Visitor Counts

August 2025

All Arrivals

August visitation increased year-over-year by 1.9% with 155,432 total arrivals

August’s total arrival count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 8.4%, 14.2% and 19.7% respectively. Cross Channel Counts above include 5,128 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 4,948 last year. 

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

• August 2025 had the highest number of total visitor arrivals @ 155,432
• August 2020 had the lowest number of total visitor arrivals @ 78,958

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in August totaled 151,567, up by 2.0% for the month compared to last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down slightly @ 0.5%, a decrease of 568 people.  Cross Channel Counts above include arrivals at Two Harbors.

• 1990 had the highest volume for the month @ 121,064 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 64,683passengers
• August Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 7.5%, 9.9% and 13.9% respectively

• Cross Channel Passengers made up 68.61% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 35,078, up from 31,333 last year by 12.0% or 3,745 visitors

• 2025 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 35,078
• 2020 and 2021 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• August Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 13.3%, 38.3% and 59.0% respectively
• Cruise Passengers made up 22.57% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in August was 9
• 2016 had the highest number of ships calling @ 11
• 2020 and 2021 had 0 ships calling
• August typically has 10 ships call
• The Vessel Counts chart above is missing ten-year averages on the number of ships due to a period of time where data was only tracked annually

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 9,844, down 2.7% or by 272 people from last year l

• 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-year total by 3.0%, even with the five-year average and below the ten-year year average by 1.28%
• Private Boaters made up 6.33% of total monthly arrivals
• August’s number of Vessels Anchored was down by 56.2% @ 102 vs. 233
• 2017 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored for the month @ 259
• 2025 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 102
• August was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 46.3%, 37.1% and 38.5% respectively
• August’s number of Vessels on Moorings was 2,461, down 2.7% from last year
• 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-year average by 3.0%, even with the five-year average and below the ten-year average

  Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for August totaled 3,909, up by 1.7% from 3,843 in 2024

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 2,049, down 9.2% vs. last year’s total of 2,256

• 2008 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,644
• 2017 had the lowest volume for the month @ 1,575
• August’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.1%, 2.1% and 1.5% respectively
• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.32% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 1,816, up year-over-year by 15.4% from 1,573 in 2024

• 2015 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,749
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 1,483
• Helicopter Passenger counts were above the three and five-year averages by 13.5% and 1.7% respectively, but below the ten-year average by 11.0%
• Helicopter Passengers made up 1.17% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

• Hotel Occupancy in August was down 0.6% @ 77.4% vs. 77.9% in 2024, according to Smith Travel with seven properties reporting
• Hotel Occupancy was above the three-year average by 2.0% but below the five and ten-year averages by 0.3% and 4.0% respectively
• 2017 and 2018 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 86.9%
• 2023 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 72.4%
• Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was 71.0%, down 0.2% from 2024
• Nationwide Hotel Occupancy was 64.0%, down 1.3% from last year
• Catalina’s Short-Term Rental Occupancy for August was down by 2.8% @ 70.0% vs.72.0% in 2024, according to AirDNA with 330 properties reporting
• Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three and five-year averages by 0.9% and 3.5% respectively but above the ten-year average by 13.0%
• 2021 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 78.0%
• 2018 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 32.8%
• Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was 59.0%, down 1.7% from last year
• Nationwide STR Occupancy was 59%, down 0.7% from last year
• Among our competitive set, both Hotels and Short-Term Rentals ranked 3rd place in Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

• Hotel Occupancy was lower than Catalina’s in Monterey and Santa Monica
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was lower than Catalina’s in Huntington Beach and Monterey and tied for San Francisco

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate

• Hotel Average Daily Rate was down 5.3% @ $267.45 vs. $282.35 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up by 6.4% @ $862.00 vs. $810.00 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 4th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $194.00 and $400.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $159.00 and $346.00 respectively

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room

• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was down 8.0% @ $206.85 vs. $224.80 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was up 3.8% @ $604.00 vs. $582.00 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th for hotels and 1st for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel  and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $138.00 and $238.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $105.00 and $203.00 respectively

