Tacotarian has weathered plenty of storms since opening its plant-based Mexican eatery in 2018.
Its Arts District location debuted in December 2019 — just months before the COVID-19 pandemic — forcing the owners to adapt on the fly, with a business boom that wouldn’t arrive until two years later.
That momentum has stalled. Ownership says conditions have grown increasingly difficult since 2023, and especially since 2025, as Las Vegas’ tourism slump — fueled by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a drop in international visitors — continues to squeeze Las Vegas businesses.
Co-founder Kristen Corral says costs have climbed across the board, from napkins to limes and avocados, while foot traffic has thinned. The war in Iran, which has pushed gas and jet fuel prices higher, could keep even more people home in the months ahead, potentially prolonging the restaurant’s struggles, she said.
Corral joined other Arts District small-business owners Thursday at a roundtable with U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., to detail how ongoing tariffs and the tourism slowdown are eroding revenue and driving operating costs.
“What most people don’t realize, especially in government, is that there’s only so much you can charge for a taco,” Kristen Corral told the Sun.
Las Vegas visitation fell 7.5% in 2025 to roughly 38.5 million people — the lowest since 2021. International visitation declined 4.8% to 4,726,500 visitors.
Canadian arrivals took a particularly sharp hit, falling 17.4% compared with 2024 — a loss of 252,400 visitors.
Megan Comfort, who co-owns Studio 21 Tattoo Gallery with her husband, Austin Spencer, describes the past year as “very challenging” for their 23-year-old shop, located just five minutes from the Strip off West Flamingo Road. Canadian and European guests have traditionally accounted for about 25% of the shop’s revenue — but their most recent financial reports show that figure has dropped to zero.
Cultural anthropologist Brian “Paco” Alvarez partners with numerous third-party tour operators to show visitors the best of Las Vegas. One post-pandemic partnership was with a Hong Kong-based company that catered to travelers between 16 and 30, who spent several weeks at a camp before touring major U.S. cities and national parks.
In 2023, Alvarez and the company ran 16 tours together.
That slipped to 14 the following year, then fell sharply to just three. He attributes the decline in part to an executive order Trump signed in July directing the Department of the Interior to raise national park entrance fees for international visitors — a move that, Alvarez says, is effectively pricing his customer base out.
Annual park passes for overseas visitors also jumped from $80 to $250 per vehicle. The new fees took effect Jan. 1, adding a $100-per-person charge — for anyone over 16 — on top of existing entry fees at 11 of the country’s most popular national parks.
Cortez Masto has asked Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and his department to halt the implementation of the new fees.
“Historically, we’ve never had an administration so anti-tourism as we’ve had now,” Alvarez said Thursday morning.
Cortez Masto told business owners that the Trump administration’s visa fee increases, talk of screening international visitors’ social media accounts and verbal attacks against certain countries are all making overseas travelers think twice about visiting the U.S.
She added that rising gas, grocery, rent and energy costs are squeezing American consumers, leaving them less likely to spend on vacations or non-essential purchases.
Cortez Masto said she is pushing back against some of the Trump administration’s policies, including with her Fair and Transparent Gas Prices Act, which would require the Federal Trade Commission to investigate anti-competitive, collusive or other illegal activity that artificially drives up oil and gas prices.
“This administration is so concerned about these blanket tariffs and making money and no ... trade deficits, but we’ve seen a ... deficit in our tourism travel. … That, to me, is really telling that this administration is not focused on that industry that we all care about, and they should be,” Cortez Masto told the Sun. “I want people to realize when we are having an impact on tourism and travel, we should be lifting the entire community up, including those businesses and those ancillary districts — whether it’s the Arts District, whether it’s Chinatown. All of these businesses that are around this corridor are just as important because they create jobs, they pay taxes, they contribute to our economy.”