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Colonial reenactors march at Strawbery Banke during an encampment in 2003. Deb Cram file photo

Portsmouth is an attractive tourist destination because people can get away for the day to the beach, the mountains, or Boston, and still stay in town.

"We promote Portsmouth as well as the Seacoast," said Marge Hubbard, vice president and tourism manager for the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. "It's the hub and spoke," she said, comparing the town to a wheel. "They can stay here, take advantage of evening activities. They don't have to spend 24 hours a day here. They can go to Rye, or to Hampton, or go to other areas, day trips to lakes and mountains. We're a lot cheaper than Boston."

Hotel occupancy rates are up. In August, the busiest month, hotels had an 89 percent occupancy rate, according to the Chamber's figures. This compares to 88 percent the previous year and 85 percent in 2004.

New downtown hotels have recently sprung up or are in the planning stages.

"In spite of the fact number of hotel rooms has gone up," said Hubbard, "occupancy has not gone down."

The chamber had no breakdown on who is visiting and staying in the city. Hotels cater to both the tourist and the business conference sector.

What attracts people to the area? Its history, beauty, theater, and restaurants, she said.

"I think a lot of people come here because they hear it's a fun place to be," said Hubbard.

A brief history of Portsmouth's rise as a tourist destination:

In the 1960s, Portsmouth was still a working man's port town, in which sailors were a common sight and the prostitutes still outnumbered the lawyers, as any native over the age of 50 will gleefully relate.

Enter Theatre by the Sea on Ceres Street. Tourists had a reason to stay in town after hours, and realized, as they emerged from a show, that they were hungry.

Restaurants such as the Blue Strawbery, which opened on Ceres Street in the early 1970s, began filling the void.

It has since become a bottomless pit of opportunity.

The restaurants which have moved into town need the tourist business to survive.

"The wonderful restaurants, they would never be able to exist without people coming to visit," said Hubbard. "Having people visit adds to our quality of life: the theaters, stores, unique boutiques, galleries. What makes us distinctive, we could never survive with what we residents provide them for business. But we must be careful to balance what we do with tourism to retaining what we have here."

Among the larger tourist destinations is Strawbery Banke Museum, which gets more than 55,000 annual visitors. The numbers have grown since Sept. 11, 2001, said Jonathan Brown, manager of visitor services and volunteers.

"We get everybody," Brown said. "We definitely have a really good member base. Seacoast residents are bringing their friends from out of town."

Those coming on their own are generally from New England, said Brown, but also from New York, California and Florida. Outside of the country, the largest tourist groups are Canadian, French, German, British and Japanese.

"The main business is tourists, we are marketing to them," said Brown. "We do a lot of joint marketing through the chamber, through other tourism publications. We do package marketing with local businesses (such as) the Wentworth and Sheraton (hotels) and local bed and breakfasts."

The museum offers tours of its historic homes daily from May 1 through Oct. 31, and on weekends Nov. 1 through April 30. Its biggest event is the annual holiday Candlelight Stroll, which this past season was open for three, rather than two weekends. It was so successful, said Brown, Strawbery Banke plans for the extended stroll this December.

Last year the museum added a visitor's center. This July, there will be a new collections center and gallery space on Washington Street.

The Family Discover Center is also a planned addition within one of the houses, a place where kids can play and touch things.

The museum counts on business sponsorships and support.

All of the tourism industries need to work together, working towards the same goal," said Brown. "We have (support from) a lot of businesses which help out with various goods and services, and sponsor certain events. It's a nice exchange for a visitor to look up and see Citizens Bank sponsoring Children's Day here. Having that corporate support is huge to us."