United States Senator Jacky Rosen Visits The Neon Museum

January 5th, 2023

Rosen Highlights Bipartisan Travel and Tourism Bill in Visit to Las Vegas’ Neon Museum

LAS VEGAS, NV – Today, U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen toured The Neon Museum in Las Vegas alongside its executive director, Aaron Berger, to discuss how her bipartisan travel and tourism law will strengthen the U.S. travel and tourism industry and help bring more visitors to areas like Las Vegas. The bill signed into law last week designates a brand new Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism to oversee strategy across the federal government. Currently, there is no high-ranking position in the federal government solely focused on coordinating a federal travel and tourism strategy.

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, The Neon Museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs for educational, historic, arts and cultural enrichment. “A Las Vegas landmark like The Neon Museum relies on a strong and vibrant travel and tourism industry that brings in visitors to our state. This is why I worked to pass my bipartisan law to strengthen this critical sector of our economy,” said Senator Rosen. “By creating the first-ever federal position to coordinate a national travel and tourism strategy, it will help communities across Nevada continue to grow, boosting their economies and creating new jobs.”

“It was an honor to host Senator Jacky Rosen at The Neon Museum today. She has worked tirelessly in Washington, D.C. to advocate for the travel and tourism industry, especially through the introduction of the Omnibus Tourism and Travel Act,” said Aaron Berger, Executive Director of The Neon Museum. “Tourism is a key industry in Nevada and it was gravely impacted by the 2020 shutdown and the pandemic-related travel declines that followed. While our attendance numbers continue to rebound, we welcome national support to provide strategies that expand the awareness and appreciation of cultural tourism in Nevada.”

Senator Rosen’s bipartisan legislation was endorsed by more than a dozen leading Nevada-based and national groups, including the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the Nevada Resort Association, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, the US Travel Association, the American Hotel and Lodging Association, the American Gaming Association, the Global Business Travel Association, and the American Society of Travel Advisors.

Senator Rosen has been a leader in fighting to restore the travel and tourism industry to its full potential. Tourism is one of Nevada’s key industries and employs nearly 350,000 Nevadans. Rosen was part of a bipartisan group that negotiated the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, where she specifically helped write the section of the bill that included more than $58 million in funding for Nevada airports. This also included her legislation requiring the National Travel and Tourism Infrastructure Strategic Plan be updated to develop an immediate-term and long-term strategy for the Department of Transportation (DOT) and other agencies to use infrastructure investments to revive the travel and tourism industries in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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