Visitor Counts

September 2024

September visitation decreased year-over-year by 11.8% or 12,945 visitors with 96,678 total arrivals. vis

September’s total arrival count was below the three-year average by 4.1% but above five and ten-year averages by 5.5% and 0.2% respectively. Multi-year averages are greatly impacted by COVID-19 related downturns. Cross Channel Counts above include 3,373 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 3,476 last year. vis

Previous tracking (below) for the month of September offers comparisons year-over-year by segments.

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in September totaled 94,226, down for the month by 12.6% from last year. vis
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Cross Channel Passenger counts were up 4.3%, an increase of 3,017 people. Cross Channel Counts above include 3,373 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 3,476 last year.

1995 had the highest volume for the month @ 78,320 passengers
2008 had the lowest volume for the month @ 44,553 passengers
September Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.3%, 2.6% and 6.6% respectively
Cross Channel Passengers made up 75.77% of total monthly arrivals

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Cruise passenger counts totaled 12,930, down by 55.7% from 2023 or by 16,281 visitors

2023 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 29,211
2020 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
September Cruise Passenger counts were below the three and ten-year averages by 31.9% and 20.8% respectively. Cruise passenger counts were above the five-year average by 11.0%
Cruise Passengers made up 13.37% of total monthly arrivals
The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in September was 4
2019 had the highest number of ships calling @ 11
2020 and 2021 had 0 ships calling
September typically has 8 ships call on us
The Vessel Counts chart above is missing ten-year averages on number of ships due to a period of time where data was only tracked annually.

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Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 8,040, down by 3.3% from 8,316 last year or by 276 visitors

2011 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 10,494
2014 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 6,812
September Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three-year average by 0.2% but below five and ten-year averages by 2.1% and 0.1% respectively
Private Boaters made up 8.32% of total monthly arrivals
September’s number of Vessels Anchored was up by 72.1% from last year or by 158 boats
2024 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 377
2012 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 71
September was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 48.8%, 92.0% and 116.8% respectively
September’s number of Vessels on Moorings was down 3.3% from last year or by 69 boats
2020 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 2,208
2014 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,703
September was above the three-year average by 0.2% but below the five and ten-year averages by 2.1% and 0.1% respectively

boat

Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for September totaled 2,484 up 32.7% or 612 Arrivals from 2023. vis

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,233, up 23.8% or by 237 passengers vs. last year

2012 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,621
2023 the lowest volume for the month @ 996
September’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.7%, 18.9% and 22.5% respectively
Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.28% of total monthly arrivals

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Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 1,219, up year-over-year by 41.6% or 358 arrivals

2017 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,245
2023 had the lowest volume for the month @ 861
September Helicopter Passenger counts were above the three-year average by 4.0% but below the five and ten-year averages by 12.5% and 31.6% respectively
Helicopter Passengers made up 1.26% of total monthly arrivals

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Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

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Hotel Occupancy for September was down 4.1% @ 70.4% vs. 73.4% in 2023
Hotel Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.2%, 4.2% and 5.7% respectively
2017 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 81.3%
2024 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 70.4%
Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was not available at the time of this report
Short-Term Rental Occupancy for September was down 8.6% @ 53.0% vs. 58.0% in 2023
Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three and five-year averages by 10.2% and 9.6% respectively, but above the ten-year average by 6.5%
2022 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 66%
2016 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 38.2%
Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was unavailable at the time of this report
Among our competitive set, Hotels ranked in 5^th place and Short-Term Rentals 1st place in Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

occupancy

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Hotel Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all but one competing market
Short-Term Rental Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all but one competing market

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate vis

Hotel Average Daily Rate was down 5.6% @ $235.33 vs. $249.33 in 2023
Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up by 29.1% @ $754.00 vs. $584.00 in 2023
Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)
Statewide Hotel Average Daily Rate was unavailable at the time of reporting
Statewide STR Average Daily Rate was unavailable at the time of reporting

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room vis

Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was down 6.0% @ $164.87 vs. $175.47 in 2023
Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was up 18.0% @ $400.00 vs. $339.00 in 2023
Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 9th for hotels and 5th for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
Statewide Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was not available at the time of reporting
Statewide Short Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was not available at the time of reporting

