A Year of Growth for the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Bureau

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ (Monday, January 9, 2017) Meet AC, which is Atlantic City’s Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Atlantic City Sports Commission, a department within Meet AC are reporting a record year in booking future meeting and convention business for Atlantic City. Even with the challenging year that Atlantic City has gone through, Atlantic City enjoyed an incredible year of hosting industry shows and unique sporting events throughout 2016.

In 2016, Meet AC booked a total of 260 meetings and conventions representing 289,422 future hotel room nights for Atlantic City. The Group Tour market was a part of the overall booking number attracting 22,600 hotel room nights. The number of future convention delegates to Atlantic City will reach over 863,602 with a projected economic impact of more than $285 million. Meet AC, whose funding comes from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), had a 2016 operating budget of $8,100,000. Those funds come from the luxury tax revenue. Meet AC is also pleased to report that for every $1 of luxury tax revenue that Meet AC invests, they are returning approximately $35.14 to Atlantic City’s economy. Meet AC was formed in early 2014 and in just over three years, Meet AC has booked 724 meetings and conventions, which represents over 689,970 hotel room nights with an estimated economic impact of more than $735,575,593.  

In 2016, Atlantic City hosted an unprecedented four national industry shows, which included; Health Professions Network (HPN), Meeting Professionals International (MPI) World Education Congress (WEC), TEAMS Conference & Expo and the 7th Annual Trade Show News Network (TSNN) Awards. Thousands of participants attended these four events and Meet AC’s strategy was to reintroduce Atlantic City to them. Meet AC is looking to help revitalize the meetings market; and hosting health conferences, corporate planners, sporting event planners and major trade show organizers is a terrific first step.

In 2017, Meet AC will host two industry shows, Meetings Quest and the African American Travel Conference (AATC). Meetings Quest, the nation’s longest-running series of educational and networking events for association, corporate, government and religious meeting planners will be held March 14-15 at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. The African American Travel Conference (AATC) is an association of 2,500 travel planners, serving the African American community and will be held April 26-28 at Tropicana Casino and Resort.

Currently, Atlantic City has over 15,000 available hotel rooms in inventory. Nearly 8,000 of those rooms are committable for meetings and conventions. Our two largest conventions are New Jersey School Boards (NJSB) Workshop, which uses 3,900 rooms on their peak night. The second largest is the New Jersey State League of Municipalities (NJSLOM) Conference, which uses 3,375 rooms on their peak night. We are able to accommodate our largest conventions by utilizing approximately 50% of our committable meeting and convention room inventory.

Meet AC also rolled out its 2017 Sales and Marketing Strategies. They are as follows:

  • Increase the Annual Number of Events in the Atlantic City Convention Center

  • Increase Atlantic City’s Single Hotel Property Meeting and Convention Business

  • Execute the 2017 Sales and Marketing Plan

  • Grow the Group Tour Business

  • Improve Atlantic City’s Destination Image

  • Development of a Five Year Strategic Plan

“Our 2017 sales and marketing strategies are designed to help us continue to book more business into Atlantic City,” said Jim Wood, president and CEO for Meet AC. “The Atlantic City Convention Center as well as the casino resorts, restaurants, retail and other businesses are relying on us to attract customers to our city,” added Wood. “It is our goal to continue to grow the meetings market, which offers an added bump to our local economy as evidenced by the $285 million we booked in 2016 alone. 2016 was a year of advancing Atlantic City’s image in the meetings and convention market and Meet AC looks forward to selling and marketing the destination to book future meetings, conventions and sporting events into the destination.”

Click here to take a look at a compilation of images throughout 2016.

 

About Meet AC                                                                                                                                                                     
Meet AC, Inc. was officially formed as a 501(c)(6) organization on June 23, 2014. Prior to its formation, the Meetings and Convention sales and marketing group was operating under the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA). Meet AC, a tourism economic development agency, will focus on three primary objectives: sales, marketing and services.

For complete Atlantic City tourism and convention information, visit www.meetac.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

About the Atlantic City Sports Commission
The Atlantic City Sports Commission was officially formed on January 13, 2015 as a 501 (c)(3) organization with the support of Meet AC and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) to attract sporting events, conventions and competitions to Atlantic City.

For a complete listing of sporting events and news, visit www.atlanticcitysports.org. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

###

MEDIA CONTACT: 
Jessica Merrill, Meet AC
609-449-7147
jmerrill@meetac.com