Visitor Counts

July 2025

All Arrivals

July visitation decreased year-over-year by 4.0% with 163,124 total arrivals

July’s total arrival count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 1.2%, 7.6% and 16.0% respectively. Cross Channel Counts above include 5,491 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 5,219 last year. 

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

• July 2024 had the highest number of total visitor arrivals @ 169,942
• July 2020 had the lowest number of total visitor arrivals @ 63,240

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in July totaled 159,777 down by 3.9% for the month compared to last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down 6.3%, a decrease of 7,273  people.  Cross Channel Counts above include arrivals at Two Harbors.

• 2000 had the highest volume for the month @ 117,097 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 50,135 passengers
• July Cross Channel Passenger counts were below the three and five-year averages by 2.1% and 1.3% respectively, but above the ten-year average by 5.8%
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 66.76% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 41,473, up from 40,673 last year by 2.0% or 800 visitors

• 2025 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @41,473
• 2020 and 2021 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• July Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 13.3%, 50.0% and 74.3% respectively
• Cruise Passengers made up 25.42% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in July was 9
• 2022, 2018 and 2016 had the highest number of ships calling @ 10
• 2020 and 2021 had 0 ships calling
• July typically has 9 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 9,498, even with last year’s total

• 2021 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 10,608
• 2014 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 8,084
• July Private Boater Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 2.0%, 3.9% and 3.3% respectively
• Private Boaters made up 5.82% of total monthly arrivals
• July’s number of Vessels Anchored was even with last year
• 2018 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored for the month @ 207
• 2020 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 129
• July was below the three-year average by 11.9% but above the five and ten-year averages by 4.6% and 7.2% respectively
• July’s number of Vessels on Moorings was 2,352, even with last year
• 2021 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 2,652
• 2014 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 2,021
• July was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 2.0%, 3.9% and 3.3% respectively

  Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for July totaled 3,395, down by 10.0% from 3,774 in 2024

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,584, down 28.1% vs. last year’s total of 2,202

• 2023 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,910
• 2010 had the lowest volume for the month @ 1,455
• July’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 29.0%, 25.2% and 26.1% respectively
• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.70% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 1,763, up year-over-year by 18.3% from 1,490 in 2024

• 2017 had the highest volume for the month @ 3,025
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 854
• Helicopter Passenger counts were above the three and five-year averages by 12.6% and 0.5% respectively, but below the ten-year average by 11.9%
• Helicopter Passengers made up 1.09% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

• Hotel Occupancy in July was down 6.0% @ 76.5% vs. 81.4% in 2024, according to Smith Travel. 
• Hotel Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.9%, 5.3% and 7.2% respectively. 
• 2017 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 91.4%
• 2020 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 65.5%
• Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was 72.0%, down 1.8% from July 2024
• Nationwide Hotel Occupancy was 68.0%, down 1.0% from last year
• Catalina’s Short-Term Rental Occupancy for July was down by 2.5% @ 83.0% vs.81.0% in 2024
• Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the five-year average by 0.2% and above the three and five-year averages by 0.4% and 19.2% respectively
• 2015 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 94.1%
• 2019 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 47.1%
• Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was 67.0%, down 1.9% from last year
• Nationwide STR Occupancy was 68%, down 0.9% from last year
• Among our competitive set, Hotels ranked 7th and Short-Term Rentals ranked 2nd place in Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

• Hotel Occupancy was lower than Catalina’s in Palm Springs and San Francisco
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was lower than Catalina’s in all but Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Monterey, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Santa Monica.

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate

• Hotel Average Daily Rate was down 5.0% @ $247.41 vs. $260.32 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up by 26.0% @ $879.00 vs. $697.00 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 7th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 2nd for STRs (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $199.00 and $421.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was $162.00 and $364.00 respectively

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room

• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 5.4% @ $148.51 vs. $140.93 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was up 12.7% @ $368.62 vs. $326.94 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 7th for hotels and 2nd for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel  and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $144.00 and $281.00 respectively
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was $110.00 and $248.00 respectively

Visitor & Member Services

• July Mixer attendance was up year-over year at 78 vs 71 or an increase of 9.9%
• Phone Calls for the month were up year-over-year by 27.0% @ 757 vs. 596 in 2024
• Calls were up from the three-year average by 2.0% but down from the five and ten-year averages by 14.1% and 35.6% respectively.
• 2008 had the highest number of calls @ 3,101
• 2024 had the lowest number @ 596

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

• Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 19.1% @ 2,887 vs. 3,568 in 2024.  Walk-ins are below the three and five-year averages by 12.6% and 18.1% respectively
• 2018 had the highest volume of walk-ins for the month @ 8,413
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 566

LoveCatalina.com

• July LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was down 19.9% year-over-year @ 75,272  vs. 94,000 in 2024
• July total website users were below the three and five-year averages by 14.2% and 30.9% respectively
• Book Direct lodging referrals were down year-over-year by 14.1% @ 15,177 vs. 17,633 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up 43.0% @ 25,021 vs. 17,497 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 @ 6,528 guides delivered vs 0 last year
• Go California Printed Guide orders totaled 189, up from 76 in 2024
• Mail House fulfillment was 0 for both 2025 and in 2024
• Online Guide downloads were down 8.9% @ 523 vs. 574 in 2024
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 430 were down 18.1% from 525 last year
• Trade Show distribution was 0 this year and 0 in 2024
• Visitor Guides delivered to the Visitor Center totaled 960 down from 2,052 last year

• New E-newsletter subscribers in July declined year-over-year @ 119 vs 192 last year
• New subscribers for the month were below the three and five-year averages

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of July below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 7.0%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 19.3%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 20.0%
• Threads followers are up by 44.0%
• TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 18.8%. 
• X followers are down year over-year by 3.5%

Weather

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

• July 2025 had the lowest average daytime high temperature since 2012, resting below 70 degrees
• The highest average daytime temperature in July was in 2018 @ 75 degrees

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

 Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Data above is for January – July of each year

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

• 2025 year-to-date total visitation @ 695,583 is up 3.5% from 672,105 last year
• 2025 year-to-date visitation is above the three, five and ten-year average by 5.2%, 13.8% and 21.7% 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 July  2025 is up 6.1% @ 67.3% vs. 63.4% tracked for the same time period in 2024
• Hotel Occupancy through July is above the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.6%, 4.1% and 2.6% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 47.2%, down 0.7% from 2024 which was 47.6%
• Short-term rental occupancy through July was below the three and five-year averages by 5.1%, 11.8% respectively but above the ten-year average by 3.5%

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 12.8% @ 3,295 vs. 2,921 in 2024
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.7%, 16.5% and 36.2% respectively
• The Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are down @ 13,375 vs. 15,223 or by 12.1%  
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were below the three and five-year averages by 10.4% and 6.0% respectively

Year-to-date

LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct referrals are up by 2.7% year-to-date @ 88,904 vs. 86,596 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up by 47.1% @ 164,737 vs. 111,988 in 2024 
• Calls connecting from LoveCatalina.com were down 2.5% from last year
• Links to directions on LoveCatalina.com were up 10.8% from last year
• Business profile views were up 15.9% from last year, @ 16,401 vs. 13,044 in 2024
• Searches made on LoveCatalina.com were down 10.9% from last year
• Website Users were down 15.9% from last year
• Visits to other websites from LoveCatalina.com were down 14.8% 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.  Newer measures do not yet have multi-year tracking to report.

Year-to-date Weather

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