Tour company sues over fees for international visitors to national parks, including Acadia
Visitors watching the sunrise in 2017 on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)
An Arizona tour company has sued the federal government over increased fees for international visitors to national parks, including Acadia.
The National Park Service implemented the new pricing structure at the start of 2026. The American the Beautiful annual digital park pass stayed $80 for U.S. residents but jumped to $250 for nonresidents. International visitors aged 16 and older without the annual pass now pay $100 per person on top of the standard entrance fee at Acadia and 10 of the other busiest parks.
Phoenix-based Across Arizona Tours filed the lawsuit in September, arguing that the Trump administration did not have the authority to change the fees. The company operates van tours in the Grand Canyon. The complaint says the co-owner has spoken with 80 to 90 people who decided not to reserve a tour with the company, mostly because of the increased fees.
“As a result of the new fees, Across Arizona Tours has suffered a decline in business over the past year among nonresident customers,” the complaint says. “Given the potential for hundreds of dollars of additional fees for a family visiting, many potential customers have chosen to forgo visiting the Grand Canyon entirely, opting instead to visit different destinations in the U.S. or to plan to visit and spend their money on other countries.”
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It is not clear how the change is impacting Acadia National Park. The park reported more than 3.3 million recreational visits this year through the end of September, slightly less than the same period last year, but did not say how many of those are nonresidents.
No one responded to an email to the general media inbox for Acadia on Thursday evening. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Interior did not answer questions about how the fee has impacted international visitation at Acadia but touted the policy in a written statement.
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“Thanks to President Donald J. Trump, U.S. residents, who already fund the National Park System through federal taxes, are continuing to enjoy affordable pricing, while foreign tourists are paying higher entrance fees to help maintain our parks and improve visitor experiences,” the statement said. “This administration will continue to put American families first — making parks more accessible, more affordable and more efficient for future generations.”
In August, Secretary Doug Burgum posted on X that the policy had generated $20 million in new funding for national parks.
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The federal government has not yet filed a response to the complaint in court. The plaintiffs argue that Congress has never authorized the National Park Service to impose higher entrance fees for nonresidents.
“The federal defendants ignore both the explicit and implicit limitations on their authority,” the complaint says. “In doing so, they presume a boundless authority to impose whatever fees they deem fit. That elastic view of their authority is wrong — not least because it would violate separation of powers for Congress to delegate an unbounded authority to impose different fees for any group, or for any reason.”
Other parks subject to the $100 surcharge for international visitors are Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion.
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Megan Gray covers the outdoors and tourism at the Portland Press Herald. A Midwest native, she moved to Maine in 2016. She has written about presidential politics and local government, jury trials and. More by Megan Gray
