Atlantic City tourism slowed slightly in the year's first quarter, according to a study by Stockton University.

Stockton's Brian Tyrrell, a professor of hospitality and tourism management studies, says they measured lodging fees and casino parking fees.

"It is not necessarily a bad sign when there is a particularly slow quarter, with usually December or January being the slowest months of the year," he said.

"What we found were small declines on some of the metrics in the first quarter, some small gains in a couple of them, like with the broader county hotel industry to include the casinos."

Tyrrell says he believes the third quarter will be more telling for city tourism, with nine casinos operating instead of seven for the full quarter.

"It will be real interesting when those third quarter numbers finally come out. I am very excited about seeing what that does and the impact that the opening of the Ocean Resorts and the Hard Rock has on the resort in general."

He believes the second quarter will show improvement with those two new casino hotel attractions up and running for at least part of the second quarter. Both opened in June.

Joe Cutter is the afternoon news anchor on New Jersey 101.5

Also on New Jersey 101.5:

0

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM