Atlantic City pulls surprising upset over Vegas
Atlantic City won what was called a “stunning” upset over longtime rival Las Vegas in a competition crucial to each. “Atlantic City trumps Las Vegas for customer satisfaction and value,” said the headline in Market Metrix.
Their latest hospitality study found New Jersey ahead of Las Vegas in virtually every category — from value for price to sophistication and pampering.
The survey was particularly surprising because New Jersey’s Atlantic City at 30-years-old is a relative newcomer to the gaming market compared to Nevada, which has been around for 77 years.
“Compared to the Las Vegas Strip, Atlantic City guests are more satisfied with their hotel and casino experience,” said the survey, published in Hotel & Motel Management magazine.
Seventh-eight percent of Atlantic City visitors were “very likely to recommend” the resort to others, but just 59% of Las Vegas visitors were as likely to do so, according to the San Rafael, Calif.-based Market Metrix.
“Wow,” commented Jonathan Barsky, CEO of Market Metrix.
“It was really surprising to us to see the performance … to see Las Vegas, the king of gambling and entertainment, get beaten by Atlantic City,” he said.
Market Metrix surveys 35,000 travelers per quarter, and about 10,000 of those were in the two gaming markets. Mr Barsky called that a huge sample size.
This was the first time the company pulled out figures for a separate Casino Index of customer satisfaction, he said.
“Going forward, we’re developing a much more detailed and more frequent index for casinos, so we’ll be able to monitor these scores over time,” he said.
Reaction to the survey predictably depended on location.
“It’s a coup for Atlantic City,” said Larry Mullin, president of the Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa. “The town should be proud.”
Erika Pope, senior manager with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said its researchers weren’t familiar enough with Market Metrix and its survey methods to comment on the results. He said:
“We produce our own annual visitor profile study, and in two decades, our results, such as they are, continue to indicate year after year that our visitors are overwhelmingly happy with their experience here and would, if asked, recommend Las Vegas to friends, neighbors, relatives and such.â€
He said the relative ease of traveling to Atlantic City is an advantage that might be showing up in the survey.
More importantly, he said, new development is transforming Las Vegas to new heights.
by: David Wilkening
David
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