Downtown Businesses Surveyed on Cruise Ships

BAR HARBOR–– Air pollution, water pollution, visual pollution, too many pedestrians clogging the streets and sidewalks of downtown, and greedy, mostly non-resident business owners making too much money that doesn’t benefit anybody but them. These are all some of the complaints regarding Bar Harbor being a regular port for cruise ship stops and the amount of passengers that the town lets disembark on any one day.

In January of 2021, the Town of Bar Harbor contracted with Pan Atlantic Research (PAR), a Portland, Maine-based consulting firm to conduct research centered around sea-based tourism in Bar Harbor. PAR collected data and opinions from property owners, year-round residents, seasonal residents, and businesses with a goal “to provide data to guide the Town Council in setting limits on cruise ship visitation over the next seven years.”

“Cost-benefit does not work in Bar Harbor's favor. The negative impacts (crowding downtown, negative visual impact of ship) is borne by everyone, but the benefits are narrow and only support a few businesses.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Pan Atlantic Research presented its final report in June 2021. Not only did PAR evaluate and collate the data, but it also supplied every comment that was submitted during its data collection. In the report, this section is known as “Appendix B: Verbatim Responses to Open-Ended Questions” and makes up substantially more than half of the report. 

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HOW OUR POLL WORKED

This article will explore some of the comments to PAR and how those comments relate to downtown business responses to an informal poll conducted by the Bar Harbor Story of 115 downtown Bar Harbor businesses.

For the poll, the business representatives, owners or managers who have been employed by the business for multiple years, were asked only two questions. The first question was “what is the residency of the owner(s)?” The second question was “during a normal cruise ship season, what is the affect, monetarily, of cruise ship visits on your business?” The accuracy of the answers goes only as far as the honesty of the respondent and the Bar Harbor Story did not ask for any type of verification beyond previous community-based knowledge by the canvasser.

The residency question ended up having six possible answers and the business owners or managers responded as noted below.

• Year-round Bar Harbor (72),

• Year-round MDI (8),

• Year-round Hancock County (7),

• Year-round Maine (outside of Hancock County) (7),

• Seasonal Bar Harbor (15),

• Out of state (6).

The monetary question had five possible answers and respondents were asked to choose one and the business owners or managers responded as noted below.

• Negative impact (3),

• No impact (12),

• Minor positive impact (11),

• Moderate positive impact (32),

• Substantial positive impact (57).

There were a few common topics that came up during conversations with the business owners and one of the primary threads was the shoulder seasons of Bar Harbor tourism and the ability for business owners to stay open longer to support area residents and employees of downtown businesses and to help create and maintain a longer viable season in general.

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TRICKLEDOWN EFFECTS

“A small, highly vocal set of business owners promote the cruise ship industry to the detriment of the rest of the community.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

When asked about the loss of cruise ship visitation, Heather Davis, owner of Geddy’s restaurant, said, “The economic impact will affect not only the volume of business but also the profit margins, making it much more challenging for local businesses to succeed. This will result in a ripple effect throughout the community felt for years to come.”

It’s not just business owners who will suffer from the loss of cruise ship revenue, it really is the entire town, a substantial amount of responding business owners said.

According to former Bar Harbor Town Council member and its former Chair Paul Paradis, previous councils spent years working on lengthening the cruise ship season for the benefit of Bar Harbor.

Businesses open for a longer season or even year-round

“Cruise ship tourism encourages seasonal business versus year-round.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Some business owners said that they worried about the shoulder seasons with lessened cruise ship visitation, saying that shoulder season income from cruise ship passengers is what allows them to be open longer during the year or allows them to be open year-round.

Many businesses in the downtown area have expanded their seasons based upon cruise ship visits during the months of April, May, September, and October, well beyond the traditional Memorial Day to Labor Day season that used to be the standard for the Bar Harbor tourist season. A sizeable portion of the businesses that are able to stay open year-round commented that they are able to stay open year-round because of this shoulder season cruise ship-based business that bolsters the land-based visitor numbers.

“Without the packing and shipping business that I receive from purchases made by tourists, many of whom are cruise ship passengers and have limited room for anything that won’t fit in their suitcase, and the other services that I perform for these same people, I probably won’t be able to stay open year-round to provide my services to locals during the off season,” said Jennifer Cough, owner of First Express.

One of the chief complaints regarding cruise ships is crowding, whether it be pedestrian traffic, in store crowds, or the ability for residents to access their favorite local restaurants for lunch. Many restaurant and business owners said they may have to close earlier in the season and open later in the spring.

