Canadian Travel to the U.S. Drops Again. Where Does Las Vegas Sit?
Posted on: September 17, 2025, 06:16h.
Last updated on: September 17, 2025, 06:48h.
- 25% drop in Canadian tourism to the U.S. in August, seventh month in a row of decline
- Trump remains a factor impacting Canadians, but so are high costs in Las Vegas and a low Canadian dollar
- LVCVA launches first-ever Vegas-wide sale
The decline in the number of Canadians travelling to the U.S. in general, and Las Vegas in particular, is still a reality, but the narrative behind that is changing.
25% Decline in Travel Numbers
According to Statistics Canada, trips between Canada and the U.S. were down once again in August, for the seventh month in a row. More specifically, the number of returning Canadian-resident trips by air from the U.S. declined 25.4%, to 423,100, compared to August 2024.
Then there is this interesting nugget released by Redfin, the real estate brokerage website, on Monday – the number of Canadian Redfin.com users searching for homes to buy or rent in the U.S. dropped 19.5% year over year in August. Historically, Canadians have made up the largest portion of international homebuyers in the U.S.
“One Canadian client is in the process of selling his last U.S. property because he no longer sees it as a good place to invest or vacation,” said Cheryl Van Elsis, a Redfin Premier agent in Las Vegas.
“He used to own four homes in the Las Vegas area, which he mainly rented to fellow Canadians here for casinos or poker events. But now, he no longer wants ties to the U.S.”
Canada: Largest Percentage of Foreign Travellers
Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA), made a trip to Vancouver earlier this month to meet with west coast travel journalists and addressed the challenges straight-on, and talked about how to get Canadians travelling to Sin City once again. LVCVA is now promoting dozens of Las Vegas promotions to try and lure people back, from Canada and the U.S.
Canada represents a small percentage of annual travellers to Las Vegas, but the country still represents the largest percentage of international visitors, with nearly 1.5 million people traveling there in 2024.
“A portion of our friends in Canada are not happy with us right now,” said Hill at the media briefing.
PR speak aside, Casino.org went to folks on the frontline, who are getting the raw data. Plus, as a Canadian, I was there myself, for five nights at Caesars Palace in August (and had a great time).
Air Canada Labour Dispute
One thing Statscan mentioned in their note from the other day – Air Canada flights were cancelled and delayed in mid-August due to labour disruptions, so that was a factor in a tourism downturn.
Hill was speaking about how Canadians are still upset with U.S. President Donald Trump, who made comments last winter about how Canada would be better off as the United States’ 51st state. Then there’s the ongoing tariff dispute, and the economic impacts of that in Canada.
So Canadians have a healthy level of hatred for all things Trump. The anti-Trump factor arguably swung a national election in favour of the Liberal Party in April, where they beat the Conservative Party and formed a minority government, after a decade of deeply unpopular Liberal governance under Justin Trudeau.
There’s been a grassroots movement against all things American that includes the food Canadians buy at grocery stores.
Trump Factor
“I asked my wife if she wanted to go back [to Las Vegas] and she said no, not while Trump is in there,” said Tim Thomson, a Canadian who’s travelled to Las Vegas a dozen times, for the food, pool atmosphere, nightlife, sight-seeing and people-watching.
American policies towards Canada is one reason, yes. But so is a lower Canadian dollar, trading today at $1.38. So, a Canadian spends a $100 USD and it costs that person $137.62.
When we were in Las Vegas in August, Caesars Palace had a USD $89 per night promotion for a King bed room going on. The nightly rate went back up to USD $249 per night by the end of our stay. We got dinged with a daily resort fee (including tax) of USD $62.30 and we upgraded our room for another USD $56.69 per night.
Low Canadian Dollar
We gambled, won some money back, even ate at Peter Luger Steakhouse one night. Was food expensive, overall? Sure, it was. I took this picture buying a coffee at Brioche by Guy Savoy in the main lobby area of Caesars Palace – $8 for a 20-ounce coffee, $9 for my wife’s double Americano, plus $9 for a muffin?
I knew things like food costs were going to be an issue going in. But those are also Strip resort prices, and there are plenty of less costly options both on and off the main strip, if you shop around.
Will the Tide Turn?
My point is this – narratives wash away. Trump isn’t going anywhere for another 3.5 years. How long are Canadians going to stay pissed? A trade deal will eventually get done. Life will move on.
And the tide will turn when resorts in Las Vegas start offering better deals for Canadians to travel there. Make it worth their while, and those tourism numbers, to Las Vegas anyway, will go back up.
Even Thomson acknowledged that.
“Bottom line, you can get reasonable flights but a weekend in Las Vegas … with food and gambling, next thing you know you are at $2,000,” he said. “We can go to the Dominican Republic, Mexico or Cuba all-inclusive for a week for that price. I’ve seen high-end steakhouses in Buffalo offering Canadian dollar at par these days because they are hurting so much.”
What Are Canadian Travel Agencies Saying?
According to Christopher Whyte with Freestone Travel, just east of Toronto, the decline in Canadian travel to the U.S., and Las Vegas in particular, is more complicated than a protest against Trump.
He said he has seen significantly less interest in U.S. travel from his clients, with air travel and land travel this year down 17% and 37.4%, respectively.
“Las Vegas is a unique situation and the reasons for declining travel to Vegas is almost a perfect storm of factors,” he told Casino.org. “Some come from general U.S. travel concerns and some from Las Vegas itself.”
Accurate or not, there’s social media scuttlebutt about issues Canadians have experienced, stories about Canadians encountering U.S. immigration issues including detention and deportation, Whyte added (I experienced none of that).
High Resort Fees
“Issues I have heard that specifically relate to Las Vegas typically revolve around costs,” he said. “The rise and growth in ‘resort fees’ and other types of fees makes pricing travel to Las Vegas less transparent and those costs rise the more nights the traveller plans to stay, making it significantly more expensive and more difficult to budget.
“Increasingly restaurant meal and drink costs appear to have escalated (recent travellers paid US $40 for a Margarita) and Las Vegas is no longer the place for the great low cost buffet. Tickets for shows are increasingly harder to get and extremely expensive.
“Finally, clients who focus on gambling have indicated they are not happy with the decline of traditional table games and the shift to automated machines. There is also a feeling that the payouts for winning have declined and while everyone knows the odds always favour the house, there is a feeling that this has shifted even further.”
Las Vegas used to be the playground of the middle class, he added. Not so much anymore,
Patrons Don’t Like the Decline of Traditional Table Games
Still, Whyte agreed with me. Las Vegas is less attractive now for Canadians. However, when it comes to getting serious about putting together promotions that target Canadians – if you build it, they will come.
“Some Canadians are doing a blanket U.S. travel ban due to Trump policies, however Las Vegas is still an attractive destination if some of the cost issues can be addressed,” he said. “I think Vegas will win back some of those travellers.”
Added Thomson: “If it became affordable again I’m sure a high percentage would go back in spite of [Trump].”
No comments yet