Visitor Counts

February 2025

All Arrivals

February visitation increased year-over-year by 32.9% (+13,622 visitors) with 54,988 total arrivals.

February’s total arrival count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 8.1%, 23.3% and 12.0% respectively. Cross Channel Counts above include 865 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 563 last year.

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

• February 2016 had the highest number of total visitors @ 66,430
• February 2021 had the lowest number of total visitors @ 22,225

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in February totaled 53,302, up for the month by 33.5% from last year. 

Cross Channel Passenger counts were up 9.3%, an increase of 2,245 people.  Cross Channel Counts above include arrivals at Two Harbors.

• 2016 had the highest volume for the month @ 39,162 passengers
• 1998 had the lowest volume for the month @ 15,517 passengers
• February Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three and five-year averages by 3.8% and 0.3% a respectively but below the ten-year average by 7.1%
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 48.17% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 25,401up from 14,746 last year, an increase of 72.3% from 2024 or 10,655 visitors

• 2023 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 27,166 
• 2021 & 2022 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• February Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 13.2%, 69.8% and 46.9% respectively
• Cruise Passengers made up 46.19% of total monthly arrivals

• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in February was 7
• 2023 had the highest number of ships calling @ 10
• 2021 had 0 ships calling

February typically has 7 ships call

• The Vessel Counts chart above is missing ten-year averages on number of ships due to a period of time where data was only tracked annually.

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 1,404 up by 51.3% from last year’s total of 928 or by 476 visitors

• 2016 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 2,236
• 2017 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 628
• February Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 21.9%, 24.5% and 6.4% respectively
• Private Boaters made up 2.55% of total monthly arrivals

• February’s number of Vessels Anchored was up 9.5% @ 81 from 74 last year
• 2019 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored for the month @ 104
• 2013 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 2
• February was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 12.5%, 37.8% and 44.6% respectively

• February's number of Vessels on Moorings was 351, up 51.3% from last year’s 232 or by 119 boats
• 2016 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 559

• 2017 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 157
• February was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 121.9%, 24.5% and 6.4% respectively  

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for February totaled 1,545, down 27.6% or 590 Arrivals from 2,135 in 2024.

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,224, up 79.7% or by 543 passengers vs. last year @ 681

• 2016 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,133
• 2019 had the lowest volume for the month @ 0
• February’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three and ten-year averages by 12.0% and 3.6% respectively, but below the five -year average by 7.4%
• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 2.23% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 462 down year-over-year from 759 by 39.1% or 297 arrivals

• 2018 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,399
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 0
• Helicopter Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 33.1%, 39.9% and 42.6% respectively
• Helicopter Passengers made up .84% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

• Hotel Occupancy for February was up 13.4% @ 59.3% vs. 52.3% in 2024, according to Smith Travel, while occupancy of 37% was reported by the City of Avalon for the same time period.  Note the City reports based on Transient Occupancy Tax documents
• Hotel Occupancy was above the three and five-year averages by 5.8% and 4.1% respectively, but below the ten-year average by 7.0%
• 2019 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 75.9%
• 2021 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 48.7%
• Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was 65.0%, up 3.3.0% from 2024
• Nationwide Hotel Occupancy was 59.0% for the month, up .69% from 2024
   
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for February was down by 2.8% @29.2% vs. 30.0% in 2024
• Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.0%, 25.8% and 27.8% respectively
• 2022 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 60.0%
• 2016 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 26.1%
• Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was 53.0%, up 2.4% from last year
• Nationwide STR Occupancy was 54% for the month, up .8% from last year
• Among our competitive set, Hotels and Short-Term Rentals ranked last or 10th 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 10.3% @ $203.62 vs. $184.68 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up by 22.4% @ $671.97 vs. $549.00 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 10th (lowest) in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel Average Daily Rate was $186.00, up 2.5% from last year
• Nationwide Hotel Average Daily Rate was $159.00, up 1.4% from last year
• Statewide STR Average Daily Rate was $432.00, an increase of 15.2% over 2024
• Nationwide STR Average Daily Rate was $345.00, an increase of 6.1% over 2024

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room

• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 27.6% @ $120.77 vs. $94.64 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was up 21.0% @ $195.95 vs. $162.00 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 10th (lowest) for hotels and 6th for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was $121.00, up 5.9% from 2024
• Nationwide Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was $94.00, up 1.9% from last year
• Statewide Short Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $230.00, up 12.5% from 2024
• Nationwide Short Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $186.00. up 5.3% from 2024

