Visitor Counts

January 2026

All Arrivals

January visitation increased year-over-year by 23.4% with 59,217 total arrivals, an all time high for the month! stats

January’s total arrival count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 14.5%, 25.6% and 32.1% respectively. Cross Channel Counts above include 729 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 630 last year.

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

January 2026 had the highest number of total visitor arrivals on record @ 59,217
January 2021 had the lowest number of total visitor arrivals @ 10,521

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in January totaled 57,161 up by 23.0% for the month compared to last year.

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Cross Channel Passenger counts were up by 22.6%, an increase of 10,690 people. Cross Channel Counts shown above include arrivals at Two Harbors.

2026 had the highest volume of Cross Channel passengers for the month @ 30,934 passengers
2021 had the lowest volume for the month @ 7,458 passengers
January Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 15.4%, 22.2% and 33.3% respectively
Cross Channel Passengers made up 52.24% of total monthly arrivals

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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
January 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 January was 6
2022 had the highest number of ships calling @ 10
2021 had 0 ships calling

January typically has 7 ships call

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Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 2,280, up by 85.7% from last year

2026 had the highest private boat passenger volume for the month @ 2,280
2016 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 736
January Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 45.7%, 63.0% and 63.8% respectively
Private Boaters made up 3.85% of total arrivals
January’s number of Vessels Anchored was 18, down from 2025 @ 86
2019 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored for the month @ 110
2012 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 13
January was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 72%, 71.7% and 71.2% respectively
January’s number of Vessels on Moorings was 570, up from 307 last year
2026 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 570
2016 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 184
January was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 45.7%, 63.0 and 63.8% respectively

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Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for January totaled 2,087 up by 35.1% from 1,545 in 2025 vis

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,428, up 37.6% vs. last year’s total of 1,038

2014 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,785
2019 lowest volume for the month @ 0
January’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 8.2%, 5.2% and 25.3% respectively
Private Aircraft Passengers made up 2.41% of total monthly arrivals

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Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 628, up year-over-year from 495 in 2025

2022 had the highest volume for the month @ 987
2012 had the lowest volume for the month @ 539
Helicopter Passenger counts were above the three-year average by 7.8% but below the five and ten-year averages by 12.5% and 12.2%respectively
Helicopter Passengers made up 1.06% of total monthly arrivals

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Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

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Hotel Occupancy in January was up 23.4% @ 57.5% vs.46.6% in 2025, according to Smith Travel with six properties reporting
Hotel Occupancy was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 15.3%, 18.8% and 9.7% respectively
2018 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 68.9%
2021 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 23.3%
Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was 60.0%
Nationwide Hotel Occupancy was 52.4%

Catalina’s Short-Term Rental Occupancy for January was up by 2.4% @ 24.0% vs 23.4% in 2025, according to AirDNA with 330 properties reporting

Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.5%, 17.5% and 12.7% respectively
2022 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 37.0%
2019 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 19.3%
Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was not reported
Nationwide STR Occupancy was not reported
Among our competitive set Catalina Hotels and Short-Term Rentals ranked 8th and 10th respectively in Occupancy

Competing Destination Occupancies

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Hotel Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in eight competing markets
Short-Term Rental Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all competing markets

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate vis

Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 16.4% @ $199.46 vs. $171.30 in 2025
Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was down by 13.1% @ $565.00 vs. $650.36 in 2025
Statewide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was not reported
Nationwide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was not reported

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room vis

Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 43.7% @ $114.66 vs. $79.81 in 2025
Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was down 9.4% @ $138.00 vs. $152.36 in 2025
Statewide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was not reported
Nationwide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was not reported

Visitor & Member Services

Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 25.5% @ 742 vs. 996 in 2025
Walk-ins are below the three and five-year averages by 27.5% and 33.4% respectively
2017 had the highest volume of walk-ins for the month @ 1,705
2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 2
Phone Calls for the month were down year-over-year by 4.0% @ 241 vs. 251 in 2025
Calls were down from the three, five and ten-year averages by 8.9%, 21.6% and 34.7% respectively
2012 had the highest number of calls @ 1,131
2021 had the lowest number @ 214
Increased use of online and mobile self-help tools for reservations and research are believed to be the main reasons for declining calls
MIxer attendance was up slightly at 48 vs 42 in 2025
Mixer attendance was above the three-year average by 8.3%

LoveCatalina.com

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January’s LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was up 51.9% year-over-year @ 77,654 vs. 51,106 in 2025
January’s total of website users was above the three and five-year averages by 7.0% and 2.8% respectively
Book Direct lodging referrals were up year-over-year by 39.2% @ 9,670 vs. 6,947 in 2025
Book Direct lodging searches were up 41.9% @ 20,000 vs. 14,095 in 2025
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

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

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Certified Racks Printed Guide placements were down 16.7% @ 8,160 vs 9,792 in 2025
Go California Printed Guide orders totaled 420, down 52.6% from 887 in 2025
Mail House fulfillment was 2, 847 vs 0 in 2025
Online Guide downloads were down 8.8% @ 301 vs. 330 in 2025
Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com were up @ 640 vs 590 last year
Visitor Guides delivered to the Visitor Center totaled 1,050, up from 960 last year

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New E-newsletter subscribers in January grew year-over-year @ 105 vs 99 last year
New subscribers for the month were below the three and five-year averages of 144 each

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of January

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Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 7.3%
Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 12.2%
LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 27.1%
Threads followers are up by 17.4%
TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 37.4%.
X followers are down year over-year by 1.7%

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

Weather

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

Daytime average highs of 68.0 degrees were tracked in January, up from 62 degrees in 2025. 68.0 degrees is the highest daytime temperature tracked for January

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