May 2022

All Arrivals

May visitation increased year-over-year by 23.4% or 18,514 visitors

Previous tracking (below) for the month of May offers a comparison with and without COVID-19 impacts.  May 2022’s total of 97,699 exceeded May 2019’s pre COVID-19 impacted total arrivals of 80,055 by 17,635 visitors

May’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages of 61,294, 70,618 and 79,156 respectively.

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 94,379 for the month and were up 24.2% from last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 4.5% or a decrease of 3,193 people

• 1997 had the highest volume for the month @ 73,288 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 4,571.  Pre COVID-19 impacts, the lowest year for the month was 2010 @ 45,006
• May Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 41.9%, 30.8% and 21.4% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 69.4% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 21,850

• There were no cruise passengers in May 2021
• 2009 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 53,114
• 2020 and 21 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0.  Pre-COVID-19 the lowest count for the month was 1991 @ 5,991
• May Cruise Passenger counts were above the three and five and ten-year averages by 200%, 79.8% and 35.1% respectively.  Note with two years of few/no cruise ship calls, averages are greatly impacted
• Cruise Passengers made up 22.37% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 11
• 2022 and 2017 had the greatest number of ships @ 11
• 2020 and 21 had the lowest number of ships @ 0
• Pre-COVID-19 the lowest count for the month was 2019 @ 7

Private Boater Passenger counts were down from last year @ 4.730 vs. 4,992

• 2014 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 5,012
• 2020 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 1,704.  Pre-COVID-19, the lowest for the month was 3,764 in 2019
• May Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 24.2%, 18.1% and 9.2% respectively
• Private Boaters Made up 4.84% of total monthly arrivals
• May’s number of Vessels Anchored was down @ 63 vs 82 last year
• 2018 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 115
• 2013 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 13
• May was below the average number of Vessels Anchored for three, five and ten-year averages by 10.8%, 23.9% and 13.9% respectively
• May’s number of Vessels on Moorings was down from last year @ 1,182 vs 1,248
• 2014 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,253
• 2020 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 426.  Pre COVID-19, the lowest was 2019 @ 941
• May was above the three, five and ten-year averages for Vessels on Moorings by 24.2%, 18.1% and 9.1% respectively

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for May totaled 3,383 up from 3,272 in 2021. 

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) were up @ 1,530 vs 1,197 last year

• 2014 had the highest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 1,818
• 2020 had the lowest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 651 due to COVID-19 impacts, with 2018 as the next lowest @ 873
• May’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 35.9%, 35.6% and 23.9% respectively
• May Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.57% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts were down year-over-year @ 1,781 vs. 1,987 

• 2021 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,997
• 2020 the lowest volume for the month @ 91.  Pre COVID-19 the lowest for the month was 2009 @ 1,412
• May Helicopter Passengers counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 38.1%, 20.2% and 14.9% respectively
• May Helicopter Passengers made up 1.82% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Occupancy from Smith Travel and AIRDNA

• Hotel Occupancy for May was 73.2% vs. 68.6% in 2021
• Hotel Occupancy was above three and five-year averages by 3.2% and .3% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for May was down 10% @ 55% vs 61.3% in 2021
• Short-term rental occupancy was above the three and five-year averages by .9% and 23.6% respectively

Competing Destination Occupancies

• May Hotel Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in San Diego and Santa Monica
• May Short-Term Rental Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in all competing destinations except Palm Springs

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

• May Hotel Average Daily Rate was $219.76 vs. $206.15 in 2021
• May Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was $597.00, up from $551.30 in 2021

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

• May Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was $160.80 vs. $141.37 in 2021
• May Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $329.00 down from $356.00 in 2021

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Number of Phone Calls for the month was down year-over-year by 16.8% @ 757 vs. 910
• 2008 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,100 calls
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 412 calls.  Pre-COVID-19 lowest call volume was 2016 @ 734
• May call counts were above the three-year average by 9.2% but below the five-year average by 10.1% and the ten-year average by 15.6%

