POULSBO — There’s no doubt about it: the summer months are the busiest when it comes to Poulsbo tourism.

Between Viking Fest, the 3rd of July and many other outdoor activities available, people from all over the nation — especially along the west coast — come out to Poulsbo to enjoy what the community has to offer.

“It’s a very important industry in Poulsbo,” Chamber of Commerce director Marc Abshire said.

Abshire said tourism is “one of three really important industries” in the city, the other two being manufacturing and education.

“Tourism has kind of been a really important part of Poulsbo’s past,” Abshire said, “and I think an important part of the future, as well.”

Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson said that tourism has “a pretty substantial impact (on the city), but not as much as some might believe.”

“The dent, the tourism piece, is really located mostly in our downtown core,” Erickson said. “The downtown core only drives about 7 percent of the sales tax in the city.”

She said some tourists visit the city and end up choosing to move here.

New residents, along with tourists in general, can benefit every business in the city, according to Abshire, even those that don’t directly profit from tourists.

“If you’re a business that doesn’t really rely on the tourism industry … there’s still indirect (profit),” Abshire said. “The people that do have customers that come into town may be your customer.

“A rising tide raises all boats. It’s worth the few inconveniences that may or may not occur.”

Those inconveniences, according to Abshire and Erickson, are relatively minor.

“I think there are some places that aren’t well suited to big influxes of people,” Abshire said, “but we handled the 30,000 that came in for the 3rd of July pretty well, and the 20,000 for Viking Fest.”

During heavy tourism months, especially around holidays and major community events, parking can become scarce.

Erickson said another challenge is “the public works impact, which is making sure that the streets are clean and the garbage is picked up.”

“The repair and the feeling of our community is expensive,” she said, “and when you add a whole bunch of people, it pushes that and makes it more difficult.”

However, Erickson said the money brought in from tourism far outweighs the money it costs to maintain the city.

Abshire said, “We’re working really hard to attract more people to come to Poulsbo.”

He said the Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce is part of the Poulsbo Marketing Coalition, which comprises the port, the chamber, the historical society, Viking Fest Corporation, farmers market, etc.

“The Poulsbo Marketing Coalition has been working the last couple years on a website that is really about to take off,” Abshire said. That website is the “splash page” of the free downtown Wi-Fi, meaning that as soon as someone logs onto the Wi-Fi, that site pops up.

Terri Douglas, manager of the Poulsbo Inn & Suites, said the Visit Kitsap website directs a lot of Internet traffic to their website, and is actually among the top five sites that generate web hits for Poulsbo Inn.

Douglas said occupancy is up “probably 10 percent” from last year, and “up considerably” in the off season.

“We have a budget set every year, and we have exceeded our budget so far every month this year, from January to now,” Douglas said.

She added that Poulsbo Inn is about 87 percent full as of this writing, and is completely full every weekend for the rest of the summer, Friday through Sunday.

Micah Kim, manager of the Guesthouse Inn & Suites Hotel, said summer is “always pretty hectic,” especially on weekends.

“Summertime is just starting,” Kim said, “so we’ll know more after August.”

Along with the websites (visitkitsap.com and find.poulsbo.com), Abshire said the marketing coalition has a visitor’s center in the Chamber of Commerce building (19735 10th Ave. NE, No. 100, Poulsbo) and will be opening another one on Front Street on Aug. 8.

All of those resources are a great way to learn about Poulsbo, something Erickson said helps bring in more tourists.

“It’s very important to get the word out about who we are as a community,” Erickson said. “We just want to make sure that when people do come here, we’re always friendly and courteous and very welcoming.

“I think the citizens of Poulsbo do a very good job at that.”