According to SMG, the marketing agency for the convention center since Jan. 1, the center is behind in its goals to book events at the center from 2004 and beyond.

In a business where reservations are made years before the payoff, SMG says it is struggling to bring in sufficient numbers of large conventions to fill the available time slots.

Smaller Japanese incentive trips and local events help fill in the gaps, but to date there are 24 major groups from out of state scheduled for next year bringing in 92,585 conference delegates; 18 for 2005 with 95,500 delegates; and 15 for 2006 with 73,100 delegates.

The goal is to book 34 major events per year with 122,500 delegates, a goal expected to be exceeded this year with larger groups such as the American Society of Association Executives meeting in August.

But beginning next year, "it's difficult especially because the very big conventions are booked many years out," said Frank Haas, marketing director for the Hawai'i Tourism Authority.

"The very big ones are very difficult to get on short notice," he said.

Hawai'i Tourism Authority awarded Philadelphia-based SMG the contract to handle the convention center, taking it away from the Hawai'i Visitors & Convention Bureau.

SMG marketing director Randy Tanaka said when SMG stepped in, they were "hopeful that there would be more bookings further out."

"That's what was on the books when the books were turned over to us," Tanaka said. "So what we have to do is load up those future years."

An HVCB spokeswoman said the bureau's convention center marketers exceeded their goal of booking 50 out-of-state events last year and also exceeded goals most other years.

Donna Mercado Kim, chairwoman of the Senate tourism committee, said questions were raised about some conventions that were booked as though confirmed but that eventually fell through.

"That's been a concern in the past that people would get incentives and they would get bonuses for bookings and these bookings would cancel," Kim said.

Employees in the HVCB conventions, meetings and incentives department received a $5,000 bonus for reaching their goals and additional bonuses for exceeding goals, according to a state auditor's report released this month. The report said several HVCB employees received individual annual bonuses of more than $25,000.

HVCB has said the bonus system is often used in marketing agencies. But HVCB officials also said staffers in charge of conventions have since left the agency.

Discussion of convention center bookings has heated up in the wake of the Hawai'i Tourism Authority's decision to strip HVCB of its marketing contracts for international markets. Tourism executives and government officials have for months debated how well HVCB has performed under its contracts as the state's primary tourism marketer.

Convention marketing nationwide has been become tougher in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The war in Iraq and SARS further slowed travel.

"If the numbers don't work out it's not as simple as saying the HVCB or SMG didn't do it's job," said Jon Conching, Hilton's regional vice president for sales in Hawai'i. "For anybody to point a finger at any one entity not having done its job is not a fair judgment, whether it's North America or the Japan market, or meetings and conventions or the convention center."