\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i57.tinypic.com\/1530izl.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n
\tBy MARTIN DeANGELIS Staff Writer Press of Atlantic City.<\/p>\n
\tAtlantic City is on sale. And this time, most of the hotel deals are good on weekends, too.<\/p>\n
\tThe Atlantic City Alliance, the casino-marketing cooperative behind the DO AC campaign, launched new hotel packages and discounts over the weekend.
\n\tOne of the highlights is A Taste of Summer, but it starts in the depths of winter and applies through the end of March.<\/p>\n
\tThe deals are specific to each casino\u2019s hotel, and the prices and offerings vary. Most are available at least on Friday nights, and five of the casinos say they\u2019ll give hotel deals seven nights a week \u2014 although each one notes that its rates start at the advertised price.<\/p>\n
\tThe ACA lists details of deals at doatlanticcity.com\/tasteofsummer, which also links to each hotel\u2019s booking site.<\/p>\n
\tThey range from \u201cstarting at $49\u201d in Trump Plaza Hotel Casino for a room with late checkout and a half-pound box of saltwater taffy to \u201cstarting at $109\u201d at Revel Casino Hotel for a package that includes an ocean-view room, a $25 food credit and \u201ccomplimentary day spa passes for two to Exhale,\u201d the 35,000-square-foot spa complex in the city\u2019s newest casino.<\/p>\n
\tShowboat Casino-Hotel offers two buffet passes in its \u201cstarting at $49\u201d package, while Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa includes comedy-club tickets, \u201ccomplimentary fitness access\u201d and a $100 dining credit in its deal, which the hotel lists \u201cstarting at $169\u201d from Sunday through Thursday nights.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe Taste of Summer packages … are geared toward deal-oriented consumers who want a great deal, close by, at a great price,\u201d said Jeff Guaracino, an ACA spokesman, who added that his agency also is promoting a Show Us Your Bling package \u2014 aimed specifically at drawing bachelorette parties to the city \u2014 and a Do AC Nightlife package, \u201cgeared toward the 21- to 35-year-old Philadelphia\/New Jersey crowd looking for live entertainment and dance clubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tGuaracino, a veteran of Philadelphia\u2019s tourism bureau, acknowledged the Taste of Summer promotion is based partly on that city\u2019s popular Philly Overnight packages. Philly Overnight, which started in the nationwide travel slowdown after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, began with a splash by offering two hotel nights for the price of one \u2014 plus the free parking that is still part of the package.<\/p>\n
\tThat\u2019s crucial, because parking charges in Center City Philadelphia can run to $40-plus a night. And although most Atlantic City parking garages charge far less than that, free parking is included in some of the new Taste of Summer deals.<\/p>\n
\tPhilly Overnight packages also have traditionally included a little welcome gift to visitors, but Guaracino added that Taste of Summer guests will get a not-so-small gift.
\n\t\u201cAt check-in, everyone will get a DO AC beachball,\u201d he said, adding the ACA hopes visitors notice a recent addition to the hotel lobby at each casino site \u2014 new sand sculptures designed to create their own hints of summer amid snowman season.<\/p>\n
\tJoseph Weinert, executive vice president of Spectrum Gaming in Linwood, said that putting together all these hotel deals in \u201ca citywide campaign is a new tack, and it\u2019s probably a good one. It sends the message that the many fun things to do in Atlantic City other than gambling are a value\u201d in the off-season.<\/p>\n
\tAnd the marketing group may not necessarily be trying to send that message very far in many cases.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAtlantic City does have a good story to tell, and a lot of locals have discovered that \u2014 particularly since The Walk has opened,\u201d Weinert said, referring to the outlet-shopping mall that continues to grow in the heart of the city.<\/p>\n
\tBut an attractive hotel deal can draw visitors from farther away.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhat\u2019s important for Atlantic City is the trial,\u201d the analyst added. \u201cIt\u2019s getting people to come here and try it out who haven\u2019t been here in a while, or maybe have never been here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAtlantic City\u2019s loss of gambling dollars to new casinos in Pennsylvania and other surrounding states has been widely publicized and \u201ctraumatic. But ironically, there\u2019s more to do in Atlantic City now than there has been since its heyday,\u201d Weinert said. \u201cSo if they can get people to come here and experience that, there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019ll come back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThe ACA\u2019s Guaracino adds that the packages and deals the city\u2019s hotels started offering over the weekend aren\u2019t set in stone.
\n\t\u201cThe prices will go up and down, depending on demand,\u201d he said, \u201ckind of like airline seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
No replies were posted for this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By MARTIN DeANGELIS Staff Writer Press of Atlantic City. Atlantic City is on sale. And this time, most of the hotel deals are good on weekends, too. The Atlantic City Alliance, the casino-marketing cooperative behind the DO AC campaign, launched…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}