ACADIA NATIONAL PARK (NEWS CENTER Maine) – If you plan to visit Acadia National Park this summer be prepared to spend a little more.
A $5 price hike in the park entrance fee went into effect Friday bringing the cost from $25 to $30 per vehicle.
Area residents and business owners said they are relieved because they feared the initially proposed increase to nearly triple the fee would have hurt visitation.
“There was some concern about the proposed significant increases they were talking about, but the $5 increase while not ideal seems a little bit more palatable for visitors,” Alf Anderson with the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce said.
Eighty percent of all revenue stays in the park, according to the National Park Service.
The Park Service said the fee increase will be used to address infrastructure concerns as it works to keep up with record visitation year after year.
Already crews have improved parking at Sand Beach and on top of Cadillac Mountain.
“I think $50 or $55 is really quite reasonable for the number of times we use it,” Scott Shulman, a park visitor and Maine resident, said.
Entrance fees collected by the National Park Service reached nearly $200 million in 2016.
The increase is expected to bring in an estimated $60 million more a year.