Visit AC CEO: Atlantic City Meetings Business Is Bigger Than Ever

ATLANTIC CITY — Atlantic City's convention and meetings business is now larger than at any point in the resort's history, attracting about 1 million attendees last year and helping the city diversify beyond its traditional dependence on casino gambling, according to Visit Atlantic City President and CEO Gary Musich.

Musich said Thursday that the meetings market is expected to grow again as Atlantic City increasingly positions itself as a broader tourism and hospitality destination.

“People forget how big the meetings market is right now,” Musich said during an appearance on Off the Press with Scott Cronick on WOND, with state Assemblyman Don Guardian serving as guest host. “It's actually bigger than it's ever been in the history of Atlantic City.”

Musich said the city's meetings business is larger than that of some cities that might traditionally be considered stronger convention destinations.

“It's bigger than cities like Baltimore,” Musich said. “It was a million people last year. We expect it to grow again.”

One of the biggest advantages of convention business, he said, is when those visitors arrive.

“The meeting business is 85% — it is midweek,” Musich said.

That helps Atlantic City's hotels, restaurants and other businesses fill traditionally slower Sunday-through-Thursday periods rather than relying almost entirely on weekend leisure traffic.

Musich said the importance of conventions has increased as casino gambling has spread to other states.

Atlantic City spent decades as a convention and resort destination before legalized casino gambling transformed its economy beginning in the late 1970s. Now, Musich said, the city is moving back toward a more balanced tourism model.

“As Atlantic City's matured, right, we were focused gaming, we were a convention, multifaceted resort town, moved towards a gaming market,” Musich said.

But gambling is now widely available across the region.

“Gaming — everybody knows this — has expanded to every state, or almost every state, all these jurisdictions,” Musich said. “So you start to shift back to a balanced tourism, hospitality market, and that's where we're moving right now.”

That means pursuing different categories of travelers instead of relying on one customer base.

“Other segments of travel — individual travel, leisure travel, convention and meetings, international travel, events — all drive a different visitor, drives a new visitor,” Musich said. “And that's why it's so important.”

Musich said investment by Atlantic City's nine casinos is also helping Visit Atlantic City sell the destination to convention planners.

“The properties in Atlantic City, frankly, have never looked better,” Musich said. “They continue to invest in it.”

He cited upgraded guest rooms, restaurants, entertainment and improving service levels.

“The fact is Atlantic City is a tremendous value,” Musich said. “The properties have never looked better. You can take any of those properties, place them anywhere — Las Vegas, any other — and they're going to be as nice as any place you've ever been.”

For Visit Atlantic City, those investments become part of the product being sold to meeting planners.

“Our restaurants are a product. Everything is our product,” Musich said. “Service is our product. Accessibility — everything about that creates what the destination is.”

Musich said continued private investment also sends a broader message.

“On the meeting side, as you do that, that's showing investment and commitment, confidence in the market,” he said.

Visit Atlantic City is currently competing for convention business years into the future.

Musich said the organization's team recently traveled to San Francisco to make a presentation for a National Association of Postal Supervisors event in 2030, which he described as involving approximately 10,000 room nights.

“Our team was in San Francisco bidding on that,” Musich said. “We presented that for 2030. So that's a sign of confidence.”

Musich said meeting planners are also responding to broader changes in Atlantic City.

“People are hearing what's going on in Atlantic City,” he said. “They see the messaging changing. They see us as a community working together with the same goals, you know, talking as one voice now.”

“They see investment coming back to the city and they hear good things,” Musich added. “They feel momentum.”

Musich said the convention market will remain one part of a larger effort to create a more diversified visitor economy.

Atlantic City has approximately 18,000 hotel rooms, he said, giving the resort substantial capacity to accommodate conventions while continuing to serve casino and leisure travelers.

The challenge now is ensuring the city continues investing in the facilities and visitor experience needed to compete for that business.

For Musich, however, the growth of meetings and conventions already demonstrates that Atlantic City's tourism economy is becoming broader than casino gambling alone.

“You start to shift back to a balanced tourism, hospitality market,” he said. “And that's where we're moving right now.”