NATCHEZ — The marketing advisory committee has completed its task of budgeting the $2 occupancy tax funds.

In its fifth draft, the budget varies from the original copy the Natchez Convention and Visitors Bureau board gave the committee as a guideline several weeks ago.

The main difference is the CVB board budgeted based on $600,000.

The marketing committee only budgeted with $480,000.

The number dropped greatly because the CVB board was counting rooms that Natchez doesn’t even have and are yet to be built — Grand Soleil and Best Western.

In the absence of those rooms, a more accurate budget can be written.

President of the CVB board Royal Hill said the proposed budget looks good.

“It looks pretty solid,” he said. “The committee did a bang up job in putting together the facts and figures and it seems tourism is headed in one unified direction as far as marketing goes.”

In the budget, almost an equal amount money is spent on leisure tourism as there is on bringing in conventions.

The previous CVB budget had much more going toward leisure tourism — tourists who are not a part of an organized convention.

The new budget allocates $206,400 toward leisure and $193,600 toward conventions.

Janice Guido, committee member and liaison to the CVB board, said this is because conventions have much more room to grow than leisure tourism.

“The convention business in this city is probably, in my opinion, might be at maybe 50 percent of (its) potential,” she said.

So the committee focused on doing what it can to jumpstart the area with the most potential, she said.

“It’s almost like doing a huge re-launch of the convention center in a very professional, strategic manner,” she said.

Leisure tourism certainly isn’t lacking dollars, though.

A substantial amount of money allocated in the leisure segment of the budget goes toward revamping the CVB’s Web site.

The committee allocated $22,400 to the Web site.

Guido said it’s important to have a well-functioning Web site and that, in and of itself, can attract leisure tourists.

“The Web site is so key to the leisure market in particular,” she said. “Most of the leisure travelers today are going online.”

The new budget is dependent on a new room count that was provided by Director of Tourism Connie Taunton.

She contacted each hotel and bed and breakfast in the area to get the most accurate tally possible.

She came up with 900 hotel rooms, 89 luxury bed and breakfast rooms and 102 bed and breakfast rooms, a total of 1,019.

They are anticipating the addition of 188 more rooms with the addition of the two new hotels, but until then, will not count them.

Taunton said she feels better having a more realistic number to work with.

“I’m feeling more comfortable now that we have these true numbers of rooms that are now collecting,” she said.

The budget will now be checked off by the CVB board and will be presented by Hill and Guido to the board of aldermen Tuesday.