Cruise ships, strategy, and surveys highlight latest discussion.
Jun 13, 2026
BAR HARBOR—The Sustainable Tourism Task Force addressed the cruise ship in the room, June 10, asking how and if the group should discuss cruise ships and cruise visitors when delving into their charge about sustainable tourism.
The questions come while several lawsuits and appeals over the rules governing cruise ships in the town are ongoing.
The town had a Cruise Ship Committee, which the Town Council disbanded in 2023.
A citizens’ petition brought to town voters in 2022 created a 1,000-day-limit, before penalties are incurred, for cruise ship passengers in an effort to decrease pedestrian congestion in the waterfront area. Some area businesses sued the town over the changes, saying that they were unconstitutional.
Last month, U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker, on remand, partially agreed, saying that the limit was unconstitutional in the shoulder seasons.
In some ways, the group is already touching the topic of cruise ship visitation by looking at other aspects of tourism and congestion, the consultants said. That includes understanding visitor demographics and movement as well as how to manage more crowded—issues that should be addressed anyway in the task force’s final strategy recommendations.
“I know that cruise has been difficult to address,” Consultant Ben Nussbaumer said.
It’s a changing issue he said that might even change during the life of the task force.
“It does make sense,” to have a body addressing cruise ship issues, Nussbaumer said.
It also makes sense, task force member John Kelly said, to manage the impacts.
Strategy Development Process Updates:
Consultant Michele McKenzie reviewed the development of the evolving strategy recommendations (and how to get to them) with the task force members.
The task force is in phase five of its process. This is the development stage.
“It’s the hardest piece,” McKenzie said.
Next comes the action plans and measurement structures.
Some of those decisions can be thorny as the task force and town determines the end game and goal of a governance entity, she said.
Managing vehicle use and public transport focus needs to be a “very big part of the strategy,” McKenzie said.
That management could come from focusing on the Acadia Gateway Center, more public transport, ferries, even trains later on, consultants said came out of a recent workshop.
Getting “real time information” about crowding was also discussed, according to consultant Joe Lowther.
At the earlier workshop, there was discussion about focusing on parking garages outside of the center of town and shuttles into downtown proper, disincentives for driving into town, encouraging bicycle and e-vehicle use, as well as car sharing.
Continued advocacy for local options tax as well as a potential tourism district and assessment were suggested.
Focusing on the small-town visitor experience and residents’ quality of life also came out as focuses of the workshops.
“We have a relatively small town, small population base,” McKenzie said of Bar Harbor, which has approximately 5,000 residents. That population expands (some say by a multitude of four) in the summer season.
So, the consultants suggested that the task force wants something that’s fit for purpose and shifts the burden from residents to who is ultimately supporting the stewardship effort.
What that governance body might be is still in discussion. The interim step, McKenzie thinks, is an organizing council or body, of some sort, one that collects dollars that might be assessed and the use of any dollars dedicated to tourism management or cultivated by tourism management.
Kelly asked when they’d get into that hard work rather than meeting and recapping during the task force’s monthly meetings.
“We don’t have a lot of time. We meet for two hours every month,” Kelly said.
The consultants said that they are putting pen to paper currently and the best way to get into the details is if the consultants give the task force members information, then the task force members comment and think on it.
Initial written materials will be sent to the task force and the members will discuss those materials around a strategy document or portion of it.
“We really want to make this count and we really want to make our time count,” task force member Michael Boland said.
Boland said he’s hearing an undercurrent from some task force members that they want to make the work count.
“We’re in a good spot in the strategy development process,” McKenzie said.
NOT BUSINESS CENTERED BUT NOT BUSINESS IGNORANT
Agamont Park, the park by Bar Harbor’s waterfront was a foggy backdrop for one man and his dog, Friday evening.
The task force, McKenzie said, is a good example of bringing a cross section of the population together.
“You’re already well into the conversation about what would be the right fit for Bar Harbor,” she said.
They’ll be sending a survey of 17-18 questions to businesses and have said that they’ve learned a lot from citizens and the task force, but would like to hear from businesses what they think needs to be done.
Since the meeting, that business survey has been sent out.
Lowther thinks there is good alignment with business’s thoughts and citizens’ thoughts, but hopes to make sure via the survey. And also, the survey might help determine where the task force and consultants might need to “think through some trade-offs.”
Some questions might be focused on what businesses are dependent on tourists as a customer base to help determine if there’s a difference in how businesses answer.
They’ll ask about business constraints, plans, ambitions, and challenges. They’ll ask about seasonality and what is driving that.
Kelly asked if there would be a list of the businesses that the survey is being sent to.
He was told that the survey is being made open to all businesses in the town. There isn’t a centralized registry of Bar Harbor businesses. The consultants are working with the Chamber of Commerce and using their own list that they’ve scraped the internet for as well. Responses are not limited to Chamber members and it’s not limited to them or to businesses who receive the survey.
There will only be one person per business responding, but the responses will not be labeled with the business answering.
Task force member Jim Glavine stressed that the task force is not supposed to be business centered, but not business ignorant either.
SURVEYS AND PUBLIC FEEDBACK
Glavine asked why the task force couldn’t poll people on the street, in front of the grocery store, or on the sidewalk. He wanted more data from the public at large.
That would be time consuming, consultants said.
Boland said the PolCo results aren’t low, but consistent with past polling. Approximately 375 responded to the PolCo citizen/resident survey this past fall.
The town sent out a STM Resident Survey Flyer and a STM Resident Survey on Polco, which closed December 4, 2025. It also had a community open house in March.
Nussbaumer said that a high response rate creates richer data but that doesn’t mean that one data point (citizen survey or business survey or task force survey or interviews) would be weighed more than another when the consultants look at it all together.
“I was troubled,” Teresa Wagner said in public comment about a new survey that is meant to be sent to people under 44.
Wagner said she didn’t understand why the survey was phrased the way that it was. She didn’t think targeting input to a certain demographic was a good idea. She said it was off-putting.
Bar Harbor Housing and Community Coordinator Cali Martinez said that the survey was part of the young people focus group effort, “We were trying to address . . . young people.”
The town and consultants have also reached out to organizations and interviews with younger people.
The focus of that focus group was to reach out in multiple ways.
“The Town of Bar Harbor has collected an immense amount of community feedback throughout the Comprehensive Plan and Sustainable Tourism Management efforts. One key question this survey wants to expand upon is whether young professionals and young families have differing priorities than the people that typically engage with the Town’s public processes.
“Bar Harbor’s 2035 vision states that its ‘vibrancy stems from the mix of people and the dramatic natural and cultural beauty of our place.’ And to fulfill this vision, the Town wants to ensure minority voices, younger residents and families, are given equal weight.
“Therefore, this survey only gathers younger perspectives, people under 45. Some opinions and experiences shared may overlap with majority perspectives and priorities, and some may not. This effort should highlight where there is common ground and areas where young people may have different priorities.”
Martinez apologized to Wagner, who is a Planning Board member, for Wagner finding the survey off-putting. The town has used Polco and its surveys multiple times.
MEETING DETAILS
The Sustainable Tourism Task Force met at the same time as a Planning Board workshop, which required Cali Martinez to be the staff attending. Planning Director Michele Gagnon attended the Planning Board workshop, which was not streamed, televised, or recorded.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 8, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
The task force page on the Bar Harbor website.
- The live link to access the business survey is here: https://forms.gle/HJgaxEYA9sa53EGh8
- The survey will close after Monday, June 29
- Resident Survey Flyer
- Resident Survey – Polco
All photos by Bar Harbor Story.
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