STORY SUMMARY>>>

New figures from the Department of Business and Economic Development show Hawaii’s tourism market continues to soften.

Spending by visitors who arrived by air was down 14.9 percent last month compared to July of last year, resulting in a loss of $177.3 million.

Total expenditures by air visitors have dropped a total of 5 percent to $7 billion in the first seven months of 2008 according to preliminary statistics.

After meeting with hotel owners and operators at her executive office Gov. Linda Lingle told reporters the Hawaii Tourism Authority should spend more of its $80 million budget on marketing.

“HTA has a very large budget but they do tend to use some of the money for other things besides marketing," she said in a post meeting press conference.

For fiscal year 2009 the HTA has budgeted $54.2 million towards marketing in Asia, Japan, North America, Oceania and Europe.

The governor reached and hoteliers reached a consensus that at least $10 million more should be spent on selling Hawaii as a tourist destination. Lingle said the money should come from HTA’s existing budget.

“Times have changed dramatically over the past six months,” said Lingle. “We need to make a dramatic shift in the allocation of how HTA funds are used at least at this point in time.”

David Carey, President and CEO of Outrigger Enterprises Group said tourism advertising usually pays huge dividends.

"In tough times marketing has historically proven to be one of the best investments that the state can make because it's a revenue generator,” said Carey. “We have the best twelve month weather in the world (and) sometimes we don't say that.”

Hoteliers warned Lingle that if revenues don’t increase in the coming months cuts in the workforce may be inevitable.

"You could see some additional layoffs,” said the governor, “not only in the hotels but in the retail and the restaurants.”

Andrew may be reached at apereira@khon2.com or ph. 591-4263.