discussion assignment

Instruction

For over thirty some years, gambling has been a mainstay in Atlantic City. Continue to research Atlantic City and the aftermath of the gaming industry for this discussion. The question that continues to run through my mind is should the casinos stay open with so much competition in surrounding states, or should Atlantic City go back to its origins and utilize the seaside as its main draw? Goes back to that age old question. "If you build it, they will come...and continue to come to the area." It has been argued that tourism is one of the industries most looked at for development of economic vitality. Is it always appropriate to develop tourism, and tourism attractions?

Two examples of my classmates work

1- I think that Atlantic City can use the seaside as its main draw, but it can't just utilize that. After some research, I think that if a movie was filmed in Atlantic City, that could instantly draw a crowd in. When I think of the popular tourist cities they all have some form of entertainment created there. Walt Disney World has the Disney Movies, Las Vegas has the Oceans 11 movies, Chicago has mobster movies, and Hollywood has a wide variety. I think that people would track into Atlantic City if there was more entertainment taking place. If there are famous people or music artists that take a popular picture in a certain area, tourists are going to want to take that same picture in that same location. I think Atlantic City is capable of re-creating themselves, but this is only possible by developing more than just casinos. Atlantic City needs more on foot traveling for business and if people are cooped up inside a casino, the city won’t thrive. I was reading an article about Atlantic City and I came across this statement, “If we create a lot of options, when we go into the next recession, we’ll be glad we’re not relying on just tourism and gaming anymore,” - a AC Real Estate Developer.

2- I think while Tourism is still a viable industry for Atlantic City, if they look toward utilizing the seaside and building other attractions besides casinos, they need to develop other industries. Atlantic City's entire economy was dependent on 1 industry, tourism, so when it crashed the whole city came with it. With insecurity like that people will not want to live and work in Atlantic City and will move elsewhere. Atlantic City should look at what is unique for it and not what is working for everyone else, it is not big enough to compete with larger cities like Las Vegas and it probably never will be, unless it develops new attractions. What if they invested in more family friendly attractions like water parks and became something like the Dells is to Wisconsin. With indoor waterparks the jobs would't be as seasonal as other seaside attractions as well. For my paper I am doing the US side of Niagara Falls and I find it similar to Atlantic City, just as Atlantic City will probably never be able to directly compete with Las Vegas in terms of gambling alone, the US side of Niagara Falls will probably never be able to compete with the much more developed Canadian side, unless they change. Of course there's no reason to close the remaining casinos in Atlantic City, for whatever time they have left, but Atlantic City does not need to open more casinos and instead needs to develop more broadly appealing attractions, family and children attractions, music and art, etc..