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 15.0% @ 2,227 vs. 2,620 in 2023
2018 had the highest volume for the month @ 5,139
2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 1,003
September walk-in counts were below the three-year average by 9.1% and above the five-year average by 6.4%

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The number of Phone Calls for the month was up by 16.5% year-over-year @ 487 vs 418
2010 had the highest volume of calls for the month @ 1,854
2023 had the lowest volume of calls for the month @ 418
September calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 13.5%, 16.7% and 42.5% respectively

Increased use of online and mobile self-help tools for reservations and research are being seen as the main reason for declining calls Inquiries on social media and via email are often taking the place of calls as well

LoveCatalina.com vis

September LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was down year-over-year @ 97,000 vs. 112,000 in 2023
September total website users were below the three-year average by 0.3% but above the five-year average by 6.7%
Book Direct lodging referrals were up year-over-year by 77.9% @ 12,634 vs. 7,101 in 2023
Book Direct lodging searches were up 147.5% @ 25,070 vs. 10,129 in 2023
Book Direct Packages were not active this month

Note changes to Book Direct in 2021 resulted in shifting traffic between referrals and searches. New Google metrics inhibit ten-year reporting in our software.

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

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Certified racks @ 0, down from 4,420 for the same month last year
Go California Print Guide orders totaled 153, up from 121in 2023
Mail House fulfillment was up @ 74 from 0 in 2023
Online Guide downloads were up 14.9% @ 393 vs. 342 in 2023
Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 444, were up 25.4% from 354 last year
1,080 Visitor Guides were delivered to the Visitor Center, an increase of 100% over 2023 @ 0

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New E-newsletter subscribers in September were down slightly year-over-year @ 139 vs 142 in 2023
New subscribers for the month were above the three-year average

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of September below:

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Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 5.9%
Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 31.2%
LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 29.8%
Threads followers are up 134.0% year-over-year
TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 15.7%.
X followers are up year-over-year by 0.2%

Trip Origination
Placer.AI

All Placer.AI data below is presented in descending order

The top five states from which Catalina’s September visitors originated were California, Arizona, New York, Illinois and Nevada (descending order)
The top five cities/DMAs of origination based on number of visitor trips made to the island in September were Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura and Phoenix (descending order)
The top five cities (descending order) visitors who were on the island for the most nights were Los Angeles, Ojai, Phoenix, Saint Paul and Calabasas
Top disposable income was from visitors originated from Boston Ma, Show Lo Az, Colorado Springs Co, Safford Az and Sierra Vista Az (descending order)

Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Data above is for January – September of each year.

Below is a graph of year-to-date and mutli-year comparissons of all arrivals by sector

vis

2024 year-to-date total visitation is 921,274, up 8.7% from 847,861 last year
2024 year-to-date visitation is above the three, five and ten-year average by 4.6%, 25.9% and 17.1% respectively.

To view historical data for total arrivals by sector, year and month in a spreadsheet form click here.

Year-to-date Lodging

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Occupancy from Smith Travel, AirDNA and Visit California

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Hotel Occupancy January through September 2024 is up 1.0% @ 66.8% vs.66.1% tracked for the same time period in 2023
Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 50.9%, down 10.0% from 2023 which was 56.6%
Catalina’s average year-to-date Hotel Occupancy of 66.8% was below the YTD occupancy for seven of our ten competing destinations
Year-to-date statewide Hotel Occupancy was unavailable at the time of this report
Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental year-to date Occupancy of 50.9% was above all but one destination in our competitive set
Year-to-date statewide Short Term Rental Occupancy was not reported

Year-to-date Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are down by 24.4% @ 3,962 vs. 5,242 in 2023
Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 23.9%, 27.5% and 48.1% respectively
The Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are down @ 20,852 vs. 21,914 or 4.8%
Year-to-date Walk-In counts were below the three-year average by 0.1% but above the five-year average by 21.5%

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

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Book Direct Package referrals were not active this reporting period
Book Direct referrals are up by 29.3% year-to-date @ 122,607 vs. 94,859 in 2023
Book Direct lodging searches were up by 48.2% @ 182,325 vs. 122,984 in 2023
LoveCatalina.com website users are up for the period by 14.1% @ 899,000 vs.780,000 in 2023

Note changes to Book Direct on member links has resulted in shifting some traffic to referrals vs. searches and Google website traffic reporting moved to G4 effective July 2022