On the weekends, double-decker buses have become a common sight in Harlem – tourists who choose to hop on and off at the neighborhood’s historic landmarks look down at the long lines of people waiting outside the Apollo Theater on 125^th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Frederick Douglass Boulevards.

New York welcomed a record-breaking 48.7 million visitors in 2010 and tourism has been booming in the five boroughs, according to reports by NYC & Company, the city’s marketing and tourism organization.

“The business is coming back on track, the fear is gone,” says Neal Shoemaker, Harlem’s tourism veteran and founder of Harlem Heritage Tours, as he recalls the industry’s evolution since 1998. That was the year he first got paid for giving a tour of the Malcolm Shabazz Mosque to Turkish visitors.

“When I started the business 10 years ago, there was a lot of talk in the air about the future Harlem, about businesses developing, condos coming,” he says.

Today, Harlem is experiencing what some call a “second Renaissance” with chain stores, like Starbucks, and luxury condominiums rising side by side with small soul food restaurants and iconic gospel churches that give the neighborhood its distinctive flavor. “People now feel safe coming up here,” says Kathy Benson, project director at Museo Del Barrio on 103^rd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Samantha Jacomin, a 24-year-old visitor from Paris on her first visit to Harlem, says: “I heard a lot of terrible things about Harlem, and I wanted to see it myself. But I personally don’t see it at all. All I see is a vibrant community, great music and great food!”

The Apollo Theater – famous around the world for launching the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, Stevie Wonder and for epitomizing black talent – is Harlem’s major attraction.

“We attract over 1.4 million visitors a year in between shows and tours,” says Nina Flowers, the theater’s marketing and communications director. Amateur Night, which has been taking place every Wednesday since 1934 is a favorite of tourists, who come from as far away as Japan.

Some tourists’ desire to satisfy their curiosity in regard to the neighborhood’s alleged “ghetto culture” – or the visitors’ fascination with poor people – angers locals.

“I cannot stand these tourists that come to our neighborhood, walk around the projects hoping to find men dealing crack or whatever,” says Diana Moore, 47. “We have a difficult past, and a difficult present and I don’t want people exploiting it for entertainment.”

While gospel tours grow in popularity among European and Japanese tourists, regular churchgoers complain about the visitors’ disrespectful behavior.

“These guys who come on the bus make so much noise during the service,” says Rob Evans, who has been going to the Abyssinian Baptist Church on 138^th Street for over 15 years. “They talk to each other during the service and sometimes speak on their cellphones, it’s unacceptable!”

Yvette Jones, who lives near the Abyssinian Church, is used to people gazing down on her street from the buses, and wishes they would come down and mix with the people.

“I don’t get what these people can see from up there,” she says angrily. “If they want to come to our community and experience it they better come off and talk, socialize with people, we don’t bite.”

While some residents are bothered by dozens of buses riding up and down their street every weekend, store owners nearby enjoy the dollars the Apollo brings to their businesses.

Every day Leah Mitchan sells about 30 T-shirts of black heroes, like President Obama or the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,  for $15 a piece. “Sixty percent of my business comes from tourists,” she says, adding that she picked a strategic location for her stall – next to the Apollo Theater and opposite Franco the Great, also known as Harlem’s Picasso, who is known for painting on metal security gates on storefronts on 125^th Street.

Every Sunday, Franco greets hundreds of visitors, who come to get a glimpse of what is unofficially known as “Franco’s Boulevard.”

“I began to bring the tourists when I started to paint the gates of the store owners on 125^th Street,” he says. “It brings a lot of money to the community.” He admits that constantly marketing himself and using African-American culture to build his brand is what made him so successful. They are fascinated by Harlem because it was forbidden,” he says of the tourists. “And I capitalize on that.”

Sylvia’s has been the No. 1 destination for authentic soul food in Harlem. But since Sylvia Woods opened her restaurant in 1962, the clientele has changed and so has the number of customers.

“In the mid-90s there were more African-Americans here, but now the real estate is more developed and Harlem attracts more and more people,” says Shauna Woods, the granddaughter of Sylvia’s founder and the third generation to run the family business.

“We get over 2,000 people a day,” she says. “A lot of tourists during the weekend but people from our community come too, it bounces out our profit.”

Amy Ruth’s, another famous soul food eatery, is a hotspot for Japanese tourists and visitors from the Northeast corridor.  “This place is famous for fried chicken and waffles,” says Dwayne Ribel, from Hoboken, N.J. “And I don’t mind driving from New Jersey to have some.”

As more and more people venture into Harlem, the number of tourism companies in the neighborhood increases. “People want to see what is hot and Harlem is hot,” says Kebe.

The Harlem Chamber of Commerce monitors these businesses, and the website www.harlemtourismnow.com serves as an online directory of all the tourist attractions in the neighborhood.

“There are a lot of companies, five or six companies and they are all behind me today,” says Shoemaker. His company offers an array of different tours – gospel, food, civil rights, walking and shopping are all available to visitors for an average price of $35.

“Whoever has the most experience, whoever can be the most imaginative pretty much wins the game,” he says of the fierce competition between the owners.

Jacqueline Orange started her company, Taste Harlem: Food and Cultural Tours, in 2008, and has added another activity to Harlem’s list of tourist attractions.

“We started an art tour called Art Crawl Harlem,” she says. “We showcase art galleries and we let gallery owners bring the artists.”  Three times a year, for $55, visitors travel by an old-fashioned trolley and get the chance to discover Harlem’s Art Scene.

“It has been extremely successful,” Orange says. “We promoted it, we used our own money and now the community knows us and we have a following of customers.”

But lately, tourists have had to choose where and what to spend their money on. Street vendors who sell incense, body oils and shea butter along bustling 125^th Street say tourists no longer stop at their stalls.

“Since the recession, I don’t sell half as much as I used to five years ago,” laments Mustafa, who declines to give his last name because he works illegally in the country. When Mustafa moved to Harlem five years ago from his native Mali, he was making a good living selling his products to tourists.

“I was making $200 a day, they bought souvenirs and brought stuff back for their families,” he says. “They wanted to have a memory of Harlem, but now they will spend the money on food, or tickets to the Apollo.”

The community has grown to understand, and accept the role that tourism plays in the local economy and residents slowly start to appreciate it.

“It warms my heart to see people coming into Harlem and enjoying our culture,” says Ross Leighton, who was born and raised in Harlem. “It helps our economy and makes us feel proud.”

Harlemites want to show their cultural history while growing their tourism industry and getting their share of the city’s estimated $16.6 billion in tourism-related wages. “No gentrification, no killing Harlem,” says Shoemaker. “We want to use this industry called tourism to preserve our culture, traditions and local economy”.