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Visit Atlantic City started fast in 2025, with a goal of spreading the news about all the resort city has to offer.

During the fall, the organization – which promotes economic development through conventions, sporting events, film production, group tourism and more – announced a leadership change, with Gary Musich succeeding longtime President and CEO Larry Sieg.

The organization lauded Sieg for his visionary leadership and for overseeing key initiatives and developments, such as promoting conventions, meetings and tourism; rebranding the organization; contributing to increased visitor numbers; and more.

Sieg supported the appointment of Musich, who most recently served as president of sales at Visit Atlantic City and brings more than 25 years of experience in sales and hospitality, as well as driving business growth and fostering key relationships across the tourism sector.

“I’m confident that Gary is the right person to take the reins and lead this organization to even greater heights,” said Sieg.

Visit Atlantic City said that the promotion of Musich reflects its commitment to continuity and building on the strong foundations Sieg established – while also marking a new chapter in its history; with a focus on innovation, strategic partnerships and continuing to attract major events to the city.

“I am honored to step into this role and continue the great work that Larry has set in motion,” said Musich in a September press release. He transitioned to the new role at the end of 2024 and officially began as president and CEO Jan. 1. “Atlantic City has endless potential, and I look forward to working with our partners to promote this incredible destination to visitors from across the globe. We will remain focused on expanding our reach, innovating our offerings, and ensuring that Atlantic City continues to thrive as a top-tier destination.”

The organization entered 2024 with a wave of momentum after a successful year that included 206 meetings, tradeshows and conferences. Those generated 290,147 room nights, drew 591,371 attendees and generated $353.7 million.

Now, the future

And now the stage is set for a banner year in 2025 – with a variety of big sporting events, conventions and more slated this year. Earlier this month, Visit Atlantic City made a major announcement that it integrated the DO AC brand and assets under the unified Visit Atlantic City name. The move, announced during Visit Atlantic City’s Annual Meeting, combines leisure and meetings marketing and communications efforts to create a cohesive destination brand and message.

The effort features a streamlined booking engine on the VisitAtlanticCity.com website to bring everything under one destination brand.

“Uniting the DO AC and Visit Atlantic City brands under one umbrella marks a pivotal moment for Atlantic City,” said Musich. “The move allows us to speak as a stronger, united voice, streamlining our efforts in amplifying Atlantic City’s appeal as a premier destination for leisure and business travelers. It also enables us to deliver a greater economic impact for our community.”

“This move will have a lasting impact on Visit Atlantic City’s destination leisure marketing efforts,” said Casino Reinvestment Development Authority Executive Director Eric Scheffler. “Visit Atlantic City is laser-focused on providing one brand voice in messaging and our visitors will be able to access all the latest information on events and activities in one place at www.visitatlanticcity.com.”

“There’s been a push for this for a while,” Musich told NJBIZ. “We eventually had the right plan in place – and we are consolidating that effort. For so many reasons, messaging is important – branding. Atlantic City is working on perception issues that have been developed due to lack of messaging. No news is not always good news. So, this is going to help that. We still represent and support all of the properties – all of the businesses.

“It’s been great,” Musich told NJBIZ about the transition. “Atlantic City is not a small meetings market. I put it in perspective – that we’re comparable to a city like Baltimore with how many meetings, trade shows and events we do in the city. It represents about $300 million – market-wide – to the city; and brings in about just under a million people a year. And Visit Atlantic City is one of the primary drivers of that – bringing in about 53%, 54% of that.

“So, representing all of the properties – and that has become a more important piece of the business as gaming is spread,” Musich continued. “You have to look at different segments of the hospitality industry. Part of creating all of that separated the leisure piece of this – and that stayed with the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.”

He noted that there were different reasons for that separation and the different stakeholders involved.

“And now there’s been an effort to put it all back together – which we’ve done – to create a single voice, single messaging, single branding and single process to support the destination,” Musich explained. “To all facets of leisure, events, meeting, convention and trade show marketing – all of that needs to be connected and talked about in the same fashion. And that’s what we’ve done – it’ll be a work in progress for a while.”

‘Moving in that right direction’

Asked about the message the organization wants the public to hear, Musich began his response by pointing to the redevelopment projects and investments at a number of casinos and throughout the city.

“They’ve never looked better,” said Musich. “Those projects are exciting – because it drives other development. That may be neighborhood development. It may be building housing, different types of retail development. All development is good. Business wants to do business in places that are moving in that right direction. From a leisure standpoint – what does that do? What message are we getting out there?