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 6.4% @ 1,079 vs. 1,153 in 2024
• 2023 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,704
• 2021 had the lowest volume for the month @ 528
• February walk-in counts were below the three and five-year averages by 17.8% and 10.6% respectively

• The number of Phone Calls for the month was down by 28.5% year-over-year @ 208 vs 291
• 2007 had the highest volume of calls for the month @ 1,265
• 2021 had the lowest volume of calls for the month @ 256
• February calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 26.1%, 35.6% and 58.8% respectively

Increased use of online and mobile self-help tools for reservations and research are being seen as the main reasons for periods with declining calls

LoveCatalina.com

• February LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was up 9.0% year-over-year @ 88,256 vs. 81,000 in 2024
• February total website users were above the three and five-year averages by 12.1% and 10.4% respectively 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up year-over-year by 67.0% @ 19,302 vs. 11,588 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging referrals were up 16.0% @ 9,519 vs. 8,203 in 2024
• Additional Google Business Listing metrics are now being tracked for users opting to navigate to calls, directions, searches etc., with one year of data now in hand.

Note changes to Book Direct in 2021 resulted in shifting traffic between referrals and searches.  New Google metrics inhibit ten-year reporting in our software. 

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

• Go California Print Guide orders totaled 315, up from 76 in 2024
• Mail House fulfillment was 3,137 vs 3,167 in 2024
• Online Guide downloads were down 12.9% @ 386 vs.443 in 2024
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 614, were down 19.2% from 760 last year
• Trade Show distribution was 1,248 this year vs 1,512 in 2024, down 17.5%
• Visitor Guides delivered to the Visitor Center totaled 0, down from 1,080 last year due to adequate stock on hand from January

• New E-newsletter subscribers in February were down year-over-year @ 96 vs 167
• New subscribers for the month were below the three and five-year averages

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of February below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 5.3%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 32.7%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 21.6%
• Threads followers are up by 75.1%
• TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 16.4%. 
• X followers are up down year over-year by 2.9%

Trip Origination
Placer.AI

All Placer.AI data below is presented in descending order

• The top five states from which Catalina’s February overnight visitors originated were California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Texas
• The top five cities/DMAs of origination based on number of overnight visitor trips made to the island in February were San Diego, Riverside/San Bernardino, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Ventura and Sacramento
• The top five DMAs in nights generated were Riverside, San Diego, Los Angeles, Ventura and Sacramento
• The top three most visitors per zip code were Beaumont 92223, Glendora 91750 and El Cajon 91941
• Top five cities ranked by daily spending potential were San Francisco @ $355/day, San Jose $283/day, Seattle @ $269.50/day, Santa Cruz @ $255.60/day and San Diego @ $295.60/day
• Top cities of overnight visitor generation ranked by disposable income were San Diego @ $619k, Riverside @ 610k, Los Angeles @ 503k, Ventura @ $130.7k and Sacramento @ $94.3k

Weather

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

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

Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Data above is for January – February of each year.

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

• 2024 year-to-date total visitation is 102,992 up 15.4% from 89,261 last year
• 2024 year-to-date visitation is above the three, five and ten-year average by 6.5%, 25.6% and 12.0% respectively.

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 and Visit California

• Hotel Occupancy January through February 2025 is up 9.7 % @ 53.7% vs. 48.9% tracked for the same time period in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 26.3%, down 9.3% from 2024 which was 29.0%
• Catalina’s average year-to-date Hotel Occupancy of 53.7% was below the YTD occupancy for nine of our ten competing destinations
• Year-to-date statewide Hotel Occupancy was 62%
• National year-to-date hotel occupancy was 56%
• Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental year-to date Occupancy of 26.3% was below all destinations in our competitive set
• Year-to-date statewide Short-Term Rental Occupancy was not reported

Year-to-date Visitor & Member Services

• The number of Mixer attendees was up 4.0% year-to-date
• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are down by 22.6% @ 459 vs. 593 in 2024
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 21.7%, 26.6% and 50.2% respectively
• The Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are down @ 2,075 vs. 2,484 or 16.5%  
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were below the three and five-year averages by 15.8% and 4.5% respectively

Year-to-date

LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct referrals are down by 0.3% year-to-date @ 16,466 vs. 16,522 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up by 32.2% @ 33,397 vs. 25,262 in 2024 
• Calls connecting from LoveCatalina.com were down 30.8% from last year
• Links to directions on LoveCatalina.com were down 38.5% from last year
• Business profile views were down 22.0% from last year
• Searches made on LoveCatalina.com were down 25.9% from last year
• Website Users were down 18.0% from last year
• Visits to other websites from LoveCatalina.com were down 18.8% 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

Weather

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