BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 29, 2020
Bar Harbor just doesn’t quite seem like Bar Harbor. The Mount Desert Island town, with a population of fewer than 6,000 residents, typically thrives on millions of visitors each year — most from out of state — who throng to the island and Acadia National Park each year between Memorial Day and Columbus Day. But this year, with COVID-19 strangling the global economy and restrictions on people traveling to Maine, only a tiny fraction have shown up. Restaurants — like hotels — are feeling the lack of tourists acutely because they depend on a steady stream of customers. With local hotels far below occupancy and no cruise ships expected to visit at all this summer, many businesses are simply to make it through the year and re-open in 2021.