“One – we’re getting a message out there, that the brand is active; that the city is moving forward,” Musich stressed. “That there’s going to be messaging – whether it’s our participation in the World Cup to new things going on, events that will be happening. Messaging that relates to people for a leisure visit. And with that, a message that will hopefully extend your stay here.”

Uniting the DO AC and Visit Atlantic City brands under one umbrella marks a pivotal moment for Atlantic City.
– Gary Musich, Visit Atlantic City president and CEO

A big part of this messaging, according to Musich, is not just what’s happening in the “four walls here” – but what’s happening in a broader range of this region.

“Because that’s what’s going to extend the stay here. We want people to stay a couple of days,” he said. “Whether it’s ecotourism, golf – if you’re a foodie, you know Atlantic City’s got wonderful food. You’re certainly here for entertainment – your gaming experience. That’s the primary reason to travel here. But if we start talking about these other things, we’ll expand interest. And you really haven’t heard or seen much messaging on the destination in the past few years.”

He acknowledged the postponement of the Atlantic City Airshow, but expressed optimism that it could return and that there would be messaging pertaining to that.

“Not only concerts and other things that are going on in properties – but messaging to drive you to our website where you actually will be able to take action,” he explained. “Whether it’s booking a room or researching your stay, we’re going to make it easier on you.”

Musich said that while DO AC was a good campaign, it was very localized.

“Only people from here know what that meant. Same thing with Meet AC,” said Musich. “Changing our brand to our name was such a vital part of this – because no matter what we do now, the name of this city is going to be in that.”

During the annual meeting, held Feb. 5, Visit Atlantic City also debuted its new spring/summer marketing campaigns and destination video, which highlighted, “Where Celebrations Live On” and “Create Memory Making Moments.”

‘Changing perception’

Musich also acknowledged the challenges the organization faces. “Changing perception, obviously, is the primary reason and the plan for here,” said Musich. “I think we have a lot to offer that visitors are not aware of. We’re going to follow somewhat of the same digital plan – leisure plan will be comparable to what we did on the meeting side. Where we saw volume and ongoing communication about activity. Where we can create that interest and get you into our ecosystem – so now you’re listening and hearing a lot about what goes on.

“Doing that in itself is a monumental task – because there’s so many different things to do to drive people to this new place to find information,” said Musich. “So, that’s a challenge right now. We’ve had success in that – the challenges become solutions and success. There’s a lot of us in town now that are all on the same page and working together to get to a common successful solution.”

Musich noted that all of the city stakeholders and properties rowing in the same direction was not always the case – and pointed to past instances of information silos and individualism.

“We’re having a broader discussion with a lot of different people now – that are all agreeing on the message and plan going forward,” said Musich. “At least we’re having the conversations. We have a lot more to do on that. How do we engage and bring destination-based events back?”

An instance of that topic is reflected in the January announcement of a major championship boxing match. Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis will meet in a blockbuster unification battle for the IBF, WBA and Ring Magazine World Welterweight titles at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall April 12.

Visit Atlantic City oversees the Atlantic City Sports Commission – and the event marks a major moment for the city, which has a long legacy of top-level, championship boxing, to once again attract a fight of this level.

“That’s an example, again, to – what can you accomplish working together? Where, one, we’re on the same page with our messaging. We want to talk positively about what’s going on in Atlantic City,” Musich explained. “And we’re all starting to do that in the same way. This is everybody – whether we’re talking about our business groups, the Chamber, the Casino Association, individual business owners, everybody. And that’s my job – to pull those groups together and having a common conversation.

“From inception to completion, we were able, with a group of us, to bring this fight, negotiate it and sign agreements to bring it here on April 12 – in two-and-a-half weeks,” he said. “If you work together, whether it’s an event like this – and this is a fighter from Philadelphia. What comes of things like this? Not only do you get a great event that’s going to fill Boardwalk Hall. It’s going to drive visitation. You have press conferences and other media-related events – that’s going to drive messaging. It was announced in Las Vegas.

“The boxing business is coming back right now – and Atlantic City has this wonderful history of boxing. And now here you have one of the biggest fights in a long, long time, coming back to one of the birthplaces of boxing for the East Coast,” said Musich. “We’re super excited about it.”

The approach this year will be proactive, Musich said. “[W]hen you see the branding and messaging come out, and it’s just starting to trickle now,” he explained. “That’s exactly what it is. Playing a little offense here. That’s why we did this. We consolidated these groups – and there’s a lot of talent – to play offense. To get the word out.”