Visitor Counts

April 2023

All Arrivals

April visitation decreased year-over-year by 7.0% or 6,256 visitors

Previous tracking (below) for the month of April offers a comparison with and without COVID-19 impacts.  April 2023 was below the peak visitation for the month recorded in 2017 of 95,026 by 11,417 travelers.

April’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages for the month

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 80,625 for the month, a decrease of 6.8% from last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 21.0% or a decrease of 14,486 people

• 2022 had the highest volume for the month @ 69,111 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 1,811
• April Cross Channel Passenger counts were below the three-year average by 9.2%, but above the five and ten-year averages by 15.6% and 5.6% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 65.33% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 22,932, up by 64.75% from 2022 or 9,011 visitors

• 2014 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 30,495
• 2020 and 2021 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• April Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 86.7%, 81.6% and 23.1% respectively.  Note multi-year averages are greatly impacted by the lack of cruise ships calling during COVID-19’s suspension of operations
• Cruise Passengers made up 27.43% of total monthly arrivals

• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 8
• 2019 had the highest number of ships calling @ 10
• 2020 and 2021 had 0 ships call on us

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 3,068, down from last year by 11.5% or 400 visitors

• 2021 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 4,040
• 2020 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 100
• April Private Boater Passenger counts were below the three-year average by 13.0% but above the five and ten-year averages by 10.5% and 7.3% respectively
• Private Boaters Made up 3.67% of total monthly arrivals

• April’s number of Vessels Anchored was up by 73.0% @ 109 vs 63 last year
• 2023 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 109
• 2012 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 3
• April was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 24.3%, 32.3% and 52.2% respectively

• April’s number of Vessels on Moorings was down 13.5% from last year @ 767 vs 867
• 2021 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,010

• 2020 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 25
• April was below the three-year average by xx%, but above the five and ten-year averages by 29.7% and 32.7% respectively

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for April totaled 1,950 down 43.7% from 3,463 in 2022

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) were up 15.3% @ 1,827 vs 1,584 last year

• April’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 12.1%, 81% and 42.1% respectively
• April’s Private Aircraft Passengers made up 2.19% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 35% @ 1,157 vs. 1,781 

• 2015 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,888
• 2020 the lowest volume for the month @ 53
• April Helicopter Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 24.7%, 10.7% and 21.4% respectively
• April Helicopter Passengers made up 1.38% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Occupancy from Smith Travel and AIRDNA

• Hotel Occupancy for April was down by 12% @ 66.2% vs. 75.2% in 2022
• Hotel Occupancy was below-year average by 1.6% but above the five and ten-year averages by 12.3% and 4.8% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for April was down 12.3% @ 57% vs 65% in 2022
• Short-term rental occupancy was almost equal to the three-year average, but above the five and ten-year averages by 9.4% and 12% respectively

Competing Destination Occupancies

• April Hotel Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in all competing destinations
• April Short-Term Rental Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s all competing destinations

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate from Smith Travel and AIRDNA

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 8th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 5th for STRs (high to low)
• April Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 1.5% @ $211.93 vs. $208.75 in 2022
• April Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was down by 6.7% @ $557.00 vs. $597.00 in 2022

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room from Smith Travel and AIRDNA

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 10th for hotels and 5th for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• April Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was down 10.7% @ $140.20 vs. $156.98 in 2022
• April Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $385.00, down 0.5% from $387.00 in 2022

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Walk-ins for the month were up year-over-year by 38.5% @ 2,164 vs. 1,563 in 2022
• 2018 has the highest volume for the month @3,443
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 0
• April walk-in counts were above the three and five-year averages by 27.2% and 32.5% respectively

• The number of Phone Calls for the month was down by 28.9% year-over-year @ 503 vs 707
• 2007 had the highest volume of calls for the month @ 1,693
• 2020 had the lowest volume of calls for the month @ 217
• April calls were below the three and five-year averages by 15.8% and 9.9% respectively

LoveCatalina.com

• April LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was down year-over-year by 29.8% @ 81,178 vs 115,647 in 2022
• April total website users were below the three and five-year averages by 15.6% and 7.4% but above the ten-year average by 85.2%
• Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 48.9% @ 9,823 vs. 19,203 in 2022 
• Book Direct lodging searches were down 42.3% @ 12,782 vs.22,140 in 2022

Note changes to Book Direct in 2021 resulted in shifting traffic between referrals and searches 

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

Note measures now include additional source tracking for months and years in which distributions were made

• 8,840 Guides were delivered to Certified Racks during the month
• Go California Print Guide orders totaled 266, up from 223 in 2022
• 52 Guides were delivered via Mail House for the month
• Online Guide downloads were down @ 461 vs. 501 in 2022
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 530, were up from 111 last year
• Guides delivered to the Visitor Center totaled 780, up from 405 in 2022

Note, no 2021 Guide was printed and 2022 guide distribution initiated in late February 2022, resulting in more online guide orders. Some distributor’s tracking is running behind and will be updated as received.

• New E-newsletter subscribers in April were down year-over-year @ 145 vs 187 in 2022
• New subscribers for the month were below the three-year average of 159 but above the five-year average of 95

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of April below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 3.6%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 22.4%
• Twitter followers are up year-over-year by 4.5%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 37.1%
• TikTok is up year-over-year by 26.1%. 

Year-to-date—Historical Arrivals

COVID-19 and pre-Covid-19 comparrison data is illustrated in the snapshot above (January – April)

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

• 2015 had the highest total visitation year-to-date @ 283,498, a difference of 27,378 visitors vs 2023
• 2020 had the lowest year-to-date total visitation @ 134,101

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 and AirDNA

• Hotel Occupancy January through April 2023 was 60.6% vs. 63.1% tracked for the same time period in 2022
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 49.8%, down from 54.5% in 2022
• According to Smith Travel, Catalina’s average YTD Hotel Occupancy of 60.6% was below the YTD occupancy for all of our competing destinations except for Monterey
• According to AirDNA, Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental YTD Occupancy of 49.8% was above Palm Springs, but below all other destinations in our competitive set

Year-to-date Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are down by 23.2% @ 1,708 vs. 2,223 in 2022
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three and five-year averages by 3.4% and 12.2% respectively
• Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are up @ 6,829 vs. 6,112 or 11.7%   
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three and five-year averages by 32.2% and 34.6% respectively

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

• LoveCatalina.com website users were down year-to-date by 22.4% @ 311,752 vs.401,849 in 2022
• Book Direct lodging searches were down by 31.2% @ 45,341 vs. 65,911 in 2022 
• Book Direct referrals were down by 38.5% @ 34,737 vs. 56,514 in 2022 
• Book Direct Package referrals were not active on our site

 Note changes to Book Direct on member links has resulted in shifting some traffic to referrals vs. searches

Weather

Data for March/April highs, lows and precipitation is not currently available due to broken feed from the Harbor weather station. Multi-year rain days data is also displayed by year and month since 2012, likewise excluding March and April of this year.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.