Nevada Fighting Trump Bid to Cut Tourism Marketing

By Tue, Feb 27, 2018

The state’s congressional delegation is gearing up to fight an administration plan to ax funding for Brand USA. The federal program, which has been of major benefit to Las Vegas, was founded nearly a decade go to promote the country as an international destination.

Major U.S. tourist destinations such as Las Vegas could be in for some pain under a proposal in President Donald Trump’s 2019 budget which calls for killing a program that markets tourism to the U.S. abroad.

The provision marks the second time the Trump administration has sought to eliminate funding for Brand USA, as the program is called. The 2018 budget contained the same provision, but Congress disregarded it.

Republican Congressman Mark Amodei, whose 2nd District includes the tourist region encompassing Reno and Lake Tahoe, said that as a member of the Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives he wasn’t concerned.

“It’s good that they are watching the budget, they should,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “But last year’s budget axed a lot of things and the House systematically put almost all of them back in.”

Rossi Ralenkotter, chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, was less sanguine. He noted that since Brand USA was renewed in 2014­