Portsmouth NH expects summer time tourism ‘floodgates to open’

PORTSMOUTH – Mark Stebbins, the director of XSS Hotels, believes Portsmouth could experience a “tsunami” of activity this summer.

As more people get their COVID-19 vaccinations, Stebbins and others in the arts and hospitality industry believe Portsmouth could have a great summer comeback.

“The big thing is, a lot of people still won’t feel comfortable flying, so they get in their cars and go somewhere,” Stebbins said in a recent interview on the roof of the fifth floor of the Envio restaurant and bar in downtown Portsmouth. “I think this is how this tsunami will develop for Portsmouth.”

The rooftop bar and restaurant are located in the AC Hotelwho jointly owns XSS Hotels with Cathartes.

Business there has already been strong this year, and Stebbins expects it will get busier as the temperatures warm up and summer approaches.

“We’re already seeing weekends here that aren’t usually full. Well, they’re full now,” he said. “We have already registered 30 weddings. Everyone expects to get out again, which is great. We just have to get shots in the arms. “

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Art community hopeful too

Tina Sawtelle, managing director of The Music Hall in Portsmouthsaid, “We are very hopeful about this summer.”

“We look forward to building on things we tried last summer like our outdoor programming, our Live Under the Arch (outdoor) series,” she said. “We’re excited to bring together a wider range of local and regional artists and find a way to reach as many people as possible.”

The Music Hall will continue to host socially distant indoor concerts in its historic theater, Sawtelle said.

“We view September as a time when we hope we can return to a larger audience. At the moment we have a maximum of 250 seats. We would like to be fully occupied again in autumn (895 seats) or close by, ”she said. “Anything north of what we’ve done is a good thing.”

The Music Hall has followed the state’s COVID social distancing protocols, which require people to be one meter apart in the theater.

But they have started talks with state health officials to bring that number down to 3 feet in either late spring or early summer.

“It all depends on the number of people vaccinated,” she said.

Like Stebbins, Sawtelle believes that after more than a year of the pandemic, people are desperate to return to Portsmouth’s art venues and feel a sense of normalcy.

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“This summer it will likely be an amazing feeling for everyone to feel like they are reconnecting with the community, especially people from our high-risk population,” she said. “I think it will be incredibly exciting.”

She remembered the feeling of excitement in the air when The Music Hall held their first socially distant theater show in September.

“After months of closing all the shutters and isolating them, they felt this joy, this sense of connection,” Sawtelle said. “You could feel the energy echoing through the theater. I can’t imagine what a full house will feel like. “

Sawtelle stated that “It is vital for The Music Hall” to be able to book national acts again to fill the historic theater.

“We must return to our full facility as soon as we can all safely do this in order to keep the talented professionals who work for us,” she said. “We also usually do a lot of community education and outreach, but that has largely faded into the background due to COVID.”

“Hopefully we can get back to full capacity in the next six to eight months,” she added.

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Portsmouth Mayor Rick Becksted believes this could be a great summer for Portsmouth’s art and restaurants, possibly “bigger than ever”.

Becksted agrees that more and more people who receive the COVID vaccinations will be excited to come back out and experience Portsmouth again.

“I think it’s going to be huge,” he said of the coming summer during an interview at the AC Hotel. “When people are cooped up and have to stay inside, they are ready to come out.”

He pointed out that many people either still don’t want to or can’t travel overseas, and predicted cities like Portsmouth will benefit from it.

“I think it’s going to be a banner year.”

Jay McSharry, the owner of Jumpin ‘Jay’s Fish Café in downtown Portsmouth, is “pretty optimistic” about how this summer will go.

He paid tribute to the city council for creating the outdoor dining initiative and the work the public works department staff have done to make it happen.

“I think we will have a great summer. Eating outdoors will certainly help fill the void, ”he said during an interview earlier this week. “There’s a place for everyone when people aren’t comfortable walking in.”

McSharry believes residents and visitors alike will be returning to downtown Portsmouth this summer.

“If you’ve been cooped up and vaccinated for a year, you want to sure come out and enjoy a meal, especially if travel remains a little difficult,” he said. “People want to see other people.”

“Crazy” in the city center

Even with COVID, Portsmouth hospitality has always been “weather dependent” to some extent, he said.

“Mother nature will have a huge impact on how summer goes. When we have a lot of cloudy days it gets crazy downtown, ”he said. “When we have picture-perfect beach days, it won’t be so busy.”

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McSharry is involved in several restaurants in addition to Jumpin ‘Jay’s.

It closed some for a few months over the winter because of the pandemic, but they are slated to reopen in the coming weeks.

Jumpin ‘Jay’s will open its doors on Thursday March 25th, followed by Moxy and the Franklin Oyster House on April 5th, he said.

“For me it means everything to be as close as possible to capacity again, together with my business partners, our employees and our employees,” he said.

McSharry can already see things get back to normal.

“Downtown was very busy last weekend and the outdoor dining getting back online will be a great help,” said McSharry. “I’m just trying to keep the promise we made to my staff when we closed that we would be back and their jobs would be back.”

“Floodgates will open”

Jeff Johnston, director at Cathartes, said he was optimistic about the summer in Portsmouth.

“I’m in the development business and we have to be optimistic, otherwise nothing will be built,” he said in a recent interview at the AC Hotel. “So we are optimistic.”

If the number of COVID cases continues to fall and “the vaccination rate continues to rise,” Johnston believes, “we could be in a completely different mood sometime in June.”

“I’m thrilled to be where we are in mid-March compared to the beginning of the year and I think things will continue to improve,” he said. “People die for human interaction. They want to end their Zoom calls. “

“We hope the restaurants return to serve them and that the city has the same vibrancy that it had before COVID,” he added.

Paul Sorli, longtime owner of Portsmouth Gas Light Co. restaurant, noted earlier that “people definitely feel more comfortable when they are outside”.

“We can already see the advance start,” he said.

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He predicted that downtown Portsmouth this summer will be at least as busy as it was in summer 2019, if not busier.

“I think the locks will open,” he said, adding, “we have already opened our outer deck.”

But while local residents and tourists alike are anxious to visit restaurants in Portsmouth, he believes that finding the help they need could be a challenge for many.

“There will be a labor shortage,” he predicted. “Before the pandemic, there was a labor shortage and over the past year many people in the hospitality industry have changed careers.”

Hiring will be made even more difficult as the U.S. has not yet allowed J1 or overseas students to enter the country since the beginning of COVID, he said.

“A lot of restaurants have lost their core staff and now they need to rebuild,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge and a struggle to bring this together this summer.”

The Mayor of Dover is also expecting a busy summer

In Dover, Mayor Robert Carrier believes people will see a big difference in how busy downtown restaurants are in late May or early June.

“I think things are really going to start in June,” Carrier said this week.

“I think people are ready to get out. Lots of people get vaccinated too, and that’s a big plus, ”he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a normal 100 percent summer, maybe 60 to 70 percent of normal.”

He warned that COVID logs will likely still be in place this summer and predicted that “the majority of people will still wear masks, at least when they go to restaurants”.

He believes Dover restaurants will continue to use al fresco dining.

“I think you will see how the outside space is used wherever it is available,” he said.