Outdoor tourism businesses could take a financial hit as international travelers avoid Nevada

Originally published in the Nevada Independent

In this week’s Indy Gaming, a general malaise toward U.S. travel hurts more than just the gaming industry. Also, changes approved for private gaming salons.

By Howard Stutz

Declining business on the Strip has made its way into Nevada’s outdoor recreation industry. Tourism leaders said the resort industry is in a modest business slowdown.

Strip resort executives aren’t the only tourism leaders concerned that international customers are avoiding Nevada this summer.

Mandi Elliott, executive director of the Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition, said last week that the trade organization’s members worry about the general malaise toward U.S. travel, which could financially harm the state’s tourism industry.

During an event organized at Clark County Wetlands Park by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) to highlight issues facing Nevada’s outdoor tourism, Elliott said organization members have lost business from Canadian customers for the same reasons they are avoiding the Strip.

Las Vegas-based Base Camp Outdoors, which leases camping, hiking and ancillary equipment for outdoor excursions, received several cancellations from Canadians who decided against traveling to the U.S. “because of the current administration’s policies,” Elliott said.

Cortez Masto said Nevada’s $8.1 billion local outdoor recreation economy could take a serious financial blow if international customers stay home. Visits often include outdoor recreational areas in and near Nevada, such as Lake Tahoe, Great Basin National Park, Red Rock National Conservation Area, Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon.

“I’m trying to highlight this because most people don’t realize the impact tourism and travel have on the economy,” Cortez Masto said. 

There are ominous signals for Nevada’s gaming and tourism sector in 2025.

Strip casino revenue has declined in three consecutive months and trails the first four months of 2024 by less than 1 percent.

Las Vegas visitation has fallen in each of 2025’s first four months, a cumulative drop of nearly 1 million visitors or 6.5 percent. Analysts predict it will be a challenge to match last year’s 41.7 million visitors, Las Vegas’ highest total since drawing 42.5 million visitors in 2019.

Volume at Harry Reid International Airport is down 3.6 percent to 17.9 million passengers over four months. International passenger volume decreased in each of the last three months, but is still up 2.7 percent, given January’s 17 percent increase that came before President Donald Trump announced his tariffs, beginning a trade war, or his proposal to make Canada the nation’s 51st state.

In the last two months, passenger volume from the three major Canadian airlines is down by double digits.

“Right now, this feels like a pretty modest slowdown,” Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill said in an interview Monday. “It is driven somewhat by Canada, but it’s largely a domestic issue around consumer confidence and consumer sentiment.”

A 1.1 percent drop in Las Vegas visitation was surprising given that Strip gaming revenue was $840.1 million, the market’s third-highest single-month total following $905.3 million in December 2023 and $881.2 million in December 2024.

Compared with a year ago, visitation fell 12 percent in February, 8 percent in March and 5 percent in April, and the LVCVA offered explanations for each month’s declines. 

The Super Bowl, which was held in Las Vegas in February 2024, went to New Orleans. Meanwhile, concerns over the unclear federal trade and economic policies chilled visitation in March and April. Hill predicted May’s tourism numbers will largely be affected by consumer confidence. 

Through April, hotel rooms at Strip resorts have averaged almost $202 a night, down 5.5 percent from a year ago. Occupancy is at 85.5 percent, a less than 1 percent dip, but there are 4,000 fewer hotel rooms in the market after last year’s closures of The Mirage and Tropicana.

The Strip’s major declines in the last few decades came during the Great Recession in the late 2000s. The pandemic devastated the market in 2020 with a 78-day shutdown of the state’s resort industry, followed by health and safety mandates that slowed visitation into 2021.

“If we were down in the last 25 or 30 years, it was because of a normal business cycle,” Hill said. “That’s what it feels like right now. It’s a relatively shallow slowdown, and the decisions are being made to rectify that.”

The LVCVA board of directors recently approved a $460 million budget for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1. Hill said the budget anticipates a 5 percent decline in room tax revenue but includes $168 million for marketing and advertising. 

Hill said some of the efforts to reverse any trends will be made “by the time we get through the summer.”

One positive sign came from MGM Resorts International officials, who told analysts that hotel revenue from their 10 Strip resorts was an all-time high in April, but was leveling off in May.

“The month-to-month data can be choppy at times,” wrote Citizens Bank gaming analyst Jordan Bender.

Legislation signed by the governor opens private gaming salons to all players

Private gaming salons are no longer a bastion for high rollers with gambling budgets of six or seven figures or higher. Low rollers will have the opportunity to gamble inside the fancy casino areas when they are not being occupied by big spenders. 

On Saturday, Gov. Joe Lombardo signed SB459, which was backed by Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro (D-Las Vegas) and passed through both legislative chambers less than a month after its introduction at the end of April.

The Nevada Resort Association supported the bill, which came out of a Gaming Control Board workshop last December that explored ways to make the salons accessible to the public. 

The bill removed a $500 minimum wager requirement on slot machines inside the salons, allowing casinos to set minimum wagers with approval from the control board. 

Resort Association President Virginia Valentine said the changes allow the state’s casino industry to expand their customer base and “remain competitive by offering customized experiences for high-value, high-profile guests who may be choosing to play in other states,” including California’s tribal casinos.

Resorts World launches a free parking program through the summer

In Las Vegas, there is one way to try to erase months of negative headlines stemming from management changes, regulatory concerns and multimillion-dollar fines: free parking during the hot summer months on the Strip.

Resorts World Las Vegas recently sent notice to its Southern Nevada customers that complimentary parking would be offered at all self-parking garages through Aug. 28. The property is not implementing a validation system or minimum spending requirement or a time limit.

In an unsigned statement, Resort World officials said complimentary self-parking is a way of encouraging locals and visitors to check out the hotel-casino, adding that its location “provides easy and convenient access.”

Free parking at Strip resorts was long viewed as a birthright by Las Vegas visitors and locals until MGM Resorts International announced it was implementing a paid parking program in 2016. Journalist Steve Sebelius wrote in a commentary piece that “the end of days” was upon Las Vegas because MGM had “opened the seven seals of Revelation, poured out the seven bowls of wrath, and blown the seven trumpets.” MGM charges $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekends for parking at its Strip resorts.

Just a handful of Strip properties — Circus, Circus, Treasure Island and Sahara — don’t charge for parking. Ironically, Resorts World is overseen by a board that includes several former MGM executives.

Meanwhile, Resorts World and Zoox, an autonomous ride-hailing company, announced a partnership last week that marks the first official agreement between a robotaxi company and a Strip hotel-casino. Driverless Zoox vehicles will receive a dedicated pickup and drop-off location at Resorts World.

Zoox is the first company to operate a driverless robotaxi on public roads. The company, a subsidiary of Amazon, has been testing its fleet on the Strip and around its Las Vegas headquarters for employee riders only since 2023. The robotaxi holds as many as four passengers. Zoox said it plans to open its service to the general public in Las Vegas later this year.