I was there before the cruise ships. Beautiful area. I did not even know that these ships were coming in. I understand the revenue, but hope the petiition passes. Wonder what PH Paul thinks.

link; https://www.wsj.com/articles/m...feature_below_a_pos1


Voters in Bar Harbor, Maine, a tourism hot spot in the state known as Vacationland, are set to soon decide whether to turn back incoming waves of cruise passengers.

If the ballot question passes on Nov. 8, it would require Bar Harbor to limit the number of disembarking cruise-ship passengers to 1,000 a day. Today, ships with a capacity of roughly 4,000 guests regularly anchor there, sending thousands of people into the small downtown’s streets or vehicles bound for nearby Acadia National Park.

Some days feature multiple ships of varying sizes. Charles Sidman, a 72-year-old investor behind the citizen’s petition, said cruising passengers are clogging the small town of roughly 5,200 people and have become off-putting for locals and visitors alike.

“We are overrun,” Mr. Sidman said. “We think tourism is a good thing, we like to share it. But too much of a good thing turns into a bad thing.”

The cruise volume is typically heaviest in September and October as leaf peepers arrive to see the heavily forested state’s colorful foliage. And numbers have been growing, with the ships back in force—167 are expected to call on Bar Harbor this year, and there are sometimes multiple ships a day—after a temporary pandemic halt.

Bar Harbor has tried some measures to manage cruise-volume concerns. The town’s primary ship anchorage is now tucked behind a small island near the downtown area, obscuring ships there from view. The town also reached an agreement with the cruise industry this year that would cap monthly passenger volume at 65,000 in September and October, a reduction of about 30% from current limits.


Bar Harbor’s primary ship anchorage is tucked behind an island near the downtown area, obscuring ships from view.

In an agreement between Bar Harbor and the cruise industry, passenger volumes would be capped in some months.
An industry group, Cruise Lines International Association, said it and its members are committed to sustainable tourism practices in port communities around the world. “Collaboration with community leaders, residents, port authorities, and others is key to providing solutions that also safeguard the economic health of communities,” the group said.

Some residents say the town didn’t go far enough. “Smaller ships are what we think we need for sustainable tourism,” said Jackie Levesque, 68, who is concerned about the environmental impact of big cruise ships.

The local chamber of commerce generally supports the town and industry agreement, said Alf Anderson, the chamber’s executive director. But he said the ballot measure’s tighter limits are too drastic.

Elsewhere in coastal Maine, voters in the state’s largest city, Portland, are also to decide via a referendum next month whether to cap the number of disembarking passengers at 1,000 a day. In a wrinkle, that item remains on the ballot despite its backers pulling support after reaching an agreement with union groups meant to address emissions concerns by developing shore-based power stations.

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The concept of tighter restrictions remains a live debate in Bar Harbor, which is located on Maine’s Mount Desert Island and is a stopping point for many tourists heading to Acadia. The park is grappling with a rising tide of tourists, too, and logged a record four million visits last year.

Some business owners there say the passengers don’t overwhelm the town and have become vital contributors to the economy. Many passengers also return to Bar Harbor for longer vacations, hitting hotels and other businesses, after getting a brief introduction during a cruise stopover, opponents of the ballot measure said.


Some Bar Harbor residents complain about streets clogged with tourists, while some business owners welcome the foot traffic.
“We live and die by the cruise-ship schedule,” said Robin Wright, who owns a local deli, bakery and pastry shop. Her deli sold 157 lobster rolls on a recent October day after a big ship arrived with thousands of passengers, triple what her sales would look like without the influx, she said. She said she also moves a lot of blueberry pie and whoopie pies when the ships call on Bar Harbor.

For Ron Wrobel, who opened his coffee shop, Acadia Perk, with his husband last year, the returning passengers this year quickly boosted business.

“You can tell when it’s a big cruise-ship day,” he said.

The town courted cruise ships decades ago to help extend the tourism season beyond Labor Day. But concerns about the ships’ impact were growing before the pandemic and continued after cruising resumed, said Kevin Sutherland, Bar Harbor’s appointed town manager. A consulting firm in 2021 found slightly more than half of those surveyed there held negative views on the impact of cruise tourism.

