Since opening in September, the 6 million Waterfront Conference Center at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City has booked 50 separate events and drawn in 30,000 conference goers.
Some of that business used to go to the Atlantic City Convention Center, which saw a five percent drop in attendees in 2015. But rather than bemoaning the new competition, officials in the city say they want even more convention and meeting space built and hope to grow the industry to account for about 20 percent of the resort’s visitors.
“Everybody is adding to the meetings market, and everyone is pursuing that market much stronger than they have in recent years,” Jim Wood, CEO of Meet Ac, which runs the city convention center told the Press of Atlantic City. “And maybe in years past it wasn’t a primary source, but it has become one of major revenue.”
Wood told the paper that he feels the two centers can coexist, even though the five percent drop at the convention center amounts to about 18,700 attendees. Most of those attendees went to Harrah’s center, he said.
But the new center has also contributed to the overall number of Atlantic City hotel rooms booked for conventions increasing by 48 percent last year. The industry booked 253,000 room nights in 2015, compared to 171,000 the year before, according to Meet AC.
This year, Meet AC has a targeted goal of 300,000 booked room nights for 2016, according to the Press.
Mike Massari, senior vice president of Caesars Entertainment, told the paper he believes the convention market can still grow in the city.
“I’d like to see the Borgata build 200,000 square feet and have the Boardwalk add 200,000 to 300,000 square feet. We want to see the meeting business move from 2 percent of the city to 20 percent,” Massari said.
As the city continues to face competition from new casinos—including the possibility casinos will be approved for northern New Jersey—the city needs to grow its convention market.
“You’re seeing additional casinos being built outside of New Jersey and you have to replace lost gaming customers with convention customers and I think that’s just the natural progression of what is transpiring here,” Wood told the Press.
In August, Resorts casino hotel also unveiled a $5 million conference center on the Boardwalk with 15,000 square feet of space spread over 12 rooms.
