File Photo / COURTESY FRIENDS OF ACADIA
Kevin Schneider
June 8, 2025
Summer tourism season off to solid start at Acadia National Park
File Photo / Courtesy Lily LaRegina, Friends of Acadia
Hikers take in the view of Frenchman Bay from the summit of the Beehive in Acadia National Park.
So far, visitation at Acadia National Park is kicking off with numbers on par with the three previous years.
“Memorial Day was busy,” Kevin Schneider, the park’s superintendent, told the Acadia National Park Advisory Commission last week.
The report came amid concerns voiced by Gov. Janet Mills that U.S. tensions with Canada might hurt Maine's summer tourism season.
Whether that’s the case or not, the overall number of visitors to Acadia appears to be steady.
Despite rain, the Memorial Day weekend saw visitor numbers that were comparable to the last few years, said Schneider.
“From my conversations with businesses and others in the community, I suspect this summer will be comparable with past summers,” he said.
April had 95,200 visitors, slightly higher than the 95,165 in April 2024, according to National Park Service data.
However, there was a year-to-date dip. From January through April, Acadia had 144,736 visitors, down from 150,470 in the same period a year ago.
Housing progress
As in previous summers, the park will likely be short-staffed, despite a push to hire as many seasonal workers as possible, he said.
Acadia needs 150 seasonal employees and was able to hire only 115 the past couple of years, partly due to the lack of seasonal housing.
But there’s progress on the housing front. Through projects overseen by Friends of Acadia, that includes completion of the Dane Farm housing development for eight seasonal Acadia employees in the Mount Desert village of Seal Harbor; and construction that’s underway of a 28-bedroom development for seasonal Acadia employees at Harden Farm in Bar Harbor.
“The foundation has been poured, the walls are going up,” said Schneider.
Over the past winter, Acadia’s staff built a campground in Southwest Harbor, which now has 11 volunteers moved in. Employees are also housed at the 10-bedroom Kingsleigh Inn in Southwest Harbor.
Site planning is underway to develop additional housing on 15 acres of undeveloped land is in the Bar Harbor village of Town Hill.
“We’re making great progress with employee housing,” said Schneider. “Our employee housing portfolio is full for the season. That shows how important housing is for our staff.”
The next frontier is to work on strategies for housing year-round employees, he said.
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