When proponents of a downtown convention center unveiled their plans in 1999, they projected 200,000 visitors would come to the city and county annually for events at the facility.

What they didn't project was the center opening in the longest, toughest economic downturn in nearly a century.

Center managers have responded creatively by opening the two-plus-year-old center to volleyball and cheerleading tournaments, mixed-martial arts bouts and other events far beyond the corporate and trade association meetings originally envisioned.

Despite those efforts, center officials find they are dealing with higher-than-expected energy costs for the facility and an industry revenue shortfall largely beyond their control.

And now tourism officials are expecting to dig into reserves and aggressively market the county to try to prevent a downward spiral of cutting advertising funds and getting even less revenue.

"We're trying to sell our way out of this," Christopher Barrett, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Dutch Convention & Visitors Bureau, said of the situation in which the bureau finds itself.

That situation is the loss of about $750,000 for tourism promotion next year. That money was supposed to come from the county's hotel room tax. The visitors bureau gets 20 percent of that 3.9 percent tax on room rentals. Lancaster County Convention Center Authority receives the other 80 percent.

Yet, authority Executive Director Kevin Molloy told his board members Thursday night that it is "very likely" that by late March authority finances will fall below a $5.25 million reserve threshold required by its lenders.

When that occurs, an automatic trigger in the tax ordinance allows all the tax revenue to go toward authority debt.

Barrett said the visitors bureau saw it coming. As a result, the tourism industry group funneled $2.7 million into reserves that it plans to draw from next year.

That funding will continue to pay for promotion of the county as a leisure destination to television viewers in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and the south-central Pennsylvania markets.

It also will send representatives to conventions of meeting planners to market the county as a site for conventions, conferences and other gatherings.

"If we don't sell and market more, we're only going to get into a deeper situation," Barrett said.

Molloy agreed.

"The last thing you want to do in a down economy is get rid of your salesmen," he said.

Also, in expectation of the loss of tax revenue, Barrett said the bureau drafted a 2012 budget that includes funding from the tax for only the first three months of the year.

Full-year 2011 numbers for the tax revenue are not yet available. Last year, the bureau received more than $910,000 from the room tax. Through October, it had received $797,115.

The bureau also receives all the revenue of a separate 1.1 percent tax on hotel rooms. That tax paid the bureau $1.38 million in 2010 and nearly $1.2 million through October of this year.

The two taxes represent about half of the bureau's $4.8 million annual budget.

Barrett said visitors bureau board members on Thursday discussed finding long-term solutions to the revenue shortfall.

Their solution would not include an increase in the room tax. The bureau board has taken a position against any increase in the tax to cover "debt or operational shortfall," he said.

An increase would have to be approved by the Lancaster County commissioners. Representatives of the authority, bureau and other interested parties are meeting with the commissioners individually to discuss the situation.

Individual meetings, in which a quorum of the three-member board is not present, do not violate the state's open meeting law.

The first of those meetings, with Commissioner Scott Martin, already was held. Commissioners Dennis Stuckey and Craig Lehman said meetings had been requested with them in coming days.

Stuckey said the commissioners have not had substantial discussions about raising the room tax. He said he is keeping an open mind.

"I'm going to have to wait and see what they are going to ask me first," Stuckey said Friday.

Lehman concurred.

"I do want to hear the information that they want to present, but I do want to say that it is doubtful that I would support a rate increase," Lehman said.

"Coming to county government should not be the preferred choice," he said of finding money. He encouraged the authority "to take a look at the full array of expenditures."

In fact, the authority has been doing just that for several months.

"We're trying to look under every rock for savings," Molloy said.

When the 45,000-square-foot exhibition hall is not in use, it is dark to save electricity. Heating and cooling and staffing levels are minimized to control costs.

To increase operating revenue, the sales staff of Interstate Hotels & Resorts, the contracted facility manager, have been busy chasing leads. Multiple events are booked for the coming years, and the center is ahead of initial projections, they said.

Molloy said that, on average, the center sees 80 events and 15,000 people per month. Events range from small meetings to large dinners to consumer shows and sporting events.

"The convention center is doing what it is supposed to do," he said.

Barrett said the center and the county have been successful — comparatively. He pointed to other regional destinations.

While the occupancy rate for Lancaster County hotel rooms was only 66.2 percent last month, Barrett cited a report showing that figure is higher than the rates for Branson, Mo., Williamsburg, Va., and Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Industry tracking reports from Smith Travel Research show consistent increases in hotel occupancy and revenue throughout this year over last year.

Barrett takes hope from data in the Smith report showing the average daily rate paid for hotel rooms has increased in recent months. That number, held down in recent years by the tight economy, climbed from $86.91 to $92.30 in November.

And visitors bureau and authority projections both show an increase in tax revenue for the year.

Yet the amount is far below projections. Late last year, industry experts told authority officials to expect an increase of 6.1 percent in tax revenue in 2011. Ten months into the year, the increase is tracking at .51 percent, Molloy said.

Barrett said the bureau has recovered from the loss of nearly $1 million in state tourism promotion funds in recent years by developing a cooperative marketing program with its member businesses.

"We need to evolve with the market," he said.

And, if center finances improve, that 20 percent will come back to the bureau, he said.

The combined $177.6 million public meeting center and private Lancaster Marriott on Penn Square hotel opened in June 2009.

bharris@lnpnews.com