December 2022

All Arrivals

December visitation increased year-over-year by 29.6% or 14,392 visitors

Previous tracking (below) for the month of December offers a comparison with and without COVID-19 impacts.  December 2022’s total of 63,086 was above 2019’s pre COVID-19 total monthly arrivals of 56,595 by 6,491 visitors.  December 2022 was below the peak visitation for the month in 2017 of 65,547 by 2,461 travelers.

December’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages.

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 61,243 for the month, an increase of 30.3% from last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were up year-over-year by 1.1% or an increase of 326 people

• 2014 had the highest volume for the month @ 39,960 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 9,883
• December Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 29.8%, 16.4% and 3.6% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 48.69% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 29,393

• There were 15,794 cruise passengers in December 2021
• 2022 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 29,393
• 2020 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0.  2008 was next lowest at 4,663
• December Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 95.1%, 57.1% and 60% respectively.  Note multi-year averages are greatly impacted by the lack of cruise ships calling during COVID-19 suspension of operations
• Cruise Passengers made up 46.59% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 9
• 2019 had the highest number of ships calling @ 14
• 2020 had 0 ships call on us

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled

• Private Boater Passenger counts were up from last year by 35.9% @ 1,136 vs 836
• 2017 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 2,216
• 2015 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 864 
• December Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three and five-year averages by 5.2% and 1.9% respectively but below the ten-year average by 11.4%
• Private Boaters Made up 1.8% of total monthly arrivals
• December’s number of Vessels Anchored was up 15% @ 92 vs 80 last year
• 2018 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 107
• 2011 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 5
• December was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 16%, 13% and 36.5% respectively
• December’s number of Vessels on Moorings was up 35.9% from last year @ 284 vs 209
• 2017 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 554
• 2013 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 11
• December was above the three and five and ten-year averages for Vessels on Moorings by 5.2%, 1.9% and 5% respectively

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for December totaled 1,867, up 10.3% from 1,693 in 2021. 

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) were up 18.3% @ 1,278 vs 1,080 last year

• 2019 had the highest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 1,782
• 2018 had the lowest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 447
• December’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 17.5%, 16.3% and 36.6% respectively. 
• December Private Aircraft Passengers made up 2.03% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 5.2% @ 565 vs. 596 

• 2016 had the highest volume for the month @ 998
• 2011 the lowest volume for the month @ 459
• December Helicopter Passengers counts were above the three-year average by 15.9% but below the five and ten-year averages by 4.3% and 24.1% respectively
• December Helicopter Passengers made up .90% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

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

• Hotel Occupancy for December was up by 0.5% @ 57.8% vs. 57.5% in 2021
• Hotel Occupancy was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 18.2%, 6.2% and 52.8% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for December was down 2.4% @ 40% vs 41% in 2021
• Short-term rental occupancy was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 9.7%, 28.7% and 21.5% respectively

Competing Destination Occupancies

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 9th in Hotel Occupancy and 10th in STR Occupancy for December 2022 (high to low)

• December Hotel Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in all but the San Francisco market
• December Short-Term Rental Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s all competing markets

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 3rd in Average Daily Rate for STRs (high to low)
• December Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 5.4% @ $182.82 vs. $173.38 in 2021
• December Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up down by 2.2% @ $541.00 vs. $553.00 in 2021

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

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 10th for hotels and 5^th for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• December Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 5.9% @ $105.63 vs. $99.74 in 2021
• December Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $193.00, down 14.6% from $226.00 in 2021

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Phone Calls for the month were down year-over-year by 46% @ 361 vs. 669 in 2021
• 2007 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,044 calls
• 2015 had the lowest volume for the month @ 406. 
• December call counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 15.5%, 41.4% and 39.1% respectively

Note: 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 20.6% year-over-year @ 1,272 vs 1,603 in 2021
• 2016 had the highest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 2,366 guests
• 2020 had the lowest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 271 guests
• December Walk-In counts were above the three-year average by 21.3% but below the five-year average by 7.4%

LoveCatalina.com

• December LoveCatalina.com total website users was down year-over-year by 4% @ 54,082 vs. 56,333 in 2021
• Monthly the number of website users was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 13.3%, 19.4% and 138.9% respectively
• Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 6.7% @ 4,669 vs. 5,004 in 2021 
• Book Direct lodging searches were down 4% @ 4,082 vs. 6,320 in 2021

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 tracked.

• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 210, were up from 21 last year
• Online Guide downloads were down @ 91 vs. 230 in 2021
• Go California Print Guide orders totaled 106
• Mail House Guide deliveries were not reported for the month
• No new Guides were delivered to the Visitor Center during the month
• No shipments of Guides to Certified racks occurred this month

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 December were up year-over-year @ 82 vs 60 in 2021
• New subscribers were above the three and five-year averages of 59 and 35 respectively for the month

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of December below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 4%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 24.3%
• Twitter followers are up year-over-year by 5.9%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 67.6%
• TikTok is our newest platform and is up year-over-year by 1,544.9%. 

Year-to-Date/Year-End Measures

Total year-to-date arrivals are up from last year by 34.6%

• Year-end Total Arrivals were up @ 1,094,543 vs. 813,051 last year, a difference of 281,492 visitors
• The total arrivals year-end exceeded the three-year average of 799,566 by 36.9%, five-year average of 895,249 by 22.3% and ten-year average of 959,298 by 14.1%
• All arrival sectors are up as of year-end except for Private Boat and Helicopter

Year-End—Historical Arrivals

COVID-19 and pre-Covid-19 comparison data is illustrated in the ten-year plus snapshot below (January - December combined).

• 2017 had the highest total visitation year-end @ 1,097,500, a difference of only 2,957 visitors for 2022
• 2020 had the lowest year-end total visitation @ 503,210

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

Year-End Lodging

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

• Hotel Occupancy January through December 2022 was 71% vs. 63.6% tracked for the same time period in 2021
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy Year-end was 57.2%, roughly equal to 2021 @ 57.3%
• According to Smith Travel, Catalina’s average Hotel Occupancy of 71% was above the annual occupancy for Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Monterey and San Francisco. Competing destinations of San Diego, Anaheim and Santa Monica exceeded our year-end average Hotel Occupancy
• According to AirDNA, Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental Occupancy was above Palm Springs, but below all other destinations in our competitive set.

Note 2021 and 2022 rates have impacted occupancy on Catalina Island

Year-End Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• The number of Phone Calls year-end are down by 5.4% @ 7,628 vs. 8,064
• Year-end Phone Calls exceeded the three-year average, but are below the five and ten-year averages
• Number of Walk-Ins year-end are up @ 25,862 vs. 24,642 or 5%   
• Year-end Walk-In counts were above the three-year average, but below the five-year average

Year-End LoveCatalina.com

• LoveCatalina.com website users were up year-end by 3.7% @ 1,085,087 vs. 1,046,220 in 2021
• Book Direct lodging searches were down for the year by 11.5% @ 174,553 vs. 197,184 in 2021. 
• Book Direct referrals year-end were down by 18.6% @ 151,900 vs. 186,661 in 2021
• Book Direct Package referrals were not active on our site in 2022

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

Weather

Data for December 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.  December 2020 highs and lows did not report.