In fact, many said that locals could lose the benefit of certain establishments being able to stay open year-round in the future.

Charity Goller who owns A Slice of Eden said, “It is only because of the shoulder season cruise ship business that I can stay open year-round for locals to enjoy in the wintertime.”

Shortened season means less income for employees

“Only a few businesses make any substantial income from cruise ships and most residents gain nothing.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Quite a few business commenters were concerned that the possibility of having to return to a shorter season and being open for fewer months a year means less opportunity for their employees to make the money they need to live locally, improve the quality of their lives, or see their dreams, such as buying their own house, come to fruition. According to many polled businesses, the employees of those businesses will lose income and income-generating opportunities either because of the sheer reduction in cruise ship visitation or the shortening of the business season.

The Town of Bar Harbor’s Existing Conditions Analysis report for the 2035 Bar Harbor Comprehensive Plan states in 2021 businesses in Bar Harbor employed approximately 5,401 people. Of that 5,401, approximately 35% or 1,890 of those people were employed in the retail trade and accommodation and food service trades. While this article speaks very little to the accommodation trade, some of the polled restaurants and at least one drinking establishment were attached to hotels.

From the Town of Bar Harbor’s Existing Conditions Analysis

Many said that a large percentage of their employees are year-round Bar Harbor or MDI residents and not having cruise ship passengers in any substantive quantity on the shoulder seasons will mean they are working for much less money if the business maintains the same yearly schedule that they have had for years since the cruise ships started visiting during the shoulder seasons.

During the polling, a number of employers mentioned their employees and wanted readers to know that these employees, many of whom are local residents, have the same dreams and goals as anyone not working in a tourist-related industry. In many cases, those employees do not represent just an individual, but families.

“Cruise ships are our lifeline. My mom was a waitress in Bar Harbor. My life depended on her tips. We have a lot of moms that have children that are depending on the tips they are making with all these cruise ships that are coming in,” Davis said during a Town Council meeting last week.

Growing expenses

“Greed.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Without cruise ship-based income, some businesses said they would not have the profit margins that allow them to return their money to their business via updates and improvements or to meet the ever-growing expenses related to running a business; paying a wage that maximizes employees’ opportunities for living, increasing property taxes or rent (for both businesses and employees), increasing supply costs, and meeting increasing demands placed upon them to comply with state programs such as the new state paid family and medical leave program which requires both employee and employer contributions.

“People say businesses are getting rich. Well, most businesses that I know, they’re working their asses off. To bring in that incremental amount of money (to meet rising costs) is not a small task,” Paradis said.

Nonprofit support equals community support

“Businesses have seized control of the process and make decisions in their own interests, ignoring the interests of residents, taxpayers, and other normal human beings.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Bar Harbor and MDI are full of nonprofits that survive on donations and contributions from people. Many of those contributors are downtown Bar Harbor business owners and employees who can only donate once all of their other business-related expenses have been met. They are not all large contributors, but like any other budget, the nickels and dimes can make a sizable impact on nonprofits.

“That is significant, I mean that is really significant. Donations may only be $3000-10,000, but I think that is a significant amount and those types of businesses are who are making those donations,” said Paradis.

Without cruise ship-based income, many businesses said that they would probably not be able to contribute as much, if at all, to the many non-profits in the MDI community that rely on donations to survive.

Acadia Youth Sports (AYS) is one nonprofit that is dependent on donations to function. According to AYS Board President Tony McKim, AYS provides sports opportunities to a total of approximately 320 kids across four different sports. These kids are from MDI, Trenton, and Lamoine.

When asked about the AYS budget and what kind of affect local business donations have on AYS, McKim said, “Depending on the year, we operate between a $150-175,000 budget. This budget helps with a very part-time sports director and several programs. Our programs are designed for essentially grades three to eight, and include basketball, baseball, golf, and football. We also offer two camps: Future Trojans Basketball Camp and Future Trojans Golf Camp. We have what we call six foundation sponsors at $2,500 per business. Ironically, I just sent out all six letters two days ago, quasi holding my breath that their generosity will continue in the face of a potential shoulder season crimp on cash flow. Outside those six, we rely on many small dollar donations, talking $100 or less.” 

McKim also said that AYS does charge for its programs, “but the economic impact of a shorter business season, or less profitable ones, flows like this for us—yes donations as noted above, but our parents and guardians who pay for their kids to partake in our programs are employed by businesses that could experience a slow-down. What does that mean? We at AYS have a policy that if you cannot pay, you still play. Well, in theory that is great, but if we run out of sponsorship money for kids, while contemporaneously seeing donations slow…? Well, we have a problem as well.”

