The Catalina visitor count was down last month, according to the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce. The good news: that’s likely temporary, as the Chamber believes bad weather is the main cause.
The monthly visitor count report for January 2013 has come out with bad news: the visitor count was down 5.4 percent from the same time last year.
Donna Harris, Chamber director of marketing, said the January 2013 count was 1,225 visitors short of January 2012’s count.
The Catalina visitor count was down last month, according to the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce. The good news: that’s likely temporary, as the Chamber believes bad weather is the main cause.
The monthly visitor count report for January 2013 has come out with bad news: the visitor count was down 5.4 percent from the same time last year.
Donna Harris, Chamber director of marketing, said the January 2013 count was 1,225 visitors short of January 2012’s count.
“Usually, when the sun shines, the phones ring,” Harris said.
She said one or two boats to the Island had to be canceled last month. Harris did not believe there were any cross channel cancellations last year.
Cross channel carriers brought 19,684 visitors to the Island last month. Unfortunately, the carriers brought 20,809 in January of last year.
There was a small increase in visitors from cruise ships, but not enough to offset the drop in carrier traffic. Cruise ships brought 96 more individuals, or 0.8 percent more visitors, came in January 2013 than in January 2012. (Carnival Cruises is scheduled to send a second ship to Catalina starting in January 2014.)
Since this was the first report for the year, the “year to date” figures are identical to the monthly figures.
An earlier version of the January visitor report contained a misleading error that said the information was for the month of December, which could have given an incorrect impression of the “year to date" statistics.
