The combined figures for ferry and cruise ship visitors to Catalina Island show a year-to-date decrease of 0.4 percent, or less than half a percent.
Cross channel ferry traffic brought 47,555 visitors to Catalina in October 2018, according to data from the Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.
That’s a 15.5 percent decrease from October 2017. However, the month-to-month figure is not the entire story. The 2018 year-to-date cross channel carrier traffic visitor count 629,615 down 0.7 percent—that is, less than 1 percent—from last year’s year-to-date count of 634,137 visitors.
Cruise ships brought 29,820 visitors here in October 2018, a 2.2 percent decrease from October 2017. Again, the year-to-date change is different: as of October 2018, a year-to-date total of 223,212 visitors came here—a 6.5 percent decrease from the October 2017 year-to-date total of 238,714.
As was previously reported by the Avalon Harbor Department, there were 252 boats anchored here in October 2018 and 1,266 vessels moored here in October 2018.
In all, boats brought 5,064 people here in October 2018. The year-to-date number of people who came by boat is 10.7 percent lower than it was in October 2017.
Planes brought 1,161 people to the Airport-in-the-Sky last month, a 14.9 percent decrease from October 2017.
The year-to-date plane passenger count as of October 2018 was 14,105—a 7.4 percent increase from the overall 2017 plane passenger count. The Chamber did not start tracking air visitors until 2017.
The helicopter visitor count for October 2018 was slightly lower than October 2017: last month saw 1,499 visitors arrive by helicopter, a 2.9 percent decrease from last year at this time. The year-to-date helicopter visitor count is 17,453, which currently stands at 2.7 percent greater than last year’s overall visitor count.