Finally, McKim said, “When kids do not have healthy, instructive, and meaningful time to indulge their health and athleticism, what happens to our community kids?”

Town budget

“Huge quality of life impact on residents and businesses but little benefit to most retailers, other businesses, and taxpayers.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

The Town of Bar Harbor cannot profit from anything, but it can benefit from many things. An argument of cruise ship supporters is that one of those benefits works toward reducing residents’ property taxes. For the last two complete budget years, the revenue generated from cruise ship visitation has been over $1 million. The revenue amounts for the past two full budget years, according to Finance Manager Sarah Gilbert, are below.

• Fiscal year 2022-23 = $1,278,060

• Fiscal year 2023-24 = $1,166,066

The town collects two fees, a passenger service fee of $2.84 (FY23/24) and a port development fee of $2.53 (FY23/24) for a total of $5.37 (FY23/24) per passenger. The passengers are calculated by the lower berth capacity of the ship and the ship is charged for that lower berth capacity number so regardless of whether the ship is at full capacity or half capacity, the cruise line is charged the same.   

Using the FY 23/24 revenue amount of $1,166,066 and the FY 23/24 fee amount of $5.37, it would take ships with a lower berth capacity totaling 217,145 passengers to recoup that amount for the town. The total fee for FY 2024-25 is slightly higher at $5.54 per passenger, so it would take ships with a lower berth capacity totaling 210,481 passengers to recoup that amount for the town. That is simply to retain the status quo in a town where property taxes are increasing.

Without increasing fees, at 1,000 passengers a day, it would be 210 straight days of cruse ships visits to retain that amount of revenue.

While the town is restricted on what it can spend cruise ship revenue on via previously established case law, much of that revenue was able to be spent in the capital improvement section of the budget for equipment replacement, especially for the police and fire departments. With the potential loss of this revenue, this burden would return to the taxpayers.

Other businesses and the local economy

“(Cruise ship passengers) challenge the peace of small-town life whereas car passengers come to escape into the environment.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Bar Harbor’s economy is largely built on tourism and it has been that way for the majority of its existence. It supports many tourist-based businesses that provide a living for many residents and non-residents. For good or for bad, one would be hard pressed to prove that cruise ships don’t affect the vast majority of businesses in Bar Harbor.

“I would be happy if we had none. We took a political position to leave something on the table for those that value the trade, that doesn’t seem to be recognized, but personally, and representing a lot of other people, none would be great,” said Charlie Sidman whose wife Amy Sidman owns Argosy II, an art gallery on Mount Desert Street.

This article does not include lodging businesses, medical businesses, or employment in the sciences. A couple quick comments can be made about lodging in general, however, based upon comments heard while polling other businesses.

There are many lodging owners who feel that cruise ships are bad for their business due to the crowds created and the potential for unhappiness for their customers which can translate into people who don’t return to Bar Harbor again.

Opposing that, some lodging owners say that they do appreciate cruise ship visits as a basis for return visitation via other modes of transportation. At least two lodging business owners explained that a high number of the cruise ships that visit Bar Harbor have origin ports that are within a day’s drive away from Bar Harbor and because of this, they estimate that as many as 30% of those passengers return to Bar Harbor at a later date via land-based transportation and most of those visitors choose to stay in some form of local lodging establishment.

This article also left out large chain business such as Hannafords and Walgreens. Most people that have ever picked up a prescription in Walgreens on a cruise ship day would probably assume that Walgreens most assuredly benefits from cruise ship visits. However, the point here is that for a town of just over 5,000 year-round residents on an island of just over 10,000 residents, it is unusual to have a full-blown grocery store and a large chain store with a pharmacy. Yes, Hannafords could be larger and the parking at Walgreens could be easier, but both of these things are hampered by land availability and land use regulations.

These benefits are not being attributed to cruise ship visits, but rather to our tourism base in general, which cruise ship visits currently make up approximately 6% of based on Acadia National Park visits. This percentage is formulated using 4,000,000 million ANP visitors annually and 250,000 cruise ship visitors annually. If you consider that ANP visits can be much less due to repeat visits to the park, that percentage increases.

