Visitor Counts

February 2026

All Arrivals

February visitation increased year-over-year by 37.8% with 75.788 total arrivals.

February’s total arrival count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 32.1%, 37.0% and 51.4% respectively. Cross Channel Counts above include 865 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 830 last year. 

Previous tracking (below) for the month February offers comparisons year-over-year by segments

• February 2026 had the highest number of total visitor arrivals for the month @ 75,788
• February 2021 had the lowest number of total visitor arrivals @ 22,225

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in February totaled 67,228 down by 3.8% for the month compared to last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were up by 99.1%, an increase of 26,258 people.  Cross Channel Counts shown above include arrivals at Two Harbors.

• 2026 had the highest volume of Cross Channel passengers for the month @ 52,755 passengers
• 1998 had the lowest volume for the month @ 15,517 passengers
• February Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 52.9%, 59.1% and 76.1% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 69.61% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 18,857 down from 25,401 last year by 25.8%

• 2023 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 27,166
• 2021 & 2022 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• February Cruise Passenger counts were below the three-year average by 4.1% but above the five and ten-year averages by 0.7%, and 10.9% respectively
• Cruise Passengers made up 24.88% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in February was 5
• 2023 had the highest number of ships calling @ 10
• 2021 and 2022 had 0 ships calling

• February typically has 8 ships call

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 1,864, up 32.8% from last year at 1,404

• 2016 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 2,236
• 2017 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 628
• February Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 33.3%, 45.4% and 45.4% respectively
• Private Boaters made up 2.46% of total arrivals
• February 2026’s number of Vessels Anchored was 26, down 69.7% from 2025 @ 81
• 2019 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored for the month @ 104
• 2013 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 3
• February below the three, five and ten-year averages by 56.9%, 53.7% and 52.6% respectively 
• February’s number of Vessels on Moorings was 327, no change from 2024 @ 327
• 2017 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 554
• 2013 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 11
• February was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 33.32%, 45.5% and 45.4% respectively

  Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for February totaled 2,334 up by 37.7% from 1,695 in 2025

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,602, up 30.9% vs. last year’s total of 1,224

• 2016 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,133
• 2019 had the lowest volume for the month @ 0
• February’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 37.0%, 17.3% and 41.9% respectively

• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 2.11% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 710, up year-over-year by 53.7% from 462 in 2025

• 2018 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,339
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 0
• Helicopter Passenger counts were above the three-year average by 10.3% but below the five and ten-year averages by 7.7%
• Helicopter Passengers made up .94 of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

• Hotel Occupancy in February was up slightly @ 56.9% vs. 56.0% in 2025, according to Smith Travel with six properties reporting
• Hotel Occupancy was above the three-year average by 3.3%, but below the five and ten-year averages by 1.8% and 9.3% respectively
• 2019 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 75.9%
• 2021 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 48.7%
• Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was 69.0%
• Nationwide Hotel Occupancy was 60.0%

• Catalina’s Short-Term Rental Occupancy for February was down by 7.4% @ 27.0% vs 29.2% in 2025, according to AirDNA with 325 properties reporting

• Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 28.7%, 35.6% and 40.5% respectively
• 2022 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 60.0%
• 2016 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 26.1%
• Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was 62.0%
• Nationwide STR Occupancy was 60.0%
• Among our competitive set Catalina Hotels and Short-Term Rentals ranked in 8th and 10th place respectively for Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

• Hotel Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all but Monterey and Santa Barbara
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all competing markets

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate

• Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 0.2% @ $185.42 vs. $185.02 in 2025
• Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was down by 17.4% @ $555.00 vs. $671.97.00 in 2025
• Statewide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $197.00 and $157.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $265.00 and $253.00 respectively

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room

• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 2.6% @ $105.60 vs. $102.97 in 2025
• Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was down 24.5% @ $148.00 vs. $195.00 in 2025
• Statewide Hotel  and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $126.00 and $89.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $165.00 and $151.00 respectively

Visitor & Member Services

• No Mixer was held in February this year
• Phone Calls for the month were up year-over-year by 17.3% @ 244 vs. 208 in 2025
• Calls were down from the three, five and ten-year averages by 1.5%, 23.9% and 42.5% respectively
• 2007 had the highest number of calls @ 1,265
• 2021 had the lowest number @ 256
• Increased use of online and mobile self-help tools for reservations and research are believed to be the main reasons for declining calls

• Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 16.9% @ 897 vs. 1,079 in 2025
• Walk-ins are below the three and five-year averages by 14.0% and 30.0% respectively
• 2023 had the highest volume of walk-ins for the month @ 1,704
• 2021 had the lowest volume for the month @ 528