• The number of Walk-Ins for the month was down by 31.4% year-over-year @ 1,699 vs. 2,478 in 2021
• 2018 had the highest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 5,426 guests
• 2020 had the lowest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 0 guests.  Pre COVID-19 lowest volume of guests was 2019 @ 2,753
• May Walk-In counts were above the three-year average of 1,392 but below the five-year average of 2,471

LoveCatalina.com

• May LoveCatalina.com website users were down year-over-year by 2.6% @ 116,831 vs. 119,997 in 2021
• Website users were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 17.5%, 44.7% and 189.3% respectively
• Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 23.7% @ 20,190 vs. 26,464 in 2021 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up 18.6% @ 23,933 vs. 23,883 in 2021
• Both searches and referrals were higher than three, five and ten-year averages

Note changes to Book Direct on member links has resulted in shifting traffic between referrals and searches 

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

• Note measures now include additional source tracking for months and years in which distributions occurred
• Printed Visitor Guide orders @ LoveCatalina.com @ 132, were up from 126 last year
• No 2021 Guide was printed and 2022 guide distribution initiated in late February 2022
• Online Guide downloads were down by 41.3% @ 442 vs. 753 in 2021 when no print version was available

• New E-newsletter subscribers in May were down year-over-year @ 201 vs 211 in 2021
• New subscribers exceeded three and five-year averages

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of May below.

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 6.7%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 24.4%
• Twitter followers are up year-over-year by 10.5%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 80.7%
• TikTok is our newest platform and is up year-over year by 3,507.1%. 

Year-to-Date Measures

Total year-to-date arrivals are up from last year by 61.5%. 

• Year-to-date Total Arrivals were up @ 355,639 vs. 220,246 last year or a difference of 135,393 visitors
• The total arrivals year-to-date exceeded the three-year average of 239,001 by 48.8%, five-year average of 279,482 by 27.2% and ten-year average of 312,854 by 13.7%
• All arrival sectors are up year-to-date with the exception of Private Boat

Year-to-Date—Historical Arrivals

COVID-19 and pre-Covid-19 comparison data is illustrated in the ten-year snapshot below (January - May combined).

• 2015 had the highest total visitation year-to-date @ 370,034
• 2020 had the lowest year-to-date total visitation @ 141,118
• 2012 had the lowest pre COVID-19 year-to-date @ 260,040

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

Year-to-date Lodging

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Occupancy from Smith Travel and AIRDNA

• Hotel Occupancy YTD is 66.7% vs. 58.1% tracked for the same time period in 2021
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy Year-To-Date is 51.1%, up from 47.9% in 2021
• According to Smith Travel, YTD Catalina’s Hotel Occupancy was above San Francisco and Monterey, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.  Competing destinations of Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, San Diego, Anaheim and Santa Monica exceeded our year-to-date hotel occupancy.
• According to AirDNA, Catalina’s YTD Short-Term Rental Occupancy was below all destinations in our competitive set with those destinations ranging from 57% to 69% occupancy

Year-to-date Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Number of Phone Calls year-to-date are up by 30.6% @ 2,980 vs. 2,281
• Year-to-date Phone Calls exceeded the three and five-year averages, but remained below the ten-year average
• Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are up @ 7,811 vs. 5,033 or 55.2%   
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three and five-year averages

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

• LoveCatalina.com website users are up year-to-date by 22.6% @ 518,680 vs. 422,941 in 2021
• Book Direct lodging searches are up year-to-date by 2.5% @, 89,844 vs. 87,665 in 2021.  Note changes to Book Direct on member links has resulted in shifting traffic to referrals vs. searches
• Book Direct referrals year-to-date are up by 6.0% @ 89,814 vs. 87,665 in 2021
• Book Direct Package referrals are not currently active on our site

Weather

Data for May highs, lows and precipitation going back to 2012 is displayed below. Multi-year rain days data is also displayed by year and month since 2012.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.