Central Florida hoteliers are hoping that Orange County's new multimillion-dollar promotional campaign will reinvigorate the lumbering tourist industry and reverse a long-running decline in hotel occupancy rates.

On Tuesday, the Orange County Comptroller's Office reported that resort-tax collections -- the tax collected primarily from hotel and motel room rentals -- rose a comparative 1 percent in November from the same month in 2005.

"We are obviously in a flat pattern as far as the hospitality industry in Central Florida goes," said Rich Maladecki, president of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association. "We in the industry feel we need to help jump-start the market through our new marketing campaign."

The Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau is coordinating the campaign, which will begin late this month and last two years. Funds from a 1-cent increase in the resort tax imposed in September will fund the effort.

In September, the resort tax rose from 5 percent to 6 percent. That additional penny brought in $2.1 million in revenue in November. In order to compare performance in November with the previous year, the comptroller's office excluded the additional tax.

On the first 5 percent, the county raised $10.5 million in November, 1 percent more than in November 2005.

Smith Travel Research, which surveys metropolitan Orlando hotels outside Walt Disney World, reported that hotel occupancy was down 8.1 percent in November compared with November 2005, while room rates rose an average of 7.7 percent.

Maladecki said the industry is eager for occupancy rates to rise. He said the major obstacle is promotion -- other destinations have bolstered marketing campaigns, he said, while Central Florida has relied on theme parks and other businesses to do most of the advertising.

"We just didn't have the resources to do our own promotion in the past, but now we do," Maladecki said.

Kelly Repass, senior research director with the visitors bureau, said her organization hopes the promotional drive will contribute to increased travel to the area. But she said the travel industry has cycles, and the pattern of lower occupancy is probably indicative of a cycle.

"The pattern in 2006 was perhaps a more normal pattern that followed big growth in 2004 and 2005," she said.

Greg Hauenstein, general manager of the Buena Vista Palace Hotel and Spa and 2007 chairman of the Central Florida Hotel & Lodging Association, said the industry hopes to break free of the recent pattern as promotional spending rises.

"There is a lot of demand waiting to return to the Orlando market," he said. "The timing is now perfect for these new marketing initiatives."