Visitor Counts

October 2023

October visitation increased year-over-year by 11.9% or 10,507 visitors totaling 99,030 arrivals.  October 2023 total arrivals set a record for the month beating 2017’s high of 95,397.

Previous tracking (below) for the month of October offers a comparison with and without COVID-19 impacts (2020-2022).

October’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages for the month by 13.7%, 21.6% and 16.1% respectively. 

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 96,647, up for the month by 12.4% from last year. 

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down year-over-year or by 2.4%; a decrease of 1,336 people

• 2020 had the highest volume for the month @ 57,383 passengers
• 2009 had the lowest volume for the month @ 31,323 passengers
• October Cross Channel Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 2.1%, 1.8% and 0.8% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 54.67% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 37,668, up by 49.3% from 2022 or by 12,436 visitors

• 2023 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 37,668
• 2020 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• October Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 56.7%, 111.8% and 70.1% 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 38.04% of total monthly arrivals
   
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 14
• 2023 had the highest number of ships calling @ 11
• 2020 had 0 ships calling
• October typically has 12 ships call on us

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 4,840, down from last year by 8.3% or 436 visitors

• 2020 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 7,736
• 2012 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 4,800
• October Private Boater Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.9%, 15.9% and 15.5% respectively
• Private Boaters Made up 4.89% of total monthly arrivals
   
• October’s number of Vessels Anchored was up by 58.6% from last year by 65 boats
• 2018 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 252
• 2011 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 10
• October was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 42.3%, 56.5% and 45.7% respectively
   
• October’s number of Vessels on Moorings was down 8.3% from last year by 109 boats
• 2020 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,934
• 2012 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,200
• October was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.9%, 15.9% and 15.5% respectively   

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for October totaled 2,423, down 5.1% or 131 Arrivals from 2022.

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,647, up 18.8% or 261 passengers vs last year

• 2011 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,777
• 2018 the lowest volume for the month @ 1,161
• October’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 2.9%, 3.0% and 7.7% respectively
• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.67% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 736, down year-over-year by 36.2% or 418 arrivals

• 2015 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,617
• 2023 the lowest volume for the month @ 736
• October Helicopter Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 33.6%, 37% and 44.6% respectively
• Helicopter Passengers made up .74% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

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

• Hotel Occupancy for October was down by 3.3% @ 70.3% vs. 72.7% in 2022
• Hotel Occupancy was below three, five and ten-year averages by 1.5%, 2.2% and 1.6% respectively
• According to Visit California, statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was 70.1%, down by 1.0% from 2022
  • Los Angeles County led the state with an occupancy of 76.0%
  • US Hotel Occupancy averaged 65.8% in October, down 1.8% from 2022 and down 4.3% from 2019
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for October was down 5.6% @ 51% vs 54% in 2022
• Short-term rental occupancy was below the three-year average by 7.3% but above the five and ten-year averages by 4.7% and 10.5% respectively
• Among our competitive set, Hotels ranked 5th and Short-Term Rental rated 9th in Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

• October Hotel Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in Anaheim, Huntington Beach San Diego and Santa Monica with all other destinations being lower
• October Short-Term Rental Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all but Palm Springs

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

• October Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 4.6% @ $236.01 vs. $225.21 in 2022
• October Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up by 2.4% @ $566.00 vs. $553.00 in 2022
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)

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

• October Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 1.2% @ $165.91 vs. $163.07 in 2022
• October Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $291.00, down 3.3% from $301.00 in 2022
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th for hotels and 3rf for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Walk-ins for the month were up year-over-year by 5.3% @ 2,623 vs. 2,491 in 2022
• 2016 has the highest volume for the month @ 4,648
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 936
• October walk-in counts were above the three and five-year average by 6.7% and 27.1% respectively

• The number of Phone Calls for the month was down by 30.6% year-over-year @ 367 vs 529
• 2014 had the highest volume of calls for the month @ 1,485
• 2023 had the lowest volume of calls for the month @ 367
• October calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 28.2%, 42.4% and 57.4% 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

• October LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was up year-over-year @ 87,000 vs 71,864 in 2022
• October total website users were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 14.6%, 7.3% and 114.5% respectively
• Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 23.5% @ 5,269 vs. 6,892 in 2022 
• Book Direct lodging searches were down 4.0% @ 8,800 vs.9,162 in 2022

Note changes to Book Direct in 2021 resulted in shifting traffic between referrals and searches

October 2023 is the first month of reporting using new Google G4 analytics tools

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

Note measures now include source tracking for months and years in which distributions were made by subset

• Go California Print Guide orders totaled 141, up from 135 in 2022
• Online Guide downloads were up @ 301 vs. 113 in 2022
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 277, were up from 296 last year
• Certified racks were filled from prior months deliveries

• New E-newsletter subscribers in October were down slightly year-over-year @ 134 vs 139 in 2022
• New subscribers for the month were above the three and five-year averages

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of October below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 5.4%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 26.6%
• X followers are up year-over-year by 0.3%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 26.9%
• TikTok is up year-over-year by 16.2%. 

Year-to-date—Historical Arrivals

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

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

• 2023 total year-to-date visitation is 946,861
• 2022 had the highest total visitation year-to-date @ 961,650, a difference of 14,759 visitors vs 2023
• 2020 had the lowest year-to-date total visitation @ 454,135

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 October 2023 was down 4.8% @ 67.9 vs. 71.3% tracked for the same time period in 2022
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 58.8%, down 5.3% from 62.1% in 2022
• According to Smith Travel, Catalina’s average YTD Hotel Occupancy of 67.9% was below the YTD occupancy for all of our competing destinations except for Palm Springs and San Francisco
• According to AirDNA, Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental YTD Occupancy of 58.8% was below all destinations in our competitive set

Year-to-date Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are down by 19.1% @ 5,609 vs. 6,934 in 2022
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 13.0%, 19.4% and 40.4% respectively
• Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are up @ 24,537 vs. 22,333 or 9.9%   
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three and five-year averages by 8.6% and 23.0% respectively

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct Package referrals are again active on our site
• Book Direct referrals are down by 29.8% @ 100,128 vs. 142,693 in 2022 
• Book Direct lodging searches are down by 18.3% @ 131,704 vs. 161,269 in 2022 
• LoveCatalina.com website users are down year-to-date by 8.2% @ 892,220 vs.972,231 in 2022

Note changes to Book Direct on member links has resulted in shifting some traffic to referrals vs. searches and Google website traffic reporting has moved to G4 effective October 2023

Weather

Data for recent highs, lows and precipitation are not currently available due to broken feed from the Harbor weather station. Multi-year rain days data is also displayed by year and month since 2012, likewise excluding recent months of this year.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.