With the number of international visitors on the decline, a hotel owner in Nevada is urging Americans to vote carefully in the upcoming U.S. midterm elections.
“There’s been a noticeable decline in international travel, especially from Canada, due to the actions of our current administration,” Elizabeth Woolsey told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday. “For a small business, even a small decline of five per cent tourism is a huge impact.”
Woolsey is the owner of Stargazer Inn and Bristlecone General Store in Baker, Nev., a small community near the Utah border that serves as the gateway to Great Basin National Park. She says higher prices from tariffs and national park budget cuts also continue to strain her small business.
“We have a town of 100 people, so we rely on tourism to keep our businesses and doors open, and a slight drop in tourism is monumental for a small business, especially one related to tourism,” Woolsey said. “And so we just hope that people go to the polls and vote appropriately. Let’s rebuild relations, let’s get some of the actions of our administration reversed and get the tourism and the doors open again.”
Americans go to the polls on Tuesday for midterm elections that include contests for all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 seats in the U.S. Senate and 36 state governors, including Nevada.
“We need to be mindful of who we vote for,” Woolsey said. “I think when you go the polls, you’re voting for someone who has the best interest of all the citizens in our country.”
In the meantime, Woolsey hopes that Canadians and other international visitors will continue to feel welcome at their business and in their community.
“We talk to everyone who comes in,” Woolsey said. “And if we have people from Canada, we ring our bell in the store, we give them a free coffee and a muffin, we say, ‘Thank you for coming. You know, it’s our administration, not us. We really love that you came all this way.’”
Watch the full interview with Elizabeth Woolsey at the top of the article.
