Julie and Bill Ginsler of Raleigh, North Carolina, have been coming to Bar Harbor to visit their nephews for around 20 years. But as the couple meandered through the sunny seaside town on Memorial Day, Julie Ginsler noted that it wasn’t crowded, especially compared with when they visited in the fall.
Though the weekend nor’easter hasn’t stopped tourists from descending upon Bar Harbor this Memorial Day weekend, business owners and visiting regulars say the town isn’t as lively as it typically is for the unofficial start to tourism season.
The gateway to Acadia National Park has attracted visitors for more than a century, with the tourism boom typically beginning Memorial Day weekend. But this year, the cold and rain put a damper on things, and uncertainty about cruise ships and tariffs have made business owners pessimistic about the upcoming season.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to sharply reduce the federal budget could mean that more jobs at Acadia go unfilled — an obstacle anyway in recent years because of a lack of affordable housing in the area. And, with tension over Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, businesses have been seeing fewer tourists from north of the border in Bar Harbor this season.
Paige MacDonald, assistant manager for Bar Harbor Beerworks, said she’s seen fewer Canadian tourists this year than in her 10 previous seasons working in the town. She added that the Thursday nor’easter kept the restaurant from opening its rooftop deck and led to a slow start to the season.
But one of the bigger issues for her business has been the town’s back and forth over cruise ships. It’s been exhausting for her while she tries to get the right number of staff and to schedule hours for the restaurant, MacDonald said.
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Bar Harbor voters imposed strict limits on cruise ships in 2022, and upheld them last fall. Approximately 70 ships that carry more than 1,000 passengers each visited the town last year, but this year, only 17 such ships are expected to drop anchor in Frenchman Bay, with the first not expected until the end of August.
Some passengers on those since-canceled cruise ships have reservations for the restaurant this season, and MacDonald is not sure how that will be handled.
“It’s hard to really plan a schedule and plan days and how many people you might need for support,” MacDonald said. “But this is my 11th season, so I’ve seen the good, bad and the ugly.”
The weekend storm may have led to a slow start for Bar Harbor Beerworks, but Brandon Bermudez, the general manager of the Independent Cafe, said Sunday was the first day he’s seen a line out the door since he began managing the coffee shop in April.
“That’s not really typical for us. Like we get rushes, but nothing like that,” Bermudez said.
He thinks the rain actually may have helped business, keeping tourists from sightseeing and instead pushing them to take cover inside the coffee shop.
Jennifer Alexander, who works at Acadia Country Store, said several of her customers over the weekend had boat excursions canceled because of the weather, so they set out for downtown Bar Harbor instead.
Alexander also is concerned about the lack of cruise ships.
“A lot of merchants are holding their breath to see what traffic will look like,” she said.
