A new “America-first” pricing policy announced this week by the National Park Service will require many foreign tourists to pay an extra $100 to visit Acadia National Park starting next year.
The America the Beautiful annual digital park pass will stay $80 for U.S. residents but is set to jump to $250 for non-U.S. residents starting Jan. 1, according to a news release from the Department of the Interior.
Nonresidents without the annual pass will pay an extra $100 per person on top of the standard entrance fee to enter certain national parks, including Acadia. Current daily entrance fees for Acadia range from $20 to $35.
In its Tuesday announcement, the department said the change reflects President Donald Trump’s “commitment to making national parks more accessible, more affordable and more efficient for American people.”
“These policies ensure that U.S. taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a statement.
In July, Trump issued an executive order directing Burgum to increase entrance and other fees charged to nonresidents at national parks and other federal lands used for recreational purposes. That order came on the heels of significant staffing and budget cuts to the park service but lacked details about how it would be implemented.
The extra $100 fee is being implemented at 11 of the busiest national parks: Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion.
The department also announced 10 of what it is calling “resident-only patriotic fee-free days” in 2026: Presidents Day (Feb. 15), Memorial Day (May 25), Flag Day/Trump’s birthday (June 14), Independence Day weekend (July 3-5), the 110th birthday of the National Park Service (Aug. 25), Constitution Day (Sept. 17), Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and Veterans Day (Nov. 11).
On those days, entrance will be free for U.S. citizens and residents, but non-Americans will still have to pay the normal entrance price and, if applicable, the new nonresident fee.
Acadia has been a popular destination for visitors for decades, attracting millions of people each year who contribute to the economy of the Bar Harbor region.
In 2024, 4 million visitors spent an estimated $539 million in the region while visiting Acadia, according to the National Park Service.
The director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce was out of the office Wednesday and unable to comment on the potential impact of the new Acadia fees.
This year, Acadia recorded 4,042,403 visits through the end of October, an increase of 3.2% over the same period last year, according to park service data.
Over 13 million foreign tourists visited national parks in 2016 — more than one-third of the 37.6 million overseas travelers who came to the U.S. that year — with the top five countries of origin being the United Kingdom, China, Germany, France and Australia, according to the U.S. Travel Association. And of the nearly 2 million travelers who visited Down East Maine and Acadia National Park in 2024, 4% came from Canada and 2% came from other countries, according to a state report.
After the executive order was issued over the summer, Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, called the order “bizarre, discriminatory and counterproductive” and questioned its impact on tourism in Maine.
“Maine’s tourism industry is already facing serious challenges, including worker shortages, economic pressures, and a sharp decline in Canadian visitors,” Pingree said in an emailed statement in July. “Adding new costs for international visitors risks making that decline even worse and could hurt the communities that rely on park-related tourism.”
Reached for comment Wednesday, a spokesperson for Pingree pointed a reporter to the congresswoman’s statement from July.
Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, said in July that he was not opposed to international visitors paying more to visit Acadia but that a poorly implemented verification process could cause issues at the park.
Golden’s office was closed Wednesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, and staff members were not available to respond to questions about the changes to park fees.
A spokesperson for Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said Wednesday that the senator is reviewing the new details released this week.
The office of Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in an email on Wednesday that it had “reached out to Acadia National Park to evaluate the effects of this announcement and the potential challenges it could cause.”
