Visitor Counts

September 2023

September visitation increased year-over-year by 13.9% or 13,357 visitors. 

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

September’s total in-bound passenger count was above the three, five and ten-year averages for the month by 13.2%, 19.2% and 13.5% respectively. 

Arrivals by Sea

Passengers arriving by sea, totaled 187,766, up for the month by 15.6% from last year. 

Cross Channel Passenger counts were down slightly year-over-year or by 0.6%; a decrease of 417 people

• 1995 had the highest volume for the month @ 78,320 passengers
• 2008 had the lowest volume for the month @ 44,553 passengers
• September Cross Channel Passenger counts were below the three-year average by 0.7% but above the five and ten-year averages by 4.2% and 4.3% respectively
• Cross Channel Passengers made up 64.07% of total monthly arrivals

Cruise passenger counts totaled 29,211, up by 96.9% from 2022 or by 14,374 visitors

• 2023 had the highest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 29,211
• 2020 had the lowest Cruise Passenger volume for the month @ 0
• September Cruise Passenger counts were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 93.4%, 121.3% and 63.7% 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 18.44% of total monthly arrivals
   
• The number of Cruise Ships calling on Avalon was 10
• 2019 had the highest number of ships calling @ 11
• 2020 had 0 ships calling
• September typically has 9 ships call on us

Private Boater Passenger counts totaled 8,316, up from last year by 7.7% or 592 visitors

• 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 above the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.1%, 1.3% and 4.9% respectively
• Private Boaters Made up 7.59% of total monthly arrivals
   
• September’s number of Vessels Anchored was up by 33.5% @ 219 vs 164 last year
• 2023 had the highest number of Vessels Anchored @ 219
• 2012 had the lowest number of Vessels Anchored @ 71
• September was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 32.2%, 50% and 50% respectively
   
• September’s number of Vessels on Moorings was up 77% from last year @ 2,079 vs. 1,931
• 2021 had the highest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 2,652
• 2014 had the lowest number of Vessels on Moorings @ 1,703
• September was above the three, five and ten-year averages by 3.1%, 1.3% and 4.9% respectively  

 Arrivals by Air

Combined in-bound air passenger counts for September totaled 1,872, down 40% from 3,119 in 2022.

Private Aircraft Passengers (Airport in the Sky) were down 38.3% @ 996 vs 1,614 last year

• September’s Private Aircraft Passenger count was below the three, five and ten-year averages by 33.3%, 38.4% and 39.9% respectively
• September’s Private Aircraft Passengers made up .91% of total monthly arrivals

Helicopter Passenger counts were down year-over-year by 40% @ 861 vs. 1,435 

• 2017 had the highest volume for the month @ 2,245
• 2023 the lowest volume for the month @ 861
• September Helicopter Passenger counts were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 38.5%, 45.2% and 52.8% respectively
• September Helicopter Passengers made up .79% of total monthly arrivals

Lodging

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

• Hotel Occupancy for September was down by 4.9% @ 73.6% vs. 77.4% in 2022
• Hotel Occupancy was below three, five and ten-year averages by 2.5%, 1.9% and 2.4% respectively
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy for September was down 12.1% @ 58% vs 66% in 2022
• Short-term rental occupancy was below the three-year average by 6.8% but above the five and ten-year averages by 3.5% and 17.4% respectively
• Among our competitive set, Hotels ranked 5th in Occupancy and 2nd in Short-Term Rental Occupancy (high to low)

Competing Destination Occupancies

• September Hotel Occupancy was higher than Catalina’s in Monterey, San Diego, San Francisco and Santa Monica, and equal to Anaheim, with all other destinations being lower
• September 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

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 4th in Average Daily Rate for Hotels and 1st for STRs (high to low)
• September Hotel Average Daily Rate was up 3.4% @ $254.79 vs. $246.43 in 2022
• September Short-Term Rental Average Daily Rate was up by 0.7% @ $584.00 vs. $580.00 in 2022

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

• Among our competitive set, Catalina ranked 7th for hotels and 2nd for STRs in Revenue Per Available Room (high to low)
• September Hotel Revenue Per Available Room was down 0.7% @ $187.49 vs. $188.85 in 2022
• September Short-Term Rental Revenue Per Available Room was $339.00, down 11.0% from $381.00 in 2022

Visitors Services

Catalina Island Visitor Center

• Walk-ins for the month were down year-over-year by 4.7% @ 2,620 vs. 2,503 in 2022
• 2018 has the highest volume for the month @ 5,139
• 2020 had the lowest volume for the month @ 1,003
• September walk-in counts were above the three and five-year average by 4.7% and 2.27% respectively

• The number of Phone Calls for the month was down by 46.7% year-over-year @ 418 vs 784
• 2010 had the highest volume of calls for the month @ 1,854
• 2023 had the lowest volume of calls for the month @ 418
• September calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 33.4%, 39.3% and 55.9% respectively

LoveCatalina.com

• September LoveCatalina.com total website traffic was up year-over-year by 25.5% @ 107,975 vs 86,048 in 2022
• September total website users were above the three, five and ten-year averages by 15.4%, 16.2% and 132.3% respectively
• Book Direct referrals were down year-over-year by 29.3% @ 7,101 vs. 10,037 in 2022 
• Book Direct lodging searches were down 15.7% @ 10,129 vs.12,020 in 2022

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

Visitor Guides & Newsletters

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

• 4,420 Guides were delivered to Certified Racks during the month
• Go California Print Guide orders totaled 121, down from 195 in 2022
• Online Guide downloads were up @ 342 vs. 196 in 2022
• Printed Visitor Guide orders on LoveCatalina.com @ 354, were up from 209 last year

• New E-newsletter subscribers in September were up year-over-year @ 142 vs 129 in 2022
• New subscribers for the month were above the three and five-year averages

Social Media

Cumulative totals by platform as of September below

• Facebook followers are up year-over-year by 5.4%
• Instagram followers are up year-over-year by 31.0%
• X followers are up year-over-year by 0.2%
• LinkedIn followers are up year-over-year by 28.1%
• TikTok is up year-over-year by 15.8%. 

Year-to-date—Historical Arrivals

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

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

• 2023 total year-to-date visitation is 847,861
• 2022 had the highest total visitation year-to-date @ 873,127, a difference of 25,266 visitors vs 2023
• 2020 had the lowest year-to-date total visitation @ 31386,327

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 September 2023 was down 5.1% @ 57.7 vs. 71.3% tracked for the same time period in 2022
• Short-Term Rental Occupancy was 59.7%, down 5.3% from 63.0% in 2022
• According to Smith Travel, Catalina’s average YTD Hotel Occupancy of 67.1% was below the YTD occupancy for all of our competing destinations except for Palm Springs
• According to AirDNA, Catalina’s average Short-Term Rental YTD Occupancy of 59.7% 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 18.2% @ 5,242 vs. 6,405 in 2022
• Year-to-date Phone Calls were below the three, five and ten-year averages by 11.7%, 17.1% and 38.6% respectively
• Number of Walk-Ins year-to-date are up @ 21,914 vs. 19,842 or 10.4%   
• Year-to-date Walk-In counts were above the three and five-year averages by 8.8% and 22.5% respectively

Year-to-date LoveCatalina.com

• LoveCatalina.com website users are down year-to-date by 10.6% @ 805,220 vs.900,367 in 2022
• Book Direct lodging searches are down by 19.2% @ 122,994 vs. 152,107 in 2022 
• Book Direct referrals are down by 30.1% @ 94,859 vs. 135,891 in 2022 
• Book Direct Package referrals are 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 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.