.

Vegas is filling the gap, slowly

Vegas as a whole isn’t collapsing.

After a rough 2025, when visitation fell 7.5% to about 38.5 million, the city’s overall visitor numbers were up 0.2% through the first half of 2026, led by convention business. Drive-in traffic from California was up 4.1%.

So Vegas is finding other visitors. But Canadians were never just any visitors. An MGM Resorts executive has said they make up about 30% of the company’s international customers. Caesars’ CEO pointed to Canadians as one reason for the company’s disappointing results last year.

Why it’s a Nevada election issue

In Nevada, tourism is the economy. Fewer visitors means fewer shifts, smaller tips and less tax money.

Nevada Democrats call it the “Trump Slump.” They’re tying it to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, who is running for re-election and has backed Trump, and candidates further down the ballot are calling for a bigger push to win international tourists back.

The White House disputes that. It argues most Las Vegas visitors are Americans, and that Trump’s economic agenda is about jobs, wages and growth.

Both sides have a point. Canadian visits clearly dropped. But Vegas also has a price problem that has nothing to do with Canada.

Workers say they’re feeling it

The Culinary Workers Union, which represents tens of thousands of hotel and casino workers in Las Vegas and Reno, has joined Democrats in blaming tariffs and the drop in international visitors. Some workers have reported fewer hours.

Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley said last year that Canadian visitors had dried up from a torrent “to a drip,” and has publicly asked Canadians to come back.

The casinos that priced the loonie at par

Some casinos tried money instead.

Earlier this year, three downtown properties, Circa, the D and Golden Gate, treated the Canadian dollar as equal to the U.S. dollar on select hotel stays, drinks and gaming. They said it drew more than 15,000 Canadians in its first month and more than 50,000 within about three months.

It ended Aug. 31.

What Canadians are saying

Online, the debate over whether to go back breaks into a few camps.

It’s about respect. For many Canadians, no discount will fix it. When the Las Vegas Advisor asked in March whether the at-par deal meant Canadians were coming back, its answer, after hearing from Canadian readers, was no. Those readers pointed to Canada’s long history of standing with the U.S., and said they felt the country had been disrespected.

It’s about the price. Just as many complaints have nothing to do with Trump. Resort fees, parking fees, pool chair fees and expensive drinks come up constantly. Some Canadians say they’d happily cross the border, but Vegas has simply become too expensive, for everyone, Americans included. Vegas tourism officials have acknowledged that criticism, and some resorts have dropped resort fees or added free parking.

The discount felt desperate. When the at-par deal launched, some Canadians online mocked it as desperation. Others pointed out that Circa’s owner, Derek Stevens, hosted Trump at the casino shortly after his inauguration in January 2025.

There are other places to go. Plenty of Canadians say they’re still travelling, just not south. Cheap flights to Mexico’s beach towns come up again and again as the alternative.

The split matters for Vegas. If it’s mostly about price, deals can win people back. If it’s about principle, they probably can’t.

Part of a much bigger drop

Canadians made 23.1 million trips to the U.S. in 2025, down 23.5%, and spent about $3.3 billion less, according to Statistics Canada.

CBC News spoke with Winnipeg resident Martyn Daly, who said he and his wife used to visit Las Vegas every year but stopped because of the trade dispute.

Other U.S. cities are trying to win Canadians back. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey recently told Canadians his city misses them, and doesn’t see Canada as the 51st state. Here’s what he said.

Florida is going another way. On Nov. 3, the same day as Nevada’s election, Florida voters decide on a property tax break that leaves out most Canadian snowbirds. Here’s what’s at stake.

And Chrystia Freeland’s new book, out today, calls the U.S. Canada’s “unreliable boyfriend.” Here’s what’s in it.

Will Canadians come back?

Vegas is betting on it. Canada has been one of its top two international markets every year since 2000, and the tourism authority approved a US$3.5-million campaign this year to win Canadians and other international visitors back.

The next test is coming soon. Winter is when Canadian snowbirds usually head to Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California. If they stay home again, it’ll be the second winter in a row.

Canadians won’t cast a single vote on Nov. 3. But 252,400 missing visitors are making their case for them.

Sources

Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, visitor statistics
Statistics Canada, travel between Canada and other countries
Circa Resort & Casino, Canadian dollar at par promotion
Las Vegas tourism reporting, CBC News, October 2026