Visitor Counts

June 2024

June visitation increased year-over-year by 17.2% or 19,602 visitors with 133,367 total arrivals. 

June’s total arrival count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 7.2%, 33.0% and 26.5% respectively.   Multi-year averages are greatly impacted by COVID-19 related downturns.

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

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in June totaled 136,600, up for the month by 17.5% from last year. 

Cross Channel Passenger counts were up 11.9%, an increase of 9,274 people

• 2000 had the highest volume for the month @ 88,446 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 23,736 passengers
• June Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 4.0%, 21.2% and 16.2% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 65.63% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 36,927, up by 11.9% from 2023 or by 9,771 visitors

• 2009 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 35,062  
• 2020 and 2021 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• June Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 19.1%, 98.4% and 79.7% respectively
• Cruise Passengers made up 27.69% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in June was 9
• 2022 and 2024 had the highest number of ships calling @ 9
• 2020 and 2021 had 0 ships calling
• June typically has 8 ships call on us
• 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 6,148, up by 7.6% @ 5,712 last year or by 436 visitors

• 2017 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 7,256
• 2015 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 5,140
• June Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three-year average by 1.0% but below the five and ten-year averages by 4.4% and 4.2% respectively
• Private Boaters Made up 4.62% of total monthly arrivals
• June’s number of Vessels Anchored was up by 20.4% from last year or by 32 boats
• 2018 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 207
• 2012 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 34
• June was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 24.3%, 45.4% and 41.7% respectively
• June’s number of Vessels on Moorings was up 7.6% from last year or by 109 boats
• 2017 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,814
• 2015 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,285

• June was above the three-year average by 1.0% but below the five and ten-year averages by 4.4% and 4.2% respectively  

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for June totaled 2,775, up 3.2% or 86 Arrivals from 2023.

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,398, up 18.3% or by 216 passengers vs. last year

• 2021 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,157
• 2020 the lowest volume for the month @ 936
• June’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 5.6%, 7.2% and 4.1% respectively
• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.05% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 1,369, down year-over-year by 6.5% or 95 arrivals

• 2021 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,078
• 2020 the lowest volume for the month @ 613
• June Helicopter Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 13.1.0%, 7.7% and 15.8% respectively
• Helicopter Passengers made up 1.03% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy from Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

• Hotel Occupancy for June was up 5.6% @ 76.0% vs. 72.0% in 2023
• Hotel Occupancy was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 0.8%, 8.6% and 2.0% respectively
• 2019 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 85.7%
• 2020 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 46.5%
• Statewide Hotel Room Demand was up 2% year-over-year
• Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 72.0%, a 1.0% increase from last year
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for June was down 8.7% @ 63.0% vs. 69.0% in 2023
• Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three-year average by 6.4% but above the five and ten-year averages by 1.6%, and 15.1% respectively  
• 2015 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 83.3%
• 2020 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 33.9%
• Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was 55%, up 3.0% year-over-year for the month
• Among our competitive set, Hotels ranked in 8^th place and Short-Term Rentals 9^th place in Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

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

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate from Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

• Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 1.3% @ $258.06 vs. $254.80 in 2023
• Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up by 10.4% @ $679.00 vs. $615.00 in 2023
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel Average Daily Rate was $192.00, up 0.7% over last year
• Statewide STR Average Daily Rate was flat @ $373.00

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

• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 9.1% @ $196.10 vs. $179.68 in 2023
• Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $425.00, on par with 2023
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th for hotels and 2nd for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was $139.00, a 0.1% increase from 2023
• Statewide Short Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $206.00, up 2% from 2023

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 21.6% @ 2,689 vs. 3,431 in 2023
• 2018 had the highest volume for the month @ 8,597
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 93
• June walk-in counts were below the three-year average by 7.7% but above five-year average 11.8%

• The number of Phone Calls for the month was down by 36.4% year-over-year @ 476 vs 749
• 2008 had the highest volume of calls for the month @ 2,318
• 2016 had the lowest volume of calls for the month @ 314
• June calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 31.3%, 43.1% and 52.4% respectively

• Increased use of online and mobile self-help tools for reservations and research are being seen as the main reason for declining calls Inquiries on social media and via email are often taking the place of calls as well

LoveCatalina.com

• June LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was up year-over-year by 8.9% @ 98,000 vs 90,000 in 2023
• June total website users were above the three-year average by 0.4% but below the five-year average by 3.9%
• Book Direct referrals were up year-over-year by 10.1% @ 15,550 vs. 14,127 in 2023 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up 0.1% @ 17,373 vs. 17,369 in 2023

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

• Certified racks @ 7,344, up from 0 for the same month last year
• Go California Print Guide orders totaled 80, down from 177 in 2023
• Mail House fulfillment was flat @ 20
• Online Guide downloads were up 2.2% @ 615 vs. 602 in 2023
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 604, were up 3.4% from 584 last year
• 1,080 Visitor Guides were delivered to the Visitor Center, an increase of 107.7% over 2023 @ 520

• New E-newsletter subscribers in June were up year-over-year @ 171 vs 158 in 2023
• New subscribers for the month were above the three -year average

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of June below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 5.3%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 37.4%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 26.9%
• TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 20.5%. 
• X followers are flat year-over-year

Trip Origination
Placer.AI

All Placer.AI data below is presented in descending order

• The top five states from which Catalina’s May/June visitors originated were California, Arizona, Utah, Texas and Nevada (descending order). 
• The top five cities of origination based on number of visitor trips made to the island in May/June were the Los Angeles/Long Beach, Riverside/San Bernardino, San Diego/Carlsbad, San Francisco and Phoenix (descending order).
• Los Angeles/Long Beach, Riverside/San Bernardino, San Diego/Carlsbad, San Francisco and Phoenix (descending order) visitors were on the island for the most nights
• Top spending per day was from visitors originating in San Jose, Dallas, New York City, Ventura/Oxnard/Thousand Oaks, and San Francisco (descending order).

Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Data above is for January – June of each year.

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

• 2024 year-to-date total visitation is 502,163, up 7.9% from 465,192 last year
• 2024 year-to-date visitation is above the three, five and ten-year average by 4.0%, 29.5% and 17.9% respectively.

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

Fiscal Year-end Arrivals

(July 1 through June 30)

• Total Arrivals for the 12 months ending June 30, 2024 were 1,134,312, up 5% from the same period last year

Year-to-date Lodging

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Occupancy from Smith Travel, AirDNA and Visit California

• Hotel Occupancy January through June 2024 is up 0.4% @ 61.7% vs.61.4% tracked for the same time period in 2023
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 42.0%, down 15.2% from 2023 which was 49.5%
• Catalina’s average year-to-date Hotel Occupancy of 61.7% was below the YTD occupancy for all of our competing destinations
• Year-to-date statewide room demand was flat and is down 8% from 2019
• Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental year-to date Occupancy was not reported this month
• Destinations with which we compete year-to-date STR occupancy was not reported this month
• Los Angeles County Hotel Occupancy for the same period was down 3.3% from 2023

Year-to-date Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are down by 26.9% @ 2,325 vs. 3,180 in 2023
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 25.3%, 26.9% and 46.5% respectively
• Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are down @ 11,655 vs. 12,723 or 8.4%   
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three and five-year averages by 0.5% and 28.2% respectively

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct Package referrals were not active this reporting period
• Book Direct referrals are up by 13.4% year-to-date @ 68,933 vs. 60,786 in 2023 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up by 20.8% @ 94,491 vs. 78,245 in 2023 
• LoveCatalina.com website users are up for the period by 24.7% @ 585,000 vs.469,000 in 2023

Note 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-June) are displayed below.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.