August 2022
All Arrivals
August visitation increased year-over-year by 37.7% or 39,620 visitors
Previous tracking (below) for the month of August offers a comparison with and without COVID-19 impacts. August 2022’s total of 144,834 exceeded August 2019’s pre COVID-19 total arrivals of 136,781 by 8,053 visitors.
August’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages of 109,669, 120,143 and 124,420 by 32.1%, 20.6% and 16.4% respectively.
Arrivals by Sea
Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 140,590 for the month and were up 38.9% from last year.
Cross Channel Passenger counts were up year-over-year by 5.9% or an increase of 5,393 people
- 1990 had the highest volume for the month @ 121,064 passengers
- 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 64,683. Pre COVID-19, the lowest year for the month was 2009 @ 75,672
- August Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 14.7%, 6.9% and 4.8% respectively
- Cross Channel Passengers made up 66.55% of total monthly arrivals
Cruise passenger counts totaled 33,876
- There were no cruise passengers in August 2020 or 2021
- 2022 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 33,876
- 2020 and 21 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0. Pre-COVID-19 the lowest count for the month was 2002 @ 10,388
- August Cruise Passenger counts were above the three and five and ten-year averages by 200%, 119.8% and 85% respectively. Note with two years of no cruise ship calls, multi-year averages are greatly impacted
- Cruise Passengers made up 23.39% of total monthly arrivals
- The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 10
- 2016 and 2018 had 10 ships call on us
- 2020 and 21 had 0
- Pre-COVID-19 the lowest count for the month was 9 in 2017
Private Boater Passenger counts were up from last year by 1.1% @ 10,332 vs. 10,220
- 2019 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 10,612
- 2015 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 8,424
- August Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three and five and ten-year averages by 0.4%, 0.5% and 6.5% respectively
- Private Boaters Made up 7.1% of total monthly arrivals
- August’s number of Vessels Anchored was down 2.5% @ 119 vs 122 last year
- 2017 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 259
- 2012 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 110
- August was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 0.8%, 15.5% and 23.4% respectively
- August’s number of Vessels on Moorings was up slightly from last year @ 2,583 vs 2,555
- 2019 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 2,653
- 2012 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 2,156
- August was above the three and five and ten-year averages for Vessels on Moorings by 0.4%, 0.5 and 6.5% respectively
Arrivals by Air
Combined in-bound air passenger counts for August totaled 4,329 up 6.4% from 4,069 in 2021. 
Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) were up @ 2,283 vs 1,839 last year
- 2008 had the highest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 2,644
- 2017 had the lowest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 1,575
- August’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.1%, 4.2% and 3.9% respectively.
- August Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.58% of total monthly arrivals
Helicopter Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 9.5% @ 1,961 vs. 2,166
- 2015 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,749
- 2020 the lowest volume for the month @ 1,483. Pre COVID-19 the lowest for the month was 2013 @ 1,687
- August Helicopter Passengers counts were above the three-year average by 4.9% and below the five and ten-year averages by 5.2% and 14.1% respectively
- August Helicopter Passengers made up 1.35% of total monthly arrivals
Lodging
Hotel and Short-Term Rental Occupancy from Smith Travel and AIRDNA
- Hotel Occupancy for August was down by 4.0% @ 80% vs. 83.3% in 2021
- Hotel Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 2.3%, 1.4% and 2.8% respectively
- Short-Term Rental Occupancy for August was up 3.2% @ 78% vs 75.6% in 2021
- Short-term rental occupancy was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 9.7%, 28.2% and 37.7% respectively
Competing Destination Occupancies
- Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 3rd in Hotel Occupancy and 1st in STR Occupancy for August 2022
- August Hotel Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in Santa Barbara and Santa Monica
- August Short-Term Rental Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in none of our competing destinations
Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate from Smith Travel and AIRDNA
- Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 3rd in Average Daily Rate for STRs
- August Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 1.6% @ $281.66 vs. $277.23 in 2021
- August Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up 5.7% @ $596.00, up from $564.00 in 2021
Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room from Smith Travel and AIRDNA
- Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th for hotels and 2nd for STRs respectively in Revenue Per Available Room.
- August Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 4.1% @ $225.34 vs. $216.42 in 2021
- August Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $464.00, up 5.9% from $438.00 in 2021
Visitors Services
Catalina Island Visitor Center
- Phone Calls for the month were down year-over-year by 1.3% @ 810 vs. 821 in 2021
- 2011 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,813 calls
- 2022 had the lowest volume for the month @ 810 calls.
