December 26, 2007
MDI ranks high despite "tawdry ice cream shops"
Mount Desert Island scored highly on a ranking of the world's most popular tourist destination islands published recently by National Geographic Traveler magazine, though it lost points for what the magazine described as a multitude of trinket shops and "tawdry ice cream shops."
MDI ranked 16th with a score of 69 out of 100 in the magazine's snapshot of sustainable tourism conditions on 111 islands, according to the Bar Harbor Times. A panel of judges evaluated the islands on criteria including environmental and ecological quality and social and cultural integrity.
MDI fell short of ranking in the "excellent" category, but is among islands described as "doing wellˆ with only minor problems," the paper reported. One panelist griped: "Every tawdry ice-cream shop on the outskirts of Bar Harbor disturbs, but then you take a hike up Cadillac Mountain, or a bike ride in the woods, and all is forgiven." The ranking appears in the November/December issue of National Geographic Traveler.
MDI ranked 16th with a score of 69 out of 100 in the magazine's snapshot of sustainable tourism conditions on 111 islands, according to the Bar Harbor Times. A panel of judges evaluated the islands on criteria including environmental and ecological quality and social and cultural integrity.
MDI fell short of ranking in the "excellent" category, but is among islands described as "doing wellˆ with only minor problems," the paper reported. One panelist griped: "Every tawdry ice-cream shop on the outskirts of Bar Harbor disturbs, but then you take a hike up Cadillac Mountain, or a bike ride in the woods, and all is forgiven." The ranking appears in the November/December issue of National Geographic Traveler.
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