Essex — A marketing strategist urged Connecticut tourism advocates to go for broke Wednesday.

“I would argue that we’re on the map (of Northeast tourism), but we’re closed for business,” John Bourget, president of Avon-based Witan Intelligence, told some 40 members of the Connecticut Tourism Coalition, which met at Essex Steam Train & Riverboat. “Gov. Malloy’s budget isn’t nearly enough. Instead of preserving the budget, you should be talking about $25 million.”

And that was an hour or two before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unwrapped his proposed spending plan for the next two fiscal years.

When he did, in Hartford, it called for $8.3 million for statewide tourism marketing in each of the 2018 and 2019 fiscal years, a 2.9 percent increase over the $6.4 million made available in the current fiscal year. It includes no funding for the state’s three regional tourism districts, which were defunded June 30. It also combines tourism grant funding for a number of attractions, including Mystic Aquarium, into a single account containing $1.5 million for fiscal 2018 and $1.3 million for fiscal 2019.

“I can’t say I’m surprised at the $8.3 million. I would have been surprised if it was more,” said Ed Dombroskas, executive director of the Eastern Regional Tourism District.

For Dombroskas and others, the governor’s announcement marked the start of a familiar process. In each of the last half-dozen years, the governor has recommended defunding the regional districts, and each time the legislature, under pressure from tourism interests, has provided funding to keep the districts running — until last June.

Dombroskas, who warned that the 2017 tourism season is in peril, said he will again lobby lawmakers in the weeks ahead, as will the coalition, which has grown to more than 80 members in little more than a year.

But seeking $25 million for tourism marketing is unrealistic, Dombroskas said.

“That’s an awfully steep hill to climb in this climate,” he said. “There’s a lot of competing demands on this budget. It’s really not realistic to look at it so aggressively at this point. But in the long term, it’s a great goal.”

Bourget said coalition members need to deliver the message to every legislator that $25 million invested in tourism promotion would generate $57 million in tourism-related revenue that the state could spend on whatever it wanted.

“Given tourism’s ability to plug the state’s budget hole, to not do this is almost negligent,” he said.

Stonington First Selectman Rob Simmons, a coalition board member, said it would be important for members to lobby individual lawmakers directly and pin them down on where they stand.

“We have to tell them, ‘If you can’t support us, we can’t support you,’” he said.

At another point, Simmons, noting the $500 million raised by the hotel occupancy tax since 2012, said the state’s failure to dedicate a portion of that revenue for tourism promotion was "self-defeating and unethical."

Tim Sullivan, deputy commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, which oversees tourism, told coalition members that efforts to promote the state as a tourism destination are at risk of losing momentum gained in recent years.

“If we don’t have money to invest in out-of-state marketing, everything else is more difficult,” he said.

Gains made in tourism traffic from 2014 to 2015 leveled off from 2015 to 2016, Sullivan said, coinciding with a reduction in marketing.

“Due to budget cuts, we were off the air,” he said, referring to television advertising.

Meanwhile, neighboring states — Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island — have been bolstering their tourism marketing budgets — and increasing their share of the market.

“We’re a plane that’s crashing,” Bourget said.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com