Recreational visitors to Acadia National Park grew even though there was a decrease in foreign travel and fewer full-time employees than in 2024.
The National Park Service’s monthly visitor data show that 797,030 people visited Acadia last month, which is around 6,000 higher than in July 2024.
Due in part to changing perceptions of the United States following tariff threats from the Trump administration, Maine tourism officials have reported a decline in Canadian visitors. However, since the COVID-19 outbreak, travel to national parks has been on the rise.
“People fell in love with the outdoors again,” said Friends of Acadia’s executive director, Eric Stiles. “We saw a big bump across the United States, not just in national parks but state parks and land trusts.”
As part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s projected cuts, eight full-time employees were let go in February. Although the park was still able to hire seasonal workers, Stiles stated that his team hopes to see more full-time jobs created to accommodate the increased demand from visitors.
Every year, Acadia welcomes more than 4 million visitors. Over a million people visited the park in 1989, making it the busiest July on record.
“[Acadia] is also an essential driver to the economy of Down East Main,” Stiles stated. “Hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, guides, kayak shops, bike shops, that kind of stuff … the majority of those employers are locally owned.”
