When the cruise ships sail into Bar Harbor, they do more than drop anchor – they cheerfully drop buckets of money as well, particularly in the popular fall leaf season. In 2002, passengers aboard 64 ships spent an estimated $10.3 million in Bar Harbor, including $2.0 million in restaurants and bars, and $4.7 million in retail stores, according to an economic impact study conducted by the University of Maine, dated March 2003.
And this year, a projected 83 ships are expected to bring in at least $14 million (and climbing, thanks to hurricane-driven rescheduling), according to Harbor Master Charlie Phippen.
“People want the quaint coastal small town, and when they come here they find it,” explains Clair Bingham, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce. “We’re called a ‘marquee port,’ because we’re one of the ports that sells the cruise itinerary.”
The first clue to explaining why Bar Harbor’s cruise ship business keeps growing is easy to describe in one word: Acadia. Of the cruise ship respondents in the University of Maine study, 27 percent hailed from the Mid Atlantic Region, 20 percent came from the Pacific West Region, and all of them booked their cruises, in large part, to see Acadia National Park.
“First, we have Acadia, which is huge,” explains Jeffrey Broad, owner of a small tour-and-taxi operation called Acadia’s At Your Service. “Then there’s the historic value of the island. And once the leaves start to change, well, all I hear are lots of oohs and aahs.”
Bar Harbor’s average cruise passenger – who is about 60 years old and enjoys a household income of about $75,000 – spends $105.82 in the five hours and 20 minutes he or she visits Bar Harbor, according to the study. And the majority of them book a land tour. “Shore excursions are a big revenue source – after onboard gambling and revenue from bar service – because cruise bookings are now so heavily discounted,” says Tina Spencer, president of Destination New England, which sells wholesale the bulk of Bar Harbor tours sold on cruise ships.
The most popular tour? The basic two-and-a-half hour drive to Cadillac Mountain and around the 27-mile Park Loop Road fills up buses, 40 passengers at a time. Prices for this trip vary – cruise lines mark up the Destination New England tour anywhere from 30 to 100 percent, explains Spencer. For example, Royal Caribbean Lines charges its passengers $39 for the basic Loop tour, and $69 per person to also buy a lobster dinner at some place nice like the Asticou Inn, which can feed 200. Another popular add-on is a stop at the Rinehart Pavilion for a little blueberry pie.
Most people like to tour half the day and shop the other half. “While anywhere from 40 to 60 percent will take a tour, 80 to 90 percent will go shopping,” asserts Spencer. “They buy landscape pictures, lighthouse stuff and anything blueberry or moose.”
While Bar Harbor does not have a pier, part of its allure might just be the whole business of tendering, which tends to bolster a port’s small-town mystique. Many ships sail with their own tenders, but Bar Harbor Place continues to do a brisk business shuttling passengers ashore. When 1,500 people dock in the harbor, two tenders – the 260-passenger Acadia Clipper and the 180-passenger Acadia Sightseer – are in continuous motion. “Say we have 1,500 people on a ship, going both ways, that’s roughly 3,000 people a day,” counts Barbara Bridges, operations manager.
New England is becoming an emerging market for the cruise industry. “Bar Harbor is a growing destination because the market for ships in the Caribbean is saturated,” observes Spencer. “There is no more room in Alaska, and Europe is getting a bit crowded, so the New England/Canada market is growing.”
Recent world events have also affected cruise market trends. “After 9/11, people became more reluctant to fly, so the cruise ships reorganized,” observes Bingham. “Now they’re trying to leave from more places so people can drive.”
And Bar Harbor seems to deliver just the experience that cruise ship passengers crave these days. “Baby boomers not really traveling for a tan anymore. They’re looking for a cultural and environmental adventure,” notes Bingham. (Indeed, the nature-walk tour is growing in popularity, according to Spencer.)
At present, however, Bar Harbor plans to keep a firm rein on its cruise ship business. Only two ships are permitted to pull into the harbor on a given day – and they need to call ahead to secure a reservation with Charlie Phippen. “If I’ve got two ships with confirmed reservations for anchorage, the ship goes on a waiting list,” he says. As of mid-September Phippen had already received 67 calls for reservations – of which 48 planned to visit in September and October. Eight days in September were already fully booked with two ships.
“But there are other days available,” adds Phippen, who says that like many of the merchants in town, he really likes it when “the streets are crowded and people are spending money.”