Visitor Counts

October 2025

All Arrivals

October visitation increased year-over-year by 20.4% with 98,686 total arrivals.

October’s total arrival count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 6.0%, 11.8% and 14.7% respectively. Cross Channel Counts above include 2,308 arrivals at Two Harbors this year and 2,391 last year. 

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

• October 2025 had the highest number of total visitor arrivals on record @ 98,686
• October 2020 had the lowest number of total visitor arrivals @ 67,808

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea in October totaled 95,730, up by 19.7% for the month compared to last year.

Cross Channel Passenger counts were up by 3.6%, an increase of 1,885 people.  Cross Channel Counts above include arrivals at Two Harbors.

• 2020 had the highest volume of Cross Channel passengers for the month @ 57,383 passengers
• 2009 had the lowest volume for the month @ 31,323 passengers
• October Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 1.7%, 0.3% and 1.1% respectively. Cross Channel Passengers made up 55.71% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 35,542, up from 22,449 last year by 58.3% or 13,093 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 11.5%, 36.6% and 50.8% respectively
• Cruise Passengers made up 36.02% of total monthly arrivals
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon in October was 11
• 2023 had the highest number of ships calling @ 14
• 2020 had 0 ships calling

• October typically has 10 ships call

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 5,209, up 16.9% from last year

• 2020 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 7,736
• 2024 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 4,456
• October Private Boater Passenger counts were above the three and five-year averages by 7.7% and 5.2% respectively, but below the ten-year average by 4.3%
• Private Boaters made up 5.28% of total monthly arrivals
• October’s 2025 number of Vessels Anchored was not reported
• 2024 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored for the month @ 255
• 2011 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 10
• October was unable to be compared to three, five and ten-year averages due to missing data
• October’s number of Vessels on Moorings was 1,264, up 13.5% from last year’s total of 1,114
• 2020 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,934
• 2024 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,113
• October was above the three and five-year averages by 5.7% and 2.7% respectively, but below the ten-year average by 6.8%

  Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for October totaled 3,016 up by 52.7% from 1,975 in 2024

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) totaled 1,734, up 55.8% vs. last year’s total of 1,133

• 2011 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,777
• 2024 had the lowest volume for the month @ 1,113
• October’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 29.8%, 21.1% and 22.4% respectively

• Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.76% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts totaled 1,222, up year-over-year by 46.9% from 832 in 2024

• 2015 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,617
• 2023 had the lowest volume for the month @ 736
• Helicopter Passenger counts were above the three and five-year averages by 31.4% and 13.6% respectively, but below the ten-year average by 1.0%
• Helicopter Passengers made up 1.24% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

From Smith Travel, AIRDNA and Visit California

Hotels and Short-Term Rentals Occupancy

• Hotel Occupancy in October was up 6.5% @ 67.0% vs. 62.9% in 2024, according to Smith Travel with only three properties reporting.  Non-responding properties have been contacted and are working with Smith to establish reporting.  Tentative City of Avalon Hotel Occupancy reporting showed an average of 67.0% for the month in 2025 vs 52.4% in 2024
• Hotel Occupancy was above the three-year average by 1.5% but below the five and ten-year averages by 2.0% and 3.3% respectively
• 2017 had the highest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 76.6%
• 2024 had the lowest Hotel Occupancy for the month @ 62.9%
• Statewide Hotel Occupancy for the month was unavailable at the time of reporting
• Nationwide Hotel Occupancy was unavailable at the time of reporting
• Catalina’s Short-Term Rental Occupancy for October was down by 9.3% @ 39.0% vs.43.0% in 2024, according to AirDNA with 331 properties reporting
• Short-term Rental Occupancy was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 12.0%, 21.1% and 9.3% respectively
• 2015 had the highest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 67.7%
• 2018 had the lowest Short-term Rental Occupancy for the month @ 30.9%
• Statewide Short-term Rental Occupancy was unavailable at the time of reporting
• Nationwide STR Occupancy was unavailable at the time of reporting
• Among our competitive set Hotels ranked in 7th place in Occupancy and Short-Term Rentals ranked 10th or last place in Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

• Hotel Occupancy was lower than Catalina’s in Palm Springs
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in all markets

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate

• Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 0.6% @ $238.54 vs. $237.05 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was down by 4.4% @ $702.00 vs. $734.00 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 7th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was unavailable at the time of reporting
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Average Daily Rate was unavailable at the time of reporting

