September 2022

All Arrivals

September visitation increased year-over-year by 13.8% or 11,687 visitors

Previous tracking (below) for the month of September offers a comparison with and without COVID-19 impacts.  September 2022’s total of 96,266 was below 2019’s pre COVID-19 total monthly arrivals of 98,425 by 2,159 visitors.

 

Pass Counts 9-22

 

all arrivals 9-22

September’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages of 83,974, 90,359 and 94,369 by 14.6%, 6.5% and 2.0% respectively.

all arrivals 9-22


Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 93,217 for the month and were up 15.4% from last year.

Rolling 9-22
vessel counts 9-22

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 1.0% or a decrease of 743 people

  • 1995 had the highest volume for the month @ 78,320 passengers
  • 2008 had the lowest volume for the month @ 44,553
  • September Cross Channel Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 5.5%, 4.7% and 6.6% respectively
  • Cross Channel Passengers made up 73.53% of total monthly arrivals

 

cross channel 9-22

Cruise passenger counts totaled 14,837

  • There were 1,257 cruise passengers in September 2021
  • 2015 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 28,317
  • 2020 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0.  Pre-COVID-19 the lowest count for the month was 1994 @ 9,607
  • September Cruise Passenger counts were above the three and five-year averages by 176.6% and 32.6% respectively, but below the ten-year average by 10.7%.  Note multi-year averages are greatly impacted by the lack of cruise ships calling during COVID-19 suspension of operations
  • Cruise Passengers made up 15.42% of total monthly arrivals
  • The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 7
  • 2019 had 11 ships call on us
  • 2020 had 0, 2021 had 1
  • Pre-COVID-19 the lowest count for the month was 7 in 2016

 

cruise 9-22

Private Boater Passenger counts were down from last year by 5.2% @ 7,724 vs. 8,148

  • 2011 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 10,494
  • 2014 had the lowest passenger volume month @ 6,812 
  • September Private Boater Passenger counts were below the three and five and ten-year averages by 6.2%, 5.3% and 0.9% respectively
  • Private Boaters Made up 8% of total monthly arrivals
  • September’s number of Vessels Anchored was up 43.9% @ 164 vs 114 last year
  • 2018 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 197
  • 2012 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 71
  • September was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 27.5%, 15.8% and 21.8% respectively
  • September’s number of Vessels on Moorings was down by 5.2% from last year @ 1,931 vs 2,037
  • 2020 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 2,208
  • 2014 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,703 
  • September was below the three and five and ten-year averages for Vessels on Moorings by 6.2%, 5.3% and 0.9% respectively

private boat 9-22

 

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for September totaled 3,119, down 19.9% from 3,896 in 2021. Rolling 9-22

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) were down @ 1,614 vs 1,872 last year

  • 2012 had the highest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 2,621
  • 2017 had the lowest volume of Private Aircraft Passengers for the month @ 1,302
  • September’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 9.9%, 4.9% and 10.7% respectively. 
  • September Private Aircraft Passengers made up 1.67% of total monthly arrivals

private aircraft

Helicopter Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 24.6% @ 1,435 vs. 1,903 

  • 2017 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,245
  • 2013 the lowest volume for the month @ 1,310
  • September Helicopter Passengers counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 11.9%, 21.4% and 23.2% respectively
  • September Helicopter Passengers made up 1.49% of total monthly arrivals

heli 9-22

Lodging

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

Avg Occ

  • Hotel Occupancy for September was up by 2.7% @ 77.4% vs. 75.4% in 2021
  • Hotel Occupancy was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.5%, 2.7% and 1.1% respectively
  • Short-Term Rental Occupancy for September was up 5.3% @ 66% vs 62.7% in 2021
  • Short-term rental occupancy was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 8.8%, 31.9% and 36.5% respectively

Competing Destination Occupancies

  • Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 4th in Hotel Occupancy and 7th in STR Occupancy for September 2022

occupancy

Occ 9-22

  • September Hotel Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in Huntington Beach, Santa Barbara and Santa Monica and equal to San Diego
  • September Short-Term Rental Occupancy was greater than Catalina’s in Anaheim, Monterey, Newport Beach, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Barbara

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

ADR 9-22

  • Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 4th in Average Daily Rate for STRs
  • September Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 2.6% @ $247.82 vs. $241.62 in 2021
  • September Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was down by 0.3% @ $580.00 vs. $582.00 in 2021

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

ARAR 9-22

  • Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 6th for hotels and 4th for STRs respectively in Revenue Per Available Room.
  • September Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was up 5.2% @ $191.64 vs. $182.23 in 2021
  • September Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $383.00, up 3.8% from $269.00 in 2021

