ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – After years of recession, here’s some good news for Atlantic City: More people are headed to the nation’s second-largest gambling market by airplane or to attend conventions.

Atlantic City International Airport expects to see more than 1.4 million passengers by the end of this year, the most ever.

And people who made reservations this year to attend conventions in Atlantic City in the next few years are up a whopping 73 percent, to nearly a half-million. Those conventioneers are forecast to spend more than $169 million.

The projected increases are encouraging for Atlantic City, which is in the fourth straight year of a casino revenue decline caused by the emergence of casinos in neighboring states and worsened by the recession.

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