A first draft of a $71 million budget for 2010 for the state's leading tourism agency would cut the amount going to marketing by around 5 percent in the upcoming year as the Hawai'i Tourism Authority grapples with declining tax revenues tied to the slump in tourism.

State tourism liaison Marsha Wienert yesterday objected to the proposed cut in marketing, saying the top priority should be increasing the number of visitors to Hawai'i and the amount they spend here.

"This particular part of our budget I have grave concerns about," she said. "We are in a tourism crisis."

But David Uchiyama, HTA's marketing vice president, said the working budget does address those concerns with a balanced approach of essentially level funding.

The tentative budget would allocate 69 percent of funds to marketing.

The state agency is working with falling revenues from the transient accommodations tax, more commonly referred to as the hotel-room tax. For last fiscal year, the agency had $78 million budgeted from that fund.

The budget needs to go before the full board before it can be approved.

So far, the HTA is estimating it will have a budget of $71 million, but is also awaiting this week's meeting of the state Council on Revenues, which is likely to adjust its state revenue projection in the lagging economy.

Uchiyama said the agency is looking at marketing that is more innovative and "out of the box" than some of the traditional marketing moves of the past.

"We're looking for marketing initiatives that break through the clutter and can differentiate us from our competitors," he said.

Wienert disagreed with the plan to spend about $4.5 million less in leisure — vacation rather than business travel — marketing in the upcoming year.

"If our overall goal is to increase visitor arrivals, it's going to necessitate additional marketing initiatives," she said.

Budget Committee chairman Vernon Char said he felt keeping a $3 million reserve will help address Wienert's concern.

He said the priorities will be reviewed in the marketing committee and by other board members. He said he felt that in the previous budget year, the HTA ended up with 90 percent of the budget pre-committed to marketing "with little flexibility when the economic crisis hit."

Char said he thinks the agency can weigh competing priorities.

"Everything that you give to something has to be taken away from something else," he added.