The visitor counts for October showed signs of improvement, according to data recently released on the Love Catalina Island/ Catalina Island Tourism Authority website (the new name for the Chamber of Commerce).
However, the numbers were still down from prior years. That’s not surprising because of the economic impact of coronavirus-related restrictions that were imposed earlier this year by state and county governments.
The numbers obviously don’t reflect restrictions that were imposed during the latter part of November.
“October 2020 reflected the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 far less than did the months of March through June. October saw significant growth over prior months of the year,” according to the website.
“October visitation increased year-over-year in three sectors (cross channel, private boaters and private aircraft), still resulting in an overall decrease by 10,362 visitors over the same month last year,” according to the website.
“October’s total in-bound passengers = 67,808, down 13.3% from last year @ 78,170. October 2020 was below the three-year average of 77,037 by 12.0%. October was below the five-year average of 83,802 by 19.1% and the ten-year average of 80,101 by 15.3%,” according to the website.
“People arriving by sea, including private boaters, was 65,119 for the month of October, down 13.2% from 75,143 last year,” according to the website.
“Private Boater passenger counts were up year-over-year by 6.2% @ 7,736,” according to Love Catalina Island.
“October private boater passenger counts were above the three-year average of 6,245 by 23.9%,” according to Love Catalina Island.
“Combined in-bound air passenger counts for October totaled 3,529, down by 13.4% from 2019. Note Aircraft overnights were not reported for the month,” according to Love Catalina Island.
“People aboard planes (Airport in the Sky) was up 3.0% from 1,575 in 2019,” according to Love Catalina Island.
“October counts for people aboard planes was above the three-year average of 1,453 by 11.7%,” according to the website.
“Total arrivals calendar year-to-date was down 49.2% from last year @ 454,135 visitors,” according to the website.
“Total arrivals calendar year-to-date fell below the three, five and ten year averages by over 40% each,” according to the website.
