Nevada's Cortez Masto sends letter to Trump officials on tourism concerns

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., speaks at the Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to be Secretary of the Treasury, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. Photo by: Ben Curtis / AP, file

U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., sent a letter to the Trump administration’s commerce, transportation, treasury and homeland security secretaries Tuesday demanding clarity on how their and President Donald Trump’s actions since taking office will impact American tourism.

In the letter, Cortez Masto took issue with Trump’s tariffs, “increasingly aggressive” tactics used by Customs and Border Protection and cuts at federal agencies that support tourism like the National Park Service. Her office shared the letter with the Sun.

Cortez Masto said there has been a lack of transparency around Trump’s executive orders and the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency.

“These efforts have resulted in damaging trade policies, frozen federal funding, a gutted federal workforce, and have extended Presidential authority beyond legal limits,” Cortez Masto wrote. “I cannot stress enough the need for the Trump Administration to seriously consider the devastating impacts your actions are having on our nation’s tourism economy.”

Cortez Masto also sent the letter to the director of the National Economic Council and United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who got into a heated exchange with U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, today after Trump partially backtracked on tariffs.

Cortez Masto wants officials to provide an analysis of how new policies will impact the tourism industry and how a decline in international visitors would affect the United States’ economic output.

She also asked what plans the Trump administration has on “restoring international visitor interest and mitigating the loss of their contributions” on the economy and on hosting international sporting events such as Las Vegas’ yearly Formula One race.

Lastly, Cortez Masto asked whether the Trump administration is looking to make it easier to process visas and “safely welcome foreign travelers.”

“I ask you to provide responses to this inquiry in a timely fashion, answer my call to more deeply consider the impacts the Trump Administration’s actions have on this vital industry, and work to mitigate those factors hampering this incredibly important sector,” she wrote.

The senator separately requested the six officials who received the letter work with her and “other tourism advocates” to appoint an assistant secretary of commerce for travel and tourism, a position Congress funded last year.

The tourism industry is already seeing early warning signs. At Tuesday’s Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority meeting, LVCVA President Steve Hill announced a 5% drop in projected room tax revenue for the next fiscal year’s budget.

Both air travel from Canada and Mexico, where the bulk of Las Vegas’ international travelers come from, were down at Harry Reid International Airport in February.

“I’ve said repeatedly that one month does not make a trend, although we do expect that this is the start of a decline in international visitation,” Hill said at the meeting. “At some level, the conversation around the tariffs has also alienated some of our potential visitors.”

Cortez Masto provided statistics of her own. In her letter, she cited a U.S. Travel Association assessment that a 10% reduction in Canadian travel to the United States would lead to 14,000 people losing their jobs and $2.1 billion in lost spending.

“Given the significant economic contributions of the travel and tourism industry, the Trump Administration must recognize the critical link between your policies and travel demand,” Cortez Masto wrote.