Bar Harbor (Maine)

Bar Harbor is a town located on Mount Desert Island (Hancock County, Maine, US). In 2010 its population was 5,235. Bar Harbor is a very popular tourist destination in Maine's Down East region and home to Jackson Laboratory, College of the Atlantic, MDI Biological Laboratory. Prior to a catastrophic fire in 1947 the town was a summer colony for the affluent elite.

Today, Bar Harbor is home to the biggest parts of Acadia National Park, which includes Cadillac Mountain, the highest point within 40 km (25 miles) of the coastline of Eastern United States. Bar Harbor is served by Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport, featuring flights on PenAir and Cape Air to Boston, as well as seasonal flights to Portland and Newark on Elite Airways.

Downtown Bar Harbor is particularly alive in summer and autumn because the town is home to plenty of outdoor enthusiasts. A couple of miles from downtown area is Acadia National Park. Acadia's outdoor activities include hiking, biking, mountain climbing, bird watching. Those interested in marine life that surrounds Mount Desert Island can visit the marina located at the end of Main Street and sign up for tours featuring puffins, whales, seals, lobster, island lighthouses, pelagic seabirds, or for overall nature cruise.

• In 2016, the port handled 105 cruise ship calls and around 169,000 passengers.
• During season 2016, cruise tourists spent at Bar Harbor around USD 15 million, with total economic impact USD 20,2 million (based on an University of Maine study). To these figures must be added passenger fees (USD 0,7 million) paid to the city. Also additional is spending by crew and cruise companies themselves. The study team handed out surveys to cruise passengers arriving at Harbor Place or Harborside dock. Tourists returned 2231 survays by mail (47% response rate). Acoording to the study, 138,285 passengers disembarked in the port in 2016. This was 87% of vessels' combined passenger capacity (163,000 pax). Note: passenger fees are based on vessel's capacity. The study also showed that in 2016, around 2 million tourists visited Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, of which cruisers were around 10%.
• During season 2017, the cruise port handled a total of 171 ship calls (a 40% increase over 2016) and over 225,000 passengers.

Bar Harbor cruise terminal