A survey of 55 businesses found common ground on housing, tourism, and infrastructure, even as many respondents raised concerns about housing and costs.
Aug 15, 2026
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Window Panes Home and Garden.
BAR HARBOR—The process before Bar Harbor’s Sustainable Tourism Task Force is clear: The town’s voter-approved comprehensive plan sets the town’s overall goals for land use. The task force sets the strategy for tourism-related aspects that would move the town toward those goals. Then others, such as the Town Council, agree (or not) and move that strategy forward.
Before that, though, there are consultants and workshops and surveys. There are anecdotes and data collection.
Tourism is a big industry in Bar Harbor. It comes via the island town’s placement next to Acadia National Park, which brings in 4 million visits each year, a number which has increased over the decades, and brings congestion in the form of cars coming through Trenton, across the Thompson Island Bridge, and onto Mount Desert Island.
It also is a large part of the town’s economy and the state’s economy via lodging and sales taxes, which go into the state and then are dispersed throughout the state, not just to the communities where they are collected.
That puts additional pressure, many say, on the town to keep up the infrastructure that supports that tourism, but also pressure to support the property owners whose property taxes pay for the roads, fire department, staff, police officers, and garbage disposal that occurs when a town of 5,000 expands to support visitors.
The resulting tension was a large part of why the task force occurred, but it has also highlighted other tensions, often categorized as divisions, in the town, such as that of businesses and residents.
It’s an us-vs-them situation that the consultants, J.E. Austin, based in Canada, say didn’t seem as clear cut as has been portrayed.
“Those businesses consist of residents,” Ben Nussbaumer, lead consultant, said during the Bar Harbor Sustainable Task Force meeting, August 12.
There’s a perception of tension between businesses and residents, he explained, but many of the owners and workers live in the community.
Making that distinction is challenging, he said.
There isn’t a uniformity of business views, not all businesses think the same or want the same thing.
Some attending also stressed that there are year-round business contributions beyond the businesses’ opening dates. Examples could be year-round support to nonprofit raffles, contributions to help build playgrounds, prize donations for fundraisers for Kids Corner or the Conners-Emerson PTA, charitable holiday events, and other aspects.
At the last task force meeting, some task force members agreed.
“We’re not like there isn’t tension, but it’s unfair to draw that distinction too sharply between businesses and residents,” Nussbaumer said.
The consultants’ evaluation came from comparing recent business surveys to previous surveys of the general citizenry—many of those may have also been business owners.
“I was impressed at the amount of overlap between the business surveys and the resident surveys makes me wonder if we’re as divided as we think,” Chair Vicki Hall said.
“I think that was an interesting point and certainly it gets to the the point that was made we saw in a number of the responses, the businesses are owned by residents,” Nussbaumer said. “And I think actually one of the things that I didn’t include here that was interesting is that most of the businesses we got um were independent and local.”
The distinction might be a bit misleading, Nussbaumer said.
The business survey was distributed via an email list developed by J.E. Austin, and distributed through the town communication channels and the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce member newsletter. A total of 55 businesses responded. Those respondents were mostly Bar Harbor-based businesses and most of the respondents were tourism-dependent and operated in Bar Harbor for more than four years.
Twenty-three businesses earned under $500k, while 24 made more than that.
Most of the businesses said that tourism is important to their businesses.
“The results we show are those of the sample and might not be representative of the entire business community of Bar Harbor,” Nussbaumer said.
However, the town’s existing conditions report shows that employment sectors in Bar Harbor are approximately one-third tourism related (accommodations/food service, retail trade, real estate), and one-third professional, scientific and technical services (Nonprofits such as the Jackson Laboratory and MDI Bio Lab would come under that umbrella.).
In the survey of 55 responding businesses, the businesses who are tourism dependent and those that aren’t had many areas of agreement.
The biggest split between tourism-based businesses and those that are not is whether or not the current tourism balance in town is sustainable, 70% as opposed to 35%.
For seasonal businesses the main reason for not being year round were low demand and the high cost of staying open. Some, however, were intentionally having a seasonal model and wanted a break and didn’t desire to expand to year-round.
Difficulty finding workers was not a factor in the answer to this question, though later in the survey they are mentioned.
Most of the businesses said that staying open would be more feasible if operating costs were lower, it there was more off-peak demand, and more events and attractions in the off season.
Workforce housing and finding skilled workers were considered the leading issues, but none gathered more than 50% of the respondents surveyed. Worker housing issues were more issues for businesses with more than 5 employees.
“Really the workforce issues seemed particularly acute” for those bigger businesses responding, Nussbaumer said.
Property costs, utility costs, parking were the top three issues mentioned. However, 62% felt Bar Harbor was good or excellent for doing businesses. Again, the larger businesses with more workers said those issues had more of an impact.
Businesses that were not tourism-based cited congestion and/or traffic as more of a constraint, Nussbaumer said.
When businesses looked to actions for the town to take, from the choices given in the survey, most suggested housing availability and cost factors as well as promoting shoulder and off-season activity and infrastructure investment.
The areas of need were mostly focused on future clarity.
A key one among respondents was a desire for resolution around the cruise ship situation and the uncertainty was challenging for them to create action plans. Cruise ships had been limited by a previous vote of the town supporting a ordinance with a disembarkation limit, then a lawsuit about that decision. The latest conclusion of that ongoing suit has been a federal judge declaring the town’s ordinance unconstitutional for months that are not peak season.
It wasn’t just cruise ships that the respondents wanted clarity for. Responding businesses also wanted clarity about potential zoning changes, continuing lodging moratoriums, permitting uses, and potential infrastructure changes.
“There was quite a lot of interest in the local option sales tax and what it might look like,” Nussbaumer said.
Nussbaumer said there are a lot of openings for thinking constructively about businesses and that the line between businesses and residents isn’t always the same.
They recognize that tourism is an economic driver in Bar Harbor. There were a few businesses skeptical of the task force process and its value, he said.
Task Force Member Dave Woodside asked if they had a sense of what kind of response rate that was.
“No,” Nussbaumer answered because there isn’t a total census of the number of businesses in Bar Harbor. There’s no central business registry.
They are sure it’s not a comprehensive response, but it’s a “good overall number,” Nussbaumer said. He said it was likely more tourism-business respondents than others.
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
All slides via meeting. This is the second in a series of articles about this meeting.
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