But the traffic is reportedly not yet up to pre-pandemic levels
Statistics indicate that more people are coming to Catalina Island, but the traffic hasn’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to figures recently released by Love Catalina Island.
“Total Arrivals year-to-date was up from last year @ 545,569 vs. 315,249 or a difference of 230,320 visitors,” according to Love Catalina Island.
“All arrival sectors are up year-to-date with the exception of Cruise [ships],” according to Love Catalina Island.
No cruise ship data was available for August 2021 because the first cruise ship visit of 2021 occurred earlier this week.
August traffic
August 2021 visitor traffic to Catalina was 33.3% greater than August 2020, according to Love Catalina Island. “August continued to show significant signs of recovery from COVID-19 related impacts, though at a slower pace than June or July,” according to the Love Catalina website.
Love Catalina Island (formerly the Chamber of Commerce) is also known as the Catalina Island Tourism Authority. As such, it tracks visitor activity and revenues.
“August 2021’s total of 105,214 fell short of August 2019’s total arrivals of 136,781,” according to the non-profit’s website.
“Passengers arriving by sea, including private boaters, totaled 101,209 for the month of August, up by 26,194 from last year,” according Love Catalina.
“Private Boater passenger counts were down slightly year-over-year @ 10,220,” according to the website.
“2019 had the highest passenger volume for the month @ 10,612,” according to the website.
“Combined in-bound air passenger counts for August totaled 4,069, up from 4,035 in 2020,” according to Love Catalina.
“August people aboard planes made up 1.75% of total monthly arrivals,” according to the website.
“People aboard Charter Helicopters was up year-over-year @ 2,166 vs. 1,483,” according to the website.