Cruise ship visits comprise a significant portion of Bar Harbor’s and even MDI’s tourism-based economy. Without these metrics, Bar Harbor wouldn’t have the chain-based stores, even Ace Hardware, according to Paradis, that keep its residents from having to leave the island or pay even more at a smaller store because big corporation metrics are not normally supported by Bar Harbor’s year-round population numbers. 

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ALL COMMENTS WERE NOT POSITIVE REGARDING CRUISE SHIPS

“I think it's unfortunate that the cruise ships have come to be a target. They bring in so many people, who are enjoying a vacation, shopping in our town and allow for such a diverse mix of small businesses to thrive. I find the ships to be far less a problem than the folks who live here that are so outwardly negative.” –– Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Many respondents, even though they were responding with one of the three positive responses, recognized some of the downsides of cruise ship visitation, mostly during July and August. A number of business owners and managers commented on the sidewalks, especially along Main Street, being too crowded when the town is hosting both land-based visitors and cruise ship visitors during the height of the tourist season.

Respondents to the north of Mount Desert Street generally commented that cruise ship passengers don’t seem to make it beyond Mount Desert Street much and most of their cruise ship passenger business was from those who had walked the entirety of the Shore Path and were returning to town via Main Street. This year this equated to a very sharp decline in their cruise ship business due to the destruction and closure of the Shore Path because of the past winter’s storms. 

One long standing business in town answered that cruise ships were moderately beneficial to them monetarily, but in the long-term they feel as though cruise ships are an overall negative for Bar Harbor for reasons such as overcrowding, which this business owner feels is building into a reputation for the town, and pollution issues, in particular, air quality from bus and ship exhaust. 

Sidman said, “The discussion is often about businesses and the effects of cruise ships on businesses. And I understand why business owners look at that, because that is their life. I think that is a secondary consideration because I think the citizens actually run their town and business is a slice of it, but the business community, and a piece of the business community, and even if it was the whole business community, does not own our town. Citizens own our town.”

When asked about the monetary benefits or detriments of cruise ships to the business run by his wife, Amy, Sidman said, “The answer for us is clearly in the negative. Two reasons: the positives are few and far between that a cruise ship person will come in and either buy or decide to come back on a future land-based trip, but what they do is they crowd out and keep away the vast majority of our tried-and-true customers, first timers, etc.”

Amy Sidman said that the answer for them in regard to the money question is indeed negative.

“I am going to add just a little tidbit from my point of view here. I have been selling things in town for 33 years, a hugely well-respected collection, even by museum standards, and this idea of Bar Harbor welcoming all, we have always welcomed and entertained every single person with the slightest interest in coming in here,” she said. 

Perhaps the most negative comments heard during the polling were not directly related to cruise ships but more about the divisiveness that has been created by the issue. Multiple business owners stated that they wanted to ensure that their business names and their names would not be mentioned in the article for fear of retaliation. Some said that they had been verbally accosted and even threatened by members of the opposing faction and these statements came from business owners on both sides of the cruise ship fence.

A few minutes browsing Facebook, walking downtown, or perusing comments made at the end of Bar Harbor Story articles provides evidence of the vitriol being thrown around: name calling, negative stickers, protection orders, calls to boycott certain businesses, and general negativity from which no good can come for a small community.

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BREAKDOWN OF RESPONSES BY BUSINESS TYPE

“Encourages junk business like t-shirts.” — Comment from Appendix B, of Quantitative Research Regarding Cruise Ship Tourism, PAR, June 2021.

Below is a breakdown of the polled businesses by very general business type. All retail businesses were grouped together as were all food/beverage service establishments. Rentals includes both rental businesses and tour businesses.

Restaurants/Bars/Coffee Shops

• Total (49),

• Negative impact (0),

• No impact (8),

• Minor positive impact (3),

• Moderate positive impact (14),

• Substantial positive impact (24).

Retail

• Total (59),

• Negative impact (3),

• No impact (4),

• Minor positive impact (7),

• Moderate positive impact (17),

• Substantial positive impact (28).

Rentals

• Total (7),

• Negative impact (0),

• No impact (0),

• Minor positive impact (1),

• Moderate positive impact (1),

• Substantial positive impact (5).

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YOUR OPINIONS

Apologies! The polls were stripped from the original version of this story through a glitch and the polls themselves give us very limited options in number of answers allowed and even in number of characters. If your answer is ‘something else’ or you’d like to add more, please feel free to leave a comment.

UPDATE: A reader brought out my math error for the percentage of visitors to the island that are made up of cruise ship visitors and it has been corrected from 16% to 6%. We always appreciate it when people bring errors to our attention. Thank you!

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