“We are experiencing this feeling of too much,” Mr. Sutherland said. “So what is the right balance? And it isn’t just cruise ships. It’s just the sheer volume of people coming to visit Acadia National Park and where they go when they can’t even get into the park.”

He said counting visitors and enforcing limits would pose logistical challenges for the town. Mr. Sidman, who is pushing for the visiting-passenger limits, believes the changes are manageable with existing town personnel.

If the measure passes, “you won’t have these incredibly congested few hours” when the ships come in, he said. “I actually think it’s good for all.”


Fall months are typically the busiest cruise months in Bar Harbor, as leaf peepers arrive to see the heavily forested state’s colorful foliage.
Write to Jon Kamp at Jon.Kamp@wsj.com

PHPaul avoids Bah Hahbah like the plague for all the reasons listed in the article.

Hell, even Ellsworth (which lies astride the ONLY land route to Bar Harbor) has become a zoo. It used to be that from about November 1st to Memorial Day it was reasonable after all the Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park/Leaf Peepers left, but now it's bumper to bumper pretty much year around.

I pity my grandson who has to deal with that every weekday. He works for the BH water and sanitation department and it can take him well over an hour to drive the roughly 20 miles from work to home. Going in in the morning isn't horrible as it's at oh-dark-thirty.

I expect the merchants will put up pretty strong opposition to the measure though. The Almighty Dollar will likely win out.

I grew up in New England and visited the greater Bar Harbor area multiple times. This summer we even spent some time there on our way back from our 6 week trip to Atlantic Canada.

Having said all that BH has always been crowded with tourists from Mass., NH and surrounding areas. On our second day there we were on a coastal hike and rounded a corner to see one of those giants at anchor just offshore and to be honest with you it just looked out of place and distracted from the natural beauty of the coastline.

I would think many of the locals would feel the same way and support limiting large ship access.

Disclaimer, my wife and I go on cruises.

The first question, is the town goverment and the residents willing to make up the lost tax/fee revenue in the form of higher property taxes?
Those ships bring in a lot of money to the goverment in the form of docking fees and the lose of money to the local business in town.
Also is it legal per the state laws about who controls the docks/piers.
There is something similar going on in Florida with Key West.
I have never been to Bar Harbor however I have been to Key West and when the ships dock in my opinion the town is not over run with tourist.

I spent time there long ago in late September. I liked the fact that the place was not overrun with tourists. I do not like crowds, it simply spoils the beauty. I won't be going back.
I worked with the Park Service in the Smokies and developed a healthy dislike for tourists.Each to his own.

I went to that area as a kid, decades ago during August. We stayed at a rental home just past Kennebunkport on a small beach community, well before the Bush's were well known to most outside of Maine and it was Prescott, not George yet.
We preferred the Maine coast over Cape Cod because it was a more casual and less low class touristy place. large crowds and Chinese trinkets can really spoil a place.
Sad to hear they've turned it into that sort of environment. Even the cruise ship visitors that went there expecting the older version of Maine will be disappointed.

Stop the cruise ships! In a couple years local businesses will wonder where all that business went.

quote:

Originally posted by HayesGreener:
Stop the cruise ships! In a couple years local businesses will wonder where all that business went.

And I’ll go as far to say that half the businesses will close. As well as in five years or less, the municipality will suffer cuts and losses of most services due to the loss of revenue.

But hey, the won’t be “over run”.

People are so stupid.

Gotta love the responses. I love visiting Bar Harbor, its so beautiful, I hate crowds too!

So you get to visit but nobody else does? As a townie, they get to vote on it. However, don't be surprised if your town starts shuttering businesses that can't support themselves. Cruise ships bring lots of $$$ to the downtown. I hope the voters (if it really is up to them) vote wisely knowing the effects of voting either way.

Yeah only me. The Frank in Idaho is my kind of place. Glad I saw Bar Harbor when I did. Working with Park Rangers you get a good idea of the negative side of tourism. Cruise ships are overkill in areas like that.

quote:

But hey, the won’t be “over run”.

People are so stupid.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You probably like Disney and amusement parks too. You hang out at Walmart too??