Visitor & Member Services

• No Mixer was held in August
• Phone Calls for the month were up year-over-year by 11.4% @ 617 vs. 554 in 2024
• Calls were down from the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.7%, 13.7% and 43.0% respectively
• 2008 had the highest number of calls @ 2,942
• 2024 had the lowest number @ 554
• 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 17.2% @ 2,818vs. 3,402 in 2024.  Walk-ins are below the three and five-year averages by 9.4% and 16.4% respectively
• 2016 had the highest volume of walk-ins for the month @ 6,431
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 578

LoveCatalina.com

• August LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was down 13.2% year-over-year @ 99,005  vs. 114,000 in 2024
• August total website users were below the three and five-year averages by 6.6% and 1.6% respectively
• Book Direct lodging referrals were down year-over-year by 35.7% @ 15,039 vs. 23,377 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were down 37.1% @ 28,364 vs. 45,067 in 2024 
• Additional Google metrics are now being tracked for users opting to navigate to calls, directions, searches etc., with one year of data now in hand.

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, AI tools are eroding traditional website traffic measures.  LoveCatalina.com is being optimized for future AI searches over the next few months.

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

• Certified Racks @ 0 guides delivered vs 7,344 last year
• Go California Printed Guide orders totaled 259, up from 213 in 2024
• Mail House fulfillment was 0 for both 2025 and in 2024
• Online Guide downloads were down @ 578 vs. 587 in 2024
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 523 vs 564 last year
• Trade Show distribution was 0 this year and 0 in 2024
• Visitor Guides delivered to the Visitor Center totaled 720 down from 1,080 last year

• New E-newsletter subscribers in August declined year-over-year @ 164 vs 205 last year
• New subscribers for the month were below the three-year average but slightly above the five-year average

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of August below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 6.9%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 17.3%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 26.1%
• Threads followers are up by 33.4%
• TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 21.6%. 
• X followers are down year over-year by 3.3%

For a look at our top performing Meta posts in August vs July, click here 

Weather

High, low and rain days for August (multiple years).

Multi-year counts of rain days for the month of August.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor. 

 Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Data above is for January – August of each year

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

• 2025 year-to-date total visitation @ 851,015 is up 3.2% from 824,596 last year
• 2025 year-to-date visitation is above the three, five and ten-year average by 5.8%, 13.9% and 21.3% respectively.

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

Year-to-date Lodging

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

• Hotel Occupancy January through August 2025 is up 5.1% @ 68.6% vs. 65.2% tracked for the same time period in 2024
• Hotel Occupancy through August is above the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.3%, 3.4% and 1.6% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 58.1%, down 1.1% from 2024 which was 50.5%
• Short-term rental occupancy through August was below the three and five-year averages by 4.4%, 10.4% respectively but above the ten-year average by 5.1%

Year-to-date Visitor & Member Services
Mixers and Visitor Center

• The number of Mixer attendees year-to-date is up 8.8% @ 446 vs. 410 in 2024
• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are up by 12.6% @ 3,912 vs. 3,475 in 2024
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.9%, 16.1% and 37.4% respectively
• The Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are down @ 16,193 vs. 18,625 or by 13.1%  
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were below the three and five-year averages by 10.2% and 8.0% respectively

Year-to-date

LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct referrals are down 5.5% year-to-date @ 103,943 vs. 109,973 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up by 23.0% @ 193,101 vs. 157,055 in 2024 
• Calls connecting from LoveCatalina.com were down 3.8% from last year
• Links to directions on LoveCatalina.com were up 29.4% from last year
• Business profile views were up 50.4% from last year, @ 22,779 vs. 15,146 in 2024
• Searches made on LoveCatalina.com were up 24.2% from last year, @ 3,624 vs 2,919 in 2024
• Website Users were down 15.5% from last year @ 669,895 vs. 793,000 in 2024
• Visits to other websites from LoveCatalina.com were down 11.5% from last year

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.

Year-to-date Weather

Multi-year temperature and rain days by month (January-August are displayed below.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.