Visitor Counts

December 2025

All Arrivals

December visitation decreased year-over-year by 3.3% with 68,996 total arrivals

December’s total arrival count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 7.6%, 4.1% and 1.9% respectively. Cross Channel Counts above include 694 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 818 last year. 

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

• December 2024 had the highest number of total visitor arrivals on record @ 71,354
• December 2020 had the lowest number of total visitor arrivals @ 12,359

Arrivals by Sea

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

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down by 7.6%, a decrease of 2,544 people.  Cross Channel Counts shown above include arrivals at Two Harbors.

• 2014 had the highest volume of Cross Channel passengers for the month @ 39,960 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 9,883 passengers
• December Cross Channel Passenger counts were below the three and five-year averages by 4.1%, 1.9% respectively, but above the ten-year average by 4.7%
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 44.97% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 35,038 down from 35,169 last year by 0.4% or 131 visitors

• 2024 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 35,169
• 2020 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• December Cruise Passenger counts were below the three-year average by 0.1% but above the five and ten-year averages by 16.5%, and 41.9% respectively
• Cruise Passengers made up 47.88% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in December was 8
• 2016 had the highest number of ships calling @ 11
• 2020 had 0 ships calling
• December typically has 9 ships call

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 1,161, even with last year

• 2017 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 2,216
• 2021 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 836
• December Private Boater Passenger counts were below the three and ten-year averages by 9.2% and 8.2% respectively.  PRivate boater counts were even with the five-year total.
• Private Boaters made up 1.68% of total arrivals
• December 2025’s number of Vessels Anchored was 149, no change from 2024 @ 149
• 2023,2024 and 2025 are tied for the highest number of Vessels Anchored for the month @ 149
• 2016 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 5
• December was even with the three-year average and above the five and ten-year averages by 20.4 and 59.5% respectively
• December’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
• December was below the three-year average by 4.9% but above the five and ten-year averages by 7.2% and 1.1% respectively

  Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for December totaled 1,793 down by 22.8% from 1,460 in 2024.

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,308, up 33.7% vs. last year’s total of 978

• 2019 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,782
• 2014 and 2015 had the lowest volume for the month @ 0
• December’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 7.9%, 9.1% and 15.7% respectively
• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.90% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 730, down year-over-year by 17.2% from 882 in 2024

• 2016 had the highest volume for the month @ 998
• 2011 had the lowest volume for the month @ 459
• Helicopter Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 7.4%, 13.3% and 8.5% respectively
• Helicopter Passengers made up .66 of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

• Hotel Occupancy in December was up 6.2% @ 51.1% vs.48.1% in 2024, according to Smith Travel with six properties reporting
• Hotel Occupancy was above the three-year average by 3.0%, flat with the five-year average and above the ten-year average by 2.8%
• 2018 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 67.6%
• 2020 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 31.4%
• Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was 58.0%
• Nationwide Hotel Occupancy was 53.0%

• Catalina’s Short-Term Rental Occupancy for December was down by 12.9% @ 27.0% vs 31.0% in 2024, according to AirDNA with 327 properties reporting
• Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 19.0%, 24.6% and 13.7% respectively
• 2015 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 48.3%
• 2017 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 17.2%
• Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was 56.0%
• Nationwide STR Occupancy was 51.0%
• Among our competitive set Catalina Hotels and Short-Term Rentals ranked 10th or last place in Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

• Hotel Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all competing markets
• 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 5.2% @ $187.12 vs. $177.85 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was down by 10.6% @ $593.00 vs. $663.00 in 2024
• Statewide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $172.00 and $274.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $158.00 and $246.00 respectively

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room

• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 11.7% @ $95.63 vs. $85.58 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was down 22.0% @ $160.00 vs. $205.00 in 2024
• Statewide Hotel  and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $101.00 and $155.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $84.00 and $126.00 respectively

Visitor & Member Services

• No Mixer was held in December
• Phone Calls for the month were up year-over-year by 13.1% @ 536 vs. 474 in 2024
• Calls were up from the three-and five year averages by 15.2% and 10.5% respectively but below the ten-year average by 15.0%
• 2007 had the highest number of calls @ 1,044
• 2020 had the lowest number @ 251
• Increased use of online and mobile self-help tools for reservations and research are believed to be the main reasons for declining calls
• Online sales for New Year’s Eve Gala began several years ago, further reducing calls this time of year

• Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 42.3% @ 901 vs. 1,562 in 2024
• Walk-ins are below the three and five-year averages by 36.8% and 37.0% respectively
• 2016 had the highest volume of walk-ins for the month @ 2,366
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 271

LoveCatalina.com

• December’s LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was up 32.3% year-over-year @ 67,471 vs. 51,000 in 2024
• December’s total website users was above the three and five-year averages by 15.4% and 18.9% respectively
• Book Direct lodging referrals were up year-over-year by 3.2% @ 6,322 vs. 6,124 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up 8.8% @ 14,340 vs. 13,183 in 2024 
• 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

• Certified Racks Printed Guide placements were 3,264 vs 0 in 2024
• Go California Printed Guide orders totaled 174, up from 0 in 2024
• Mail House fulfillment was 25 vs 0 in 2024  
• Online Guide downloads were down @ 185 vs. 228 in 2024
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com were down @ 212 vs 246 last year
• Visitor Guides delivered to the Visitor Center totaled 720, up from 0 last year

• New E-newsletter subscribers in December declined year-over-year @ 64 vs 84 last year
• New subscribers for the month were below the three and five-year averages of 82 and 78 respectively

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of December

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 6.8%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 12.7%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 25.5%
• Threads followers are up by 16.5%
• TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 35.0%. 
• X followers are down year over-year by 2.0%

For a look at our top performing Meta posts in December vs November, click click here 

Weather

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

• Daytime highs of 65.0 degrees were tracked in December, up from 61 degrees in 2024

• Overnight lows averaged 54.0 degrees vs 50.0 degrees in December 2024

• December 2025 recorded 3 rain days vs 4 in 2024

• December 2025 recorded 2.22 inches of rain vs. 1.07 in 2024

 Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Year-end total arrivals is above all previous years’ tracking @ 1,214,426 visitors

Data above is for January – December of each year and shows a 6.5% growth over last year highest year-end total on record

Below is a graph of 2025 arrivals with multi-year comparisons by sector

• 2025 year-end total visitation @ 1,214,426 is up 6.5% from 1,140,167 in 2024
• 2025 year-end visitation is above the three, five and ten-year averages by 6.8%, 13.5% and 20.8% respectively.
• With the exception of Cross Channel carriers, all sectors saw growth year-over-year.  Cross Channel Carries saw a decline of 1.2% at year-end

A pie chart allocation of arrivals by sector for 2025 is displayed below

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 for 2025 was up 5.9% @ 66.6% vs. 62.9% tracked in 2024
• Hotel Occupancy for 2025 December was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 2.5%, 1.1% and 0.3% respectively
• Short-Term Rental for 2025 was 45.4%, down 4.1% from 2024 which was 47.3%
• Short-term rental occupancy in 2025 was below the three and five-year averages by 7.6%, 13.8% respectively but above the ten-year average by 0.4%

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

• The number of Mixer attendees in 2025 was up 10.0% @ 627 vs. 570 in 2024
• The number of Phone Calls in 2025 was up by 11.1% @ 5,720 vs. 5,148 in 2024
• 2025 Phone Calls were above the three-year average by 2.2% but below the five and ten-year averages by 12.3% and 36.3% respectively
• The Number of Walk-Ins in 2025 was down 9.8% @ 23,233 vs. 25,767 in 2024
• 2025 Walk-In counts were below the three and five-year averages by 8.6% and 9.2% respectively

Year-to-date

LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct Packages were not active in 2025
• Book Direct referrals were down 7.3% year–end @ 132,497 vs. 142,897 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up by 10.8% @ 251,384 vs. 226,915 in 2024 
• Calls connecting from LoveCatalina.com were down 4.3% from 2024
• Clicks to directions on LoveCatalina.com were up 23.1% from 2024
• Messages from LoveCatalina.com were 0 vs 97 in 2024
• Business profile views were up 76.9% from 2024
• Searches made on LoveCatalina.com were up 58.0% from 2024
• Website Users were down 8.8% from 2024
• Visits to other websites from LoveCatalina.com were down 7.0% from 2024

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-December) 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.

Year-end Weather Warnings

2025 had 67 total Weather Warnings vs 87 total in 2024

• The overall warmest month in 2025 was August @ 73 degrees
• The overall coolest month in 2025 was March @ 61 degrees

Year-end High Temperatures

Total Year Rain Days

• 2025 had 23 days of rain vs. 2024 @ 38