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

VIC 9-22

  • Phone Calls for the month were up year-over-year by 15% @ 784 vs. 682 in 2021
  • 2010 had the highest volume for the month @ 1,810 calls
  • 2015 had the lowest volume for the month @ 545 calls
  • September call counts were above the three-year average by 16.5% but below the five and ten-year averages by 9.3% and 13.5% respectively

 

Note phone sales for the annual New Year’s Eve Gala halted in 2019, resulting in lower call volumes July - December


VIC Calls 9-22

  • The number of Walk-Ins for the month was up by 18.4% year-over-year @ 2,503 vs. 2,114 in 2021
  • 2018 had the highest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 5,139 guests
  • 2020 had the lowest volume of Walk-ins for the month @ 1,003 guests
  • September Walk-In counts were above the three-year average by 33.6% and below the five-year average by 9.7%

VIC Walk ins 9-22

LoveCatalina.com

Website 9-22

  • September LoveCatalina.com website users were down year-over-year by 0.8% @ 86,048 vs. 86,752 in 2021
  • Website users were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.8%, 20.6% and 141.2% respectively
  • Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 37.3% @ 10,037 vs. 16,003 in 2021 
  • Book Direct lodging searches were down 19.7% @ 12,020 vs. 14,974 in 2021

 

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

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

 Vis guides 9-22

Note measures now include additional source tracking for months and years in which distributions were tracked

  • Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 209, were up from 43 last year
  • Online Guide downloads were down by 56.6% @ 196 vs. 452 in 2021
  • Go California Print Guide orders totaled 194 vs 0 in 2021

Note, no 2021 Guide was printed and 2022 guide distribution initiated in late February 2022

Some distributors tracking is running behind and will be updated as received.

Newsletter 9-22

  • New E-newsletter subscribers in September were down year-over-year @ 119 vs 129 in 2021
  • New subscribers were above the three-year average of 118 and the five-year average of 71 for the month

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of September below

SM 9-22

  • Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 6.2%
  • Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 20.5%
  • Twitter followers are up year-over-year by 9.1%
  • LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 77.8%
  • TikTok is our newest platform and is up year-over year by 2,138.1%. 

Year-to-Date Measures

Total year-to-date arrivals are up from last year by 38.6%.

All Arrivals 9-22

  • Year-to-date Total Arrivals were up @ 873,127 vs. 630,148 last year or a difference of 242,979 visitors or 38.6%
  • The total arrivals year-to-date exceeded the three-year average of 629,867 by 38.6%, five-year average of 711,687 by 22.7% and ten-year average of 760,760 by 14.8%
  • 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 plus snapshot below (January - September combined).

Pass counts 9-22

  • 2022 has the highest total visitation year-to-date @ 873,127
  • 2020 had the lowest year-to-date total visitation @ 386,327

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

Avg occ rolling 9-22

  • Hotel Occupancy YTD is 73% vs. 63.4% tracked for the same time period in 2021
  • Short-Term Rental Occupancy Year-To-Date is 61.5%, up from 59.6% in 2021
  • According to Smith Travel, Year-To-Date Catalina’s average Hotel Occupancy of 73% was above Palm Springs,  Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Monterey, Newport Beach and San Francisco.  We are equal to Santa Barbara. Competing destinations of San Diego and Santa Monica exceeded our year-to-date average Hotel Occupancy.
  • According to AirDNA, Catalina’s average Year-To-Date Short-Term Rental Occupancy was above Palm Springs, but below all other destinations in our competitive set.

Note 2021 and 2022 peak demand rates have impacted occupancy on Catalina Island

Year-to-date Visitor Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

All visits 9-22

  • Number of Phone Calls year-to-date are up by 3.9% @ 6,405 vs. 6,162
  • Year-to-date Phone Calls exceeded the three-year average, but are below the five and ten-year averages
  • Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are up @ 17,339 vs. 16,551 or 4.8%   
  • Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three-year average, but below the five-year average

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

all visits YTD 9-22

  • LoveCatalina.com website users are up year-to-date by 4.8% @ 900,367 vs. 859,949 in 2021
  • Book Direct lodging searches are down year-to-date by 12.5% @, 152,107 vs. 173,896 in 2021. 
  • Book Direct referrals year-to-date are down by 18.5% @ 135,801 vs. 166,651 in 2021
  • Book Direct Package referrals are not currently 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 September 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.

weather 9-22


Rainy Days

vis stats 4-22

Rain July 2022