Anxiety over the matter escalated last week after President Obama told an audience in Elkhart, Ind., that companies “can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.” The remark was taken by many here as an attack.

Image The Mirage last month during President Obamas inauguration. The decline in convention business has unnerved officials. Credit... Isaac Brekken/Associated Press

“The mayor heard the words ‘Las Vegas’  he didn’t hear any other city  and people are telling me that they’re not coming to Las Vegas because the president doesn’t want them to,” said Mayor Oscar B. Goodman, who at first demanded a White House apology but later in the week said he just wanted a clarification.

“There’s an impression out there,” Mr. Goodman said, “that somehow if you come to Las Vegas, it’s going to reflect on your business culture, and that’s a bunch of hooey.”

The White House has not commented directly on the matter. But the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said on the Senate floor Wednesday that Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, had told him that “the president’s criticism was aimed at the potential use of taxpayer funds for junkets and in no way reflects his thoughts about any one particular city.”

Mr. Goodman and local meeting planners insist that they have heard from companies who said Mr. Obama’s remarks scared them away, but Ms. Jones, the Harrah’s executive, said no company had made that connection while talking to her.

The cancellation that has particularly rankled Las Vegas was the one by Goldman Sachs, which received $10 billion in bailout money. The company issued a statement saying the decision was “based on our best efforts to operate according to the requirements of the new landscape of our industry,” but a $600,000 cancellation fee charged by the hotel has led some to question that explanation.

“I think it was a public relations move,” Ms. Jones said. “Why would you pay a cancellation fee and go to a city that’s more expensive to get there and where the cost of food is more expensive because you don’t have as many options?