Visitor Counts

May 2023

All Arrivals

May visitation decreased year-over-year by 2.4% or by 2,303 visitors

Previous tracking (below) for the month of May offers a comparison with and without COVID-19 impacts. May 2023 was below the peak visitation for the month recorded last year.

May’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages for the month

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 93,101 for the month, a decrease of 1.4% from last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 12.7% or a decrease of 8,627 people

• 1997 had the highest volume for the month @ 73,288 passengers
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 4,571
• May Cross Channel Passenger counts were below the three-year average by 10.3%, but above the five and ten-year averages by 14.4% and 4.9% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 62.08% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 29,751, up by 36.2% from 2022 or 7,901 visitors

• 2009 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 51,141
• 2020 and 2021 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• May Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 73%, 116.6% and 70.4% respectively.  Note multi-year averages are greatly impacted by the lack of cruise ships calling during COVID-19’s suspension of operations
• Cruise Passengers made up 31.22% of total monthly arrivals

• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 10
• 2017 and 2022 had the highest number of ships calling @ 11
• 2020 and 2021 had 0 ships call on us

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 4,189, down from last year by 11.7% or 544 visitors

• 2014 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 5,012
• 2020 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 1,704 
• May Private Boater Passenger counts were below the three and ten-year averages by 9.8% and 2.2% respectively, but above the five year average by 7.9% and 7.3%
• Private Boaters Made up 4.4% of total monthly arrivals

• May’s number of Vessels Anchored was up by 149.2% @ 157 vs 63 last year
• 2023 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 157
• 2013 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 13
• April was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 24.3%, 32.3% and 52.2% respectively

• May’s number of Vessels on Moorings was down 11.6% from last year @ 1,045 vs 1,182
• 2014 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,253

• 2020 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 426
• May was below the three and ten-year averages by 9.8% and 2.2% respectively, but above the five-year average by 7.9%

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for May totaled 2,219 down 34.4% from 3,383 in 2022

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) were down 50.4% @ 759 vs 1,538 last year

• May’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 34.7%, 31.4% and 33.6% respectively
• May’s Private Aircraft Passengers made up .80% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 18.8% @ 1,447 vs 1,781 

• 2021 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,997
• 2020 the lowest volume for the month @ 91
• May Helicopter Passenger counts were below the three and ten ten-year averages by 16.9% and 6.8% respectively, but above the five-year average by 1.9%
• May Helicopter Passengers made up 1.52% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

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

• Hotel Occupancy for May was down by 1.3% @ 69.3% vs. 70.2% in 2022
• Hotel Occupancy was below the three-year average by 0.1% but above the five and ten-year averages by 15.6% and 10.1% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for May was up 3.6% @ 57.0% vs 55.0% in 2022

Competing Destination Occupancies

Among our competitive set, Catalina tied with Newport Beach for 4th in Hotel Occupancy and 9th in STR Occupancy for May 2023 (high to low) Short-term rental occupancy was below the three-year average by 1.3%, but above the five and ten-year averages by 13.7% and 16.2% respectively

• May Hotel Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in all but Anaheim, San Diego, and Santa Monica but tied with Newport Beach  
• May Short-Term Rental Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s all but Palm Springs

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

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)
• May Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 3.4% @ $226.00 vs. $218.59 in 2022
• May Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was down by 2.7% @ $585.00 vs. $601.00 in 2022

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

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 3rf for hotels and 3rd for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• May Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 2.0% @ $166.73 vs. $163.39 in 2022
• May Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $332.00, up 0.9% from $329.00 in 2022

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Walk-ins for the month were up year-over-year by 45% @ 2,463 vs. 1,699 in 2022
• 2018 had the highest volume for the month @5,426
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 0
• May walk-in counts were above the three and five-year averages by 11.3% and 31.1% respectively

• The number of Phone Calls for the month was down by 45% year-over-year @ 723 vs 757
• 2008 had the highest volume of calls for the month @ 2,100
• 2020 had the lowest volume of calls for the month @ 412
• May calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 9.2%, 5.3% and 25.4% respectively

LoveCatalina.com

• May LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was down year-over-year by 25.8% @ 86,716 vs 116,831 in 2022
• May total website users were below the three and five-year averages by 19.6% and 11.6% but above the ten-year average by 76.8%
• Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 41.0% @ 11,922 vs. 20,190 in 2022 
• Book Direct lodging searches were down 35.1% @ 15,535 vs.23,933 in 2022

Note changes to Book Direct in 2021 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 were made

• Go California Print Guide orders totaled 181, up from 161 in 2022
• 987 Guides were delivered via Mail House for the month, up from 162 in 2022
• Online Guide downloads were up @ 536 vs. 442 in 2022
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 687, were up from 132 last year
• No Guides were delivered to the Visitor Center during the month but were distributed from inventory on hand
• No Guides were delivered to Certified Racks during the month but were distributed from inventory on hand

Note, no 2021 Guide was printed and 2022 guide distribution initiated in late February 2022, resulting in more online guide orders. Some distributor’s tracking is running behind and will be updated as received.

• New E-newsletter subscribers in May were down year-over-year @ 182 vs 201 in 2022
• New subscribers for the month were below the three-year average of 198 but above the five-year average of 119

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of May below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 2.9%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 20.7%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 37.0%
• TikTok is up year-over-year by 15.3%
• Twitter is up by 3.2% year-over-year

Year-to-date—Historical Arrivals

COVID-19 and pre-Covid-19 comparrison data is illustrated in the snapshot above (January – May)

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

• 2015 had the highest total visitation year-to-date @ 370,034, a difference of 18,607 visitors more than 2023
• 2020 had the lowest year-to-date total visitation @ 141,118

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 and AirDNA

• Hotel Occupancy January through May 2023 was 3.3% @ 62.3% vs. 64.5% tracked for the same time period in 2022
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 51.2%, down 6.2% from 54.6% in 2022
• According to Smith Travel, Catalina’s average YTD Hotel Occupancy of 62.3% was below the YTD occupancy for all of our competing destinations except for Monterey
• According to AirDNA, Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental YTD Occupancy of 55% was below all destinations in our competitive set, with the exception of Palm Springs, with which we are tied

Year-to-date Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are down by 18.4% @ 2,431 vs. 2,980 in 2022
• Year-to-date Phone Calls are below the three, five and ten-year averages by 5.2%, 10.3% and 34.9% respectively
• The number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are up @ 9,292 vs. 7,811 or 19.0%   
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three and five-year averages by 25.9% and 33.6% respectively

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

• LoveCatalina.com website users were down year-to-date by 23.2% @ 398,468 vs.518,680 in 2022
• Book Direct lodging searches were down by 32.2% @ 60,876 vs. 89,844 in 2022 
• Book Direct referrals were down by 39.2% @ 46,659 vs. 76,784 in 2022
• Book Direct Package referrals were not active on our site

 Note changes to Book Direct on member links has resulted in shifting some traffic to referrals vs. searches

Weather

Data for May and year-to-date highs, lows and precipitation is not currently available due to a broken feed from the Harbor weather station.