Only 15 out-of-state conventions have been booked for the Hawai'i Convention Center next year, a record low for the 9-year-old state-built center at the edge of Waikiki.

Center managers and state officials acknowledge the projected dive in attendance but say the center has been generally successful. Some industry leaders point to the sag as evidence that the overall marketing strategy needs a change.

Hawai'i Tourism Authority President and CEO Rex Johnson looks at next year's bookings and sighs. "It's a brutal year."

But then he looks past that year and sees improvement. "These things run in cycles," he said. "We're going to make (our) goal every place but 2008."

Convention center general manager Joe Davis, of SMG, quickly runs through the center's main barriers to business. For conventions, organizers worry about time out of office, air travel costs, "can we conduct serious business in Hawai'i?"

Once they get the people here, he said booking repeat business is a lot easier. "They will want to come back," Davis said.

The center's slogan is "Where Business and Aloha Meet."

Davis points to other statistics with satisfaction. In 2006-07, the center generated 642,717 room nights statewide, he said, which translates to economic impact of $458.8 million plus tax revenues of $44.5 million.

Johnson notes that the center wins awards from meeting planners and others who use the center. Overall, the center has brought in business from across the world.

"We budget a deficit of $3.5 million a year for the convention center," Johnson said. "It was never expected to make money. It was expected to bring higher-spending visitors to town and it does that."

The $350 million center rose from controversy at the site of the old Aloha Motors car dealership. After 14 years of debate, discussion and delay, the center welcomed its first convention in 1998 and booked 19 that year.

Since then, the center's statistics show ups and downs, with the previous low booking number at 17 for 1999 but an average of more than 30 events for the past several years.

Faced with earlier challenges, the center created special promotions to lure business. A 2004 promotion called the "Bodacious Offer" offered free rent, which brought in 11 bookings. Davis said that adds up to more than $120 million in visitor spending and $10 million in tax revenue for the state.

The center is run by SMG, which in 2003 also took over marketing the center from the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau.

Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, who previously served as Senate Tourism chairwoman, said next year's numbers are the result of a slowdown in tourism combined with a transition to a different marketing team in 2003.

"We knew that the next five years out were going to be tough," she said.

Kim said the overall feedback for the center from convention planners and people attending events remains good. And she still thinks that the people who run the center know how to market it best. "I think they've done a good job," she said.

But she'd like to see the number of big conventions grow. "We've been concerned with the convention center," Kim said. "It never did live up to the expectations."

State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert has known that 2008 looked grim for several years. "The challenge you have with a convention center is most of the big conventions book four to five years out," she said.

But she said convention center managers have worked to build business, filling in the schedule with short-term prospects to help keep revenue coming in, even during slow times.

Wienert notes some success in getting more conventions to bring Asian visitors.

Overall, she looks at the center as continuing to offer a benefit and the potential for more. "It's staggering — in the millions and billions of dollars," she said.

Wienert acknowledges that the center itself has operated at a loss but still offers an overall benefit. "Even in a down year, it's business that wouldn't have been here," she said.

And she said she is looking for progress. "I'm not one to accept that we operate at a loss. You always strive to make a profit." she said.

And that means continuing to persuade businesses that Hawai'i is more than a pretty place to vacation. "The biggest challenge that we have faced through the years is that whole boondoggle effect," she said.

Johnson said it's particularly difficult to lure visitors linked to government where perception of a junket can kill attendance. A public pension conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village this month lost the Detroit mayor and some other officials who feared the perception problem.

"Getting over that boondoggle effect is really tough," Johnson said. He noted that SMG has helped to cope with that with some creative solutions.

Keith Vieira, senior vice president and director of operations for Starwood in Hawai'i and French Polynesia, is one of several in the hotel industry to say that he expects more out of the center. He would like to see a change in marketing management soon.

He thinks the visitors bureau should take back the marketing and leave the operation of the center to SMG.

"They don't market convention centers; they're an operator," Vieira said. "I believe the situation needs to be changed."

Vieira said marketing needs to focus on bringing large groups of 5,000-plus business travelers here.

"I think there's been too much focus on filling the convention center with local bookings, car shows, wedding expos," he said.

Randy Tanaka, the center's assistant general manager, encourages planners to start their meetings at 6:30 or 7 a.m., both as a way to recognize the time zone difference and to get a full day of work in and still leave time to enjoy Hawai'i. He notes success with medical conventions.

And Davis points to conventions that started with a solid number of delegates coming, but said the center fills in blank spots in the schedule with corporate events and other kinds of meetings. Local events, such as the wedding expo and car shows, get filled in later or go into slow periods as a longer-term commitment.

He said most local events must accept that they can only be booked six months or less before the event to allow the most opportunity to have the center serve its target audience.

"With the downturn in the Japanese market, this has put a sense of urgency on this," Vieira said. "I think it will improve but it's not going to go back to 2.3 million arrivals anytime in the next couple of years."

On the Web: www.hawaiiconvention.com

Hawai'i Convention Center