Hotel and Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room

• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 21.6% @ $170.28 vs. $140.08 in 2024
• Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was down 12.9% @ $276.00 vs. $317.00 in 2024
• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 8th for hotels and 1st for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• Statewide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was unavailable at the time of reporting
• Nationwide Hotel and STR Revenue Per Available Room was unavailable at the time of reporting

Visitor & Member Services

• Mixer attendance was up 81.1% at 67 vs. 37 in 2024
• Mixer attendance was above the three-year average by 36.7%

• Phone Calls for the month were up year-over-year by 0.5% @ 411 vs. 409 in 2024
• Calls were down up from the three-year average by 3.9% but down from the five and ten-year averages by 12.7% and 45.1% respectively
• 2014 had the highest number of calls @ 1,485
• 2023 had the lowest number @ 367
• Increased use of online and mobile self-help tools for reservations and research are believed to be the main reasons for declining calls

• Walk-ins for the month were up year-over-year by 14.9% @ 2,271 vs. 1,977 in 2024
• Walk-ins are below the three and five-year averages by 0.8% and 2.3% respectively
• 2016 had the highest volume of walk-ins for the month @ 4,648
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 936

LoveCatalina.com

• October’s LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was up 4.0% year-over-year @ 75,895 vs. 73,000 in 2024
• October’s total website users were below the three-year average by 3.5% but above the five-year average by 1.8%
• Book Direct lodging referrals were down year-over-year by 20.7% @ 6,417 vs. 8,089 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were down 32.2% @ 11,838 vs. 17,448 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, external AI tools are eroding traditional website traffic measures.  LoveCatalina.com is now being optimized for future AI searches.  AI web traffic is not trackable at this time.

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

• Certified Racks @ 0 guides delivered vs 3,672 last year.  Existing stock was adequate
• Go California Printed Guide orders totaled 185, up from 0 in 2024
• Mail House fulfillment was 0 in both years 
• Online Guide downloads were down @ 286 vs. 339 in 2024
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com were down @ 265 vs 375 last year
• Visitor Guides delivered to the Visitor Center totaled 1,008 up from 0 last year

• New E-newsletter subscribers in October declined year-over-year @ 98 vs 134 last year
• New subscribers for the month were below the three and five-year averages of about 120

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of October

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 6.3%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 13.8%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 24.3%
• Threads followers are up by 17.8%
• TikTok followers are up year-over-year by 33.4%. 
• X followers are down year over-year by 2.8%

For a look at our top performing Meta posts in October vs September, click here 

Weather

High, low and rain days for October (since 2012) are tracked below

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

 Year-to-date and Historical Arrivals

Year-to-date total arrivals is above all previous years’ tracking for the same timeframe @ 1,068,471 passengers

Data above is for January – October of each year

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

• 2025 year-to-date total visitation @ 1,068,471 is up 6.5% from 1,003,218 last year
• 2025 year-to-date visitation is above the three, five and ten-year average by 6.2%, 14.1% and 20.7% respectively.

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, AirDNA

• Hotel Occupancy January through October 2025 is up 5.5% @ 69.1% vs. 65.5% tracked for the same time period in 2024
• Hotel Occupancy through October is above the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.2%, 2.7% and 1.1% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy January through October was 48.8%, down 2.7% from 2024 which was 50.1%
• Short-term rental occupancy through October was below the three and five-year averages by 3.5%, 12.0% respectively but above the ten-year average by 3.0%

Year-to-date Visitor & Member Services
Mixers and Visitor Center

• The number of Mixer attendees year-to-date is up 10.5% @ 580 vs. 525 in 2024
• The number of Phone Calls year-to-date are up by 10.5% @ 4,832 vs. 4,371 in 2024
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 2.1%, 15.4% and 38.4% respectively
• The Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are down @ 20,922 vs. 22,829 or by 8.4%  
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were below the three and five-year averages by 8.1% and 6.2% respectively

Year-to-date

LoveCatalina.com

• Book Direct referrals are down 8.3% year-to-date @ 119,793 vs. 130,696 in 2024 
• Book Direct lodging searches were up by 11.4% @ 222,376 vs. 199,573 in 2024 
• Calls connecting from LoveCatalina.com were down 3.9% from last year
• Links to directions on LoveCatalina.com were up 30.2% from last year
• Business profile views were up 30.2% from last year
• Searches made on LoveCatalina.com were up 53.0% from last year
• Website Users were down 13.2% from last year
• Visits to other websites from LoveCatalina.com were down 5.0% 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-October) are displayed below.  Measures are taken at Avalon Harbor.