- August call counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.2%, 22.9% and 33% respectively
Note that phone sales for the annual New Year’s Eve Gala halted in 2019, resulting in lower call volumes July - December
- The number of Walk-Ins for the month was down by 12.4% year-over-year @ 3,512 vs. 4,009 in 2021
- 2008 had the highest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 2,942 guests
- 2022 had the lowest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 810 guests.
- August Walk-In counts were above the three-year average by 30.1% and below the five-year average by 2.2%
LoveCatalina.com
- August LoveCatalina.com website users were down year-over-year by 6.5% @ 92,520 vs. 99,001 in 2021
- Website users fell below the three-year average by 1.4% but are above the five and ten-year averages by 11.4% and 122.8% respectively
- Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 37.6% @ 13,068 vs. 20,097 in 2021
- Book Direct lodging searches were down 22% @ 14,588 vs. 18,845 in 2021
Note changes to Book Direct on member links has 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 tracked.
- Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 285, were up from 37 last year
- Online Guide downloads were down by 64.6% @ 169 vs. 477 in 2021 when no print version was available
Note, no 2021 Guide was printed and 2022 guide distribution initiated in late February 2022.
Some distributors tracking is running behind and will be updated as received.
- New E-newsletter subscribers in August were up year-over-year @ 144 vs 124 in 2021
- New subscribers were above the three-year average of 138 and the five-year average of 83
Social Media
Cumulative totals by platform as of August below
- Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 5.3%
- Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 20.2%
- Twitter followers are up year-over-year by 9.2%
- LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 75.6%
- TikTok is our newest platform and is up year-over year by 2,320.4%.
Year-to-Date Measures
Total year-to-date arrivals are up from last year by 42.4%
- Year-to-date Total Arrivals were up @ 776,861 vs. 545,569 last year or a difference of 231,292 visitors
- The total arrivals year-to-date exceeded the three-year average of 545,893 by 42.3%, five-year average of 621,328 by 25% and ten-year average of 666,391 by 16.6%
- All arrival sectors are up year-to-date with the exception of Private Boat
Year-to-Date—Historical Arrivals
COVID-19 and pre-Covid-19 comparison data is illustrated in the ten-year plus snapshot below (January - August combined).
- 2022 has the highest total visitation year-to-date @ 776,861
- 2020 had the lowest year-to-date total visitation @ 315,249
To view historical data for total arrivals by sector, year and month in a spreadsheet form click here. PDF File.
Year-to-date Lodging
Hotel and Short-Term Rental Occupancy from Smith Travel and AIRDNA
- Hotel Occupancy YTD is 72.5% vs. 63.2% tracked for the same time period in 2021
- Short-Term Rental Occupancy Year-To-Date is 61%, up from 59.2% in 2021
- According to Smith Travel, YTD Catalina’s average Hotel Occupancy of 72.5% was above Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Monterey, Newport Beach, Palm Springs and San Francisco. We are equal to Santa Barbara. Competing destinations of San Diego and Santa Monica exceeded our year-to-date average Hotel Occupancy.
- According to AirDNA, Catalina’s average Year-To-Date Short-Term Rental Occupancy was above Palm Springs, but below all other destinations in our competitive set.
Note 2021 and 2022 peak demand rates have impacted occupancy on Catalina Island
Year-to-date Visitor Services
Catalina Island Visitor Center
- Number of Phone Calls year-to-date are up by 2.6% @ 5,621 vs. 5,480
- Year-to-date Phone Calls exceeded the three-year average, but are below the five and ten-year averages
- Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are up @ 17,339 vs. 16,551 or 4.8%
- Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three-year average, but below the five-year average
Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com
- LoveCatalina.com website users are up year-to-date by 5.4% @ 814,319 vs. 772,297 in 2021
- Book Direct lodging searches are down year-to-date by 11.9% @, 140,087 vs. 158,922 in 2021.
- Book Direct referrals year-to-date are down by 16.5% @ 125,764 vs. 150,648 in 2021
- Book Direct Package referrals are not currently 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 August highs, lows and precipitation going back to 2012 is displayed below. Multi-year rain days data is also displayed by year and month since 2012. Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.
