Visitor driven revenues to the city of Avalon increased by 3.9% from October 2018 to October 2019, according to a report recently released by the city of Avalon. A note at the end of the report says the data has not been audited.
The Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitor’s Bureau recently emailed a link to the report and comments about highlights to Chamber members and partners.
The four-page document, generated by city staff, tracks revenue created for the city by visitors tracked the city’s revenue from October 2009 to October 2019, by month, by year and by type of income: sales tax and transient occupancy tax.
The report contains no narrative.
According to an email issued by the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce & Visitor’s Bureau the highlights included:
• “TOT revenues were up 10.4% compared to October 2018 and up 3.5% for the twelve-month period,” according to the Chamber email.
TOT stands for transient occupancy tax, or short term rental tax.
The exact October 2019 TOT revenue figure reported in the four-page document was $5,050,427.
That’s less than the September 2019 TOT visitor driven revenue figure of $614,008, but greater than the October 2018 TOT figure of $483,149.
“The standard report is now updated to include TOT revenues shown first combined and then separated out by hotels and short-term rentals,” according to the Chamber email.
“Note there are several months where short-term rental revenues are negative (e.g. February 2013, December 2015, 2016). This is likely due to a late hotel payment being attributed to an incorrect month. Future reporting will adjust for these discrepancies once properly allocated,” according to the Chamber email.
• “Admissions tax revenues were up 3.4% for the month but Harbor Use Fees were up 16.3%,” the Chamber email said.
“Cross-channel wharfage revenues were up 33.6% compared to October 2018 and up 10.4% for the twelve month period,” the Chamber email said.
“Cruise ship wharfage revenues were down 42.4% compared to October 2018,” the Chamber email said.
Cruise ship visits remain controversial among Avalon residents. While business owners and managers cite cruise ship visitors as a source of revenue, residents complain about the negative impact of cruise ship visitors on Avalon’s infrastructure and quality of life.
“There were nine (9) cruise ships in October 2019 with 16,828 passengers compared to 15 with 29,820 passengers in October 2018,” the Chamber email said.
The Avalon city website puts the population of Avalon “around 4,000.”
