The state Department of Tourism has unveiled plans to create a new Ecotourism Division to draw tourists to New Mexico's natural and cultural attractions, even as the state faces a budget shortfall.

Deputy Tourism Secretary Jennifer Hoffman, who will head the new division, defined ecotourism as travel that preserves the environment and improves the conditions of the people who live there.

The state Legislature, which convenes Tuesday, will be asked to appropriate $500,000 for the division in the next fiscal year. Hoffman conceded that might be a hard sell when the state has a hiring freeze and faces a $450 million shortfall this year.

"We totally understand the need to cut budgets and being conservative with spending the state's money," she said. "But we also think that we can get support on something that's a creative initiative that's going to bring jobs and bring tourists."

Senate Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said before the news conference that he hadn't heard of the proposal.

"I don't understand why we're creating anything new this year," he said. "We can't pay for everything we already have. If they are going to take it out of the money they already have, that's fine, but I hope it's not something that's just created to make some news. We need to tighten our belts and make sure the people are served with the money we have."

Tourism Secretary Mike Cerletti, whose department's annual budget is $18 million, said after the conference that Hoffman and Laurie Frantz of the Scenic Byways & Cultural & Heritage Tourism Division already are working on ecotourism.

"We will continue with what we're doing and continue to investigate what more can we do," he said. "We're obviously looking for the funding, and we hope we're going to get it, but if we don't, we're still going to continue to try to do something along these lines, and we think it's credible."

More than 50 people attended Thursday's news conference at the Inn and Spa of Loretto, where young American Indians danced, wine and hors d'oeuvres were served and slides of Chaco Canyon and other natural wonders were displayed. Hoffman explained later that photographs of a luxurious encampment in a New Mexico-like desert actually were taken in Namibia.

In an interview, Hoffman said she doesn't know how many employees the new Ecotourism Division would have. The entire Tourism Department employs about 90 people.

"We plan on using some of that ($500,000) to contract with ecotourism experts," she said. "They will be going out and basically taking inventory of what entities in New Mexico already exist that qualifies as ecotourism or could potentially qualify as ecotourism."

Hoffman said the aim is to build on some tourism the state already has — such as the state Cultural Affairs Department's Fiber Arts Trail that promotes visits to weaving cooperatives in Chama and Mora.

"It's about bringing the type of travelers who are actually interested in having an authentic, hands-on experience," she said. "They don't want to be in a bus driving through the landscape; they want to be there in the landscape viewing the wildlife, fly fishing on the river, visiting with a potter who's been doing it for generations, showing the area where they fire their pots. Ecotourists stay longer and spend more money."

In response to questions about the effect of ecotourism on Native Americans, Cerletti said New Mexico first opened an Indian tourism office in the early 1990s.

"We're working closely with the Native American communities as well as the other communities around the state to ensure that what we're doing is correct and that we are not invading in an area or doing something that we should not do," he said.

Hoffman was appointed to her exempt position with the state in July, following two years as the Santa Fe office director for Ballantines PR, a Los Angeles-based public-relations firm that put on Thursday's news conference.

Ballantines began working for the state Department of Tourism in 2006 on a $140,000 annual contract. Other local clients include the Santa Fe 400th Anniversary Committee, the Santa Fe Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Cultural Affairs Department for the opening of the new state History Museum. Recent local clients have included the state Film Office, Sunrise Springs Resort Spa and Gov. Bill Richardson's unsuccessful campaign for president last year.

According to the Huffington Post, four employees of Ballantines PR contributed $9,450 in 2007 to Richardson's presidential campaign — $4,600 from Maya Benyehuda of Tarzana, Calif.; $2,300 each from Cara Morrissey of Beverly Hills, Calif., and Jennifer Marshall (a former Museum of New Mexico employee, now with her own private public-relations firm) of Santa Fe and $250 from Hoffman.

New Mexican reporter Kate Nash contributed to this report.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.