There are effective ways to balance tourism with economics. Spend some time before you refer to others as stupid because they do not share your point of view.

I was in Bar Harbor last month. A lot had changed since I was a little boy. A lot of t-shirt shops, a few good restaurants, mostly overpriced accommodations.

There are a bunch of cool places to see in Maine, Bar Harbor is not in the top tier anymore.

I first visited Bar Harbor/Acadia in 1988 for my (first) honeymoon.

It was a wonderful place back then. I returned a couple 2-3 years ago and attended a conference there. I don't care if I ever go back. It was sickening to see how tourist-centric it has become. There were also several massive cruise ships anchored off shore.

We deal with tourism around here, and while it is big business and brings in millions to the local economy, I'd argue that our area, and most areas, were much better off without the tourists and the dollars.

quote:

leaf peepers

Fall foliage being a harbinger of horrific weather on the way, it's always been a mystery to me why some people go to see dying leaves.

Maine should be glad there are that many people that want to see it.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Cruise ships are overkill in areas like that.

That's where I come down on it. I like to cruise, and I live in a major ski resort town, so I can relate to both sides of the issue.

City councils can never get enough tax money. Never ever. No matter how high they put taxes, they always have another spectacularly important project that needs to be funded by even more tax. The politicians love spending citizens' money more than anything else in life.

Developers can never build enough either. There is always a new project to bring lots of profit to the developer. Of course, the developers never live in this county and never will. Most city councilors don't live in the tourist zone either.

The citizens are having some minor success in resisting further development. Where we are losing is taxes. Just another large increase was announced last month. We have very high sales tax, sold to voters as "tourist tax", but for locals we end up paying it too. Property tax rates keep going up, too.

I don't mind the tourists about 98% of the time. They bring in $$$ which makes this a really nice place. It is a quick 3 minute walk to Main St, which is the hub of tourist activity. We have some very nice restaurants which locals could never support alone. We have some fun festivals because of being a resort.

Having said that, if many thousands of people were disgorging from cruise ships into our area it would destroy what makes it what it is. We would become simply a facade for the tourists to see.

I hope Bar Harbor residents approve the measure or something similar in order to preserve their home town. If they don't rein it in now, they'll never be able to. Once all the tourist money has taken away control from average citizens it is game over.

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
I have never been to Bar Harbor however I have been to Key West and when the ships dock in my opinion the town is not over run with tourist.

I've never been to Bar Harbor either, but I go to Kailua-Kona Hawaii every year for a couple of weeks and sometimes they have 2 cruise ships in the bay, sometimes 1, sometimes none.

I don't see much difference in congestion downtown when they're in.

I think it's the typical "we were here first and now we want everybody else to go away" syndrome.

How do you go about controlling the number of the cruise ship passenger that leave the ship on any given day??? .. Do you have someone standing on the dock entrance with a counter person or device and when the magic number is reached everyone else in line must return to the ship?? How would you personally feel if the person in front of you was that cut off number for that time period be it a day / week/ month /year and you were refused entry???... Yes these cruise ships can and do create a lot of benifits to the destination locations but also create a lot of problems. And what happens when these destination locations make a lot of upgrades to their infrastructure and the cruise ships stop coming for what ever reason?? Just like when a new Olympic city site is selected every four years and the winning locations spend ungodly unholy amounts of money to build the facilities and then after the events they are still left to payoff the bills and try and upkeep the facilities to possibly have to abandon the project and let it die and crumble into ruins.. Robbing peter to pay paul .... Make your choice... ........... drill sgt.

quote:

I first visited Bar Harbor/Acadia in 1988 for my (first) honeymoon.

^^^^^^^^^
Me too in a previous decade. They were doing okay then.

quote:

How do you go about controlling the number of the cruise ship passenger that leave the ship on any given day??? ..

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Cruise ships have clear schedules. Docking fees are paid in advance. You are thinking of the early 40s when some guy sat in a booth collecting tolls. Most all passengers embark at the designated sites. They count and recount the number so they do not leave some hapless cruiser behind.

Not surprised it has happened - just that it took so long.

Venice Italy had the same issue. Too many tourists and while they like the revenue it has killed the quality of life for the locals.