LoveCatalina.com

• February’s LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was down 32.6% year-over-year @ 59,472 vs. 88,256 in 2025
• February’s total website users was below the three and five-year averages by 22.0% and 22.9% respectively
• Book Direct lodging referrals were up year-over-year by 4.6% @ 9,954 vs. 9,519 in 2025
• Book Direct lodging searches were up 3.9% @ 20,052 vs. 19,302 in 2025
• Additional Google metrics are now being tracked for users opting to navigate to calls, directions, searches etc., but with small numbers tracked so far

Notes:  Changes to Book Direct in 2021 resulted in shifting traffic between referrals and searches.  New Google metrics inhibit ten-year reporting in our software and favor their own results over our organic ranking.  In addition, external AI tools are eroding traditional website traffic measures.  LoveCatalina.com is now optimized for future AI searches.  AI web traffic is not trackable at this time.

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

• Go California Printed Guide orders totaled 264, down from 315 in 2025
• Mail House fulfillment was 2,189 vs 3,137 in 2025 
• Online Guide downloads were down @ 199 vs. 386 in 2025
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com were down @ 316 vs 614 last year
• Visitor Guides distributed at trade shows totaled 576 vs 1,248 last year

• New E-newsletter subscribers in February declined year-over-year @ 57 vs 96 last year
• New subscribers for the month were below the three and five-year averages of 107 and 119 respectively

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of February.

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 7.8%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 13.7%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 21.6%
• Threads followers are up by 16.4%
• TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 39.5%. 
• X followers are down year over-year by 1.4%

For a look at our top performing Meta posts in February vs. January, click here 

Weather

High, low and rain days for February (since 2012) are tracked below (new format).  Measures are taken atAvalon Harbor.

• Daytime highs of 60.0 degrees were tracked in February, the second lowest average daytime temperatures tracked and down from 62 degrees in 2025

• Overnight lows averaged 49.0 degrees vs 50.0 degrees in February 2025

• February 2026 recorded 4 rain days vs 6 in 2025

• February 2026 recorded 1.33 inches of rain vs. 1.92 in 2025

Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Year-to-date total arrivals is above all previous years’ tracking @ 135,005 visitors.

Data above is for January – February of each year and shows a 31.1% growth over last year

Below is a graph of 2026 arrivals with multi-year comparisons by sector

• 2026 year-to-date total visitation @ 135,005 is up 31.1% from 102,992 in 2025
• 2026 year-to-date visitation is above the three, five and ten-year averages by 23.8%,31.8% and 42.3% respectively.
• With the exception of Cruise carriers, all sectors saw growth year-over-year

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

• Hotel Occupancy year-to-date was up 11.5% @ 57.2% vs. 51.3% tracked in 2025
• Hotel Occupancy for the first two months of 2026 was above the three and five-year averages by 9.0%, 7.5% respectively, but slightly below the ten-year average by 0.7%
• Short-Term Rental for the first two months of 2026 was 25.5%, down 3.0% from 2025 which was 26.3%
• Short-term rental occupancy year-to-date was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 5.3%, 21.2% and 25.0% respectively

Year-to-date Visitor & Member Services

• The number of Mixer attendees year-to date  was down by 54.3% due to February’s mixer cancellation
• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date was up by 5.7% @ 485 vs. 459 in 2025
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 5.3%, 22.8% and 38.9% respectively
• The Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date was down 21.0% @ 1,639 vs. 2,075 in 2025
• Walk-In counts were below the three and five-year averages by 20.7% and 31.6% respectively

Year-to-date

LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct referrals were up 19.2% @ 19,624 vs. 16,466 in 2025
• Book Direct lodging searches were up by 19.9% @ 40,052 vs. 33,397 in 2025 
• Calls connecting from LoveCatalina.com were down 11.1% from 2025
• Clicks to directions on LoveCatalina.com were up 11.0% from 2025
• Business profile views were up 104.2% from 2025
• Searches made on LoveCatalina.com were up 390.3% from 2025
• Website Users were down 1.6% from 2025
• Visits to other websites from LoveCatalina.com were down 2.1% from 2025

Note:  Google’s implementation of Gemini is seen as impacting traditional website performance,  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.  Newer measures do not yet have multi-year tracking to report.  Recently implemented AI integration is not rendering data for reporting.

Year-to-date Weather

Multi-year weather warnings, high temperature and rain days by month (January-February) are displayed below.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.  Enhanced reporting recently implemented is shown below.  The enhanced data reporting has been implemented due to the significant impact weather has on travelers' decision to visit, or trip interruptions/cancellations.

Weather Warnings

High & Low Temperatures

Total Rain Days & Amounts