Titus says president’s travel ban deters visitors from other countries

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus in Las Vegas on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) Follow @csstevensphoto

Rep. Dina Titus has taken President Trump to task for the Jan. 27 travel ban established by executive order, citing travel industry statistics that show a 17 percent decline in flight searches for travel to the United States.

“Actions you consider necessary to protect the homeland are pushing away allies and sending a message to the world that the United States no longer welcomes visitors,” Titus said in a letter to Trump dated Thursday.

Titus, D-Nev., cited statistics from Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Hopper, a mobile application that uses data to predict and analyze airfares.

She said that while the ban was directed at refugees from seven Muslim-majority nations, travelers in other countries appear to be avoiding the United States as well, with inquiries from China down 33 percent, Australia 25 percent, Mexico 21 percent and Germany 20 percent.

“This directly hurts the economy of my district in Las Vegas and other tourist destinations around the country, from the Grand Canyon to Disney World,” she said.

Titus said travel searches for Las Vegas were down 23 percent since Jan. 27, the second greatest decline for searches of U.S. cities.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.