Catalina Weighs Growth Options as Tourism Ebbs

The name alone stirs notions of a tropical paradise in the Pacific: Santa Catalina Island.

Southern Californians know better, of course. They understand that there are no waterfalls or wide stretches of white-sand beaches, no clusters of gently swaying hammocks or luxury resorts. It’s the first-time visitors from elsewhere, those with exotic expectations of all of the above, who do not understand.

“I came here thinking, ‘An island! Yes! Little umbrella drinks in a cabana on the beach,’ ” said Lamar Trudeau, a cardiologist from Wisconsin who recently took a day trip to Catalina while attending a medical seminar in Orange County. “But there’s no room on the beach; it’s the size of a postage stamp. I kept asking people, ‘Is this it? Is this all there is to it?’ Lake Winnebago has better beaches than this.”

Catalina Island has long been considered a jewel for Southern Californians, a dot on the horizon that serves as a perpetual getaway for the mainland residents who make up more than 70% of its visitors.

But things are different now as Catalina faces a lethargic economy, dwindling visitor counts and mounting competition for tourists’ dollars in Southern California. More than ever, Catalina needs out-of-town visitors like Trudeau. And doing what it’s done for years--staying quaint, relying on repeat customers and pushing the allure of an island in the Pacific--isn’t enough.

Business is flat, and has been for years. Last fall, one of the largest passenger carriers, Catalina Cruises, discontinued service to Avalon, saying it had trouble filling the 450 seats on its high-speed catamaran.

Merchants and island officials are acknowledging, however quietly, that the island’s whimsical charm may not be enough to sustain them in the tourist market forever.

“I get the feeling we’re like a health club,” said Peggy Meier, an island real estate agent and longtime resident. “You want it there, just in case. But in reality, you don’t really use it.”

It isn’t as though Catalina--with its 1 square mile of shops, hotels and pint-size beach--is desolate. Roughly 900,000 visitors traveled to the island last year, and on a recent weekend, there wasn’t a single hotel room available--though business was buoyed by two weddings and an extra 1,000 people in town for a swing dance camp.

But a look at the visitors bureau’s records shows little growth in recent years despite a flourishing economy. Since 1995, the number of annual visitors to Catalina dropped three years before picking up in 1999 and 2000.

Through May, the visitor count is down about 13%. Hotel occupancies and vacation rentals have fallen by 20%. All of which has left some wondering whether Catalina is becoming Southern California’s forgotten child.

“People tend to forget about Catalina Island,” said Skip Hull, a San Diego tourism consultant and researcher. “There’s a real ‘been-there, done-that’ attitude about it, and because of that it gets overlooked.”

Part of the problem, some say, is also what makes Catalina so attractive: its size.

Only a sliver of land is available for development, with the rest owned and controlled by the Santa Catalina Island Conservancy. The conservancy manages about 86% of the 42,000-acre island--including nearly all of its 48-mile coastline--and keeps it in its natural state, available only for hiking, camping and other outdoor recreation. Chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. and his family, who owned most of the island before deeding it to the conservancy, were so adamant about preserving Catalina that there is little chance any significant pieces of untouched land will ever be opened for development.

There’s been talk of building an 18-hole golf course and luxury resort on one of the last pieces of land open for development. Local officials met several times with a developer over three or four years, but discussions broke down. The search is on for another prospective developer.

Locals say a resort, if it added 300 to 500 more hotel rooms in town, would provide a much-needed spillover business.

Meanwhile, Avalon is the heart of the island, with 300 businesses strung through a tight grid of narrow streets. There are about 1,000 hotel rooms, and as many as 10,000 people crowd onto the island on some summer weekends. The beach--barely a city block long--looks like a patchwork quilt as visitors attempt to claim a tiny spot of their own.

And though the water is clean and clear in the harbor, there isn’t much elbow room there either. Snorkelers yield to the large, yellow submersible boats that give tourists a dry peek underwater. Kayakers are routinely buffeted by power boats and jet skis.

There is little room to grow. So Catalina stays the same.

“To be a major tourist destination, you have to keep refreshing the product to keep people coming back,” says Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “When you hear about Catalina . . . you don’t hear that they’ve done anything to refresh themselves, or even change the experience a little for people. Catalina’s slipping back into the far recesses of people’s minds--and it’s losing its allure.”

Most locals are not terribly troubled by the thought just yet. The island is resilient, they say. Besides, they assure one another, there is a charm to the island, a sort of isolated quirkiness, that makes it irresistible.

There’s the casino that isn’t a casino at all, but a historic landmark where the big bands of the ‘30s and ‘40s came to play. There’s the miniature golf course that’s been in the middle of town forever, its greens worn, its brick pathways buckled. The number of cars is restricted (there’s a 10-year waiting list for residents to get one), so the roads buzz with golf carts and mopeds instead. Renting golf carts continues to be the No. 1 tourist attraction.

And then there’s the buffalo, 200 that roam the island’s interior--the result of a handful that were brought to Catalina for a movie in 1924 and left behind.

That Catalina never changes is what makes it so unique, longtime residents say.

“We’ll never be a Miami Beach, nor do we want to be,” said David Creigh, an attorney who owns the island’s drugstore, candy shop and a gift store. “Land-wise, we have extremely limited opportunities for growth. But part of the charm here is that it’s not glitzy. It’s not trendy. You know what you’re going to get here. It won’t be much different the next time, either.”

These qualities are what draw Leo and Sally Carter back to the island at least once a year, sometimes twice. The Palos Verdes couple became engaged on the green pier 25 years ago in front of “an audience of sea lions,” Leo Carter recalled.

“It’s so wonderful to come back and stand in the same spot and look around and see pretty much the same beautiful Avalon Bay,” said Sally Carter. “We just love it. Every piece of it.”

Still, some officials say the island needs to do more. The visitors bureau, which doubles as the chamber of commerce, already spends more than $160,000 a year on advertising--almost exclusively directed at Southern California markets. Print ads are loaded with pithy slogans such as “Shop overseas” and “There may be a better place, but you have to die to get there.” A favorite of locals: “The sun shines east, the sun shines west, but in Avalon the sun shines best.”

Yet it’s probably not enough, says the bureau’s president and chief executive, Wayne Griffin.

“We’re fishing where the fish are, but it’s extremely difficult to keep us at the top of people’s minds,” said Griffin, a 23-year Catalina resident. “We have a $1.3-million budget, and we’re competing with other markets that have 10 times that.”

Even those who wish the city would do more to market itself, to stay in the tourism game, are unsure how to do so. They just know there are more amusement parks to contend with, bigger beaches and rivers and mountains, all beckoning potential visitors. The island is up against overnight destinations too, places such as San Diego, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs.

Catalina, sitting expectantly out there in the ocean, also has what amounts to an admission price--to reach it requires a round-trip ticket on one of three boat carriers. A family of four can shell out $150 for the excursion, roughly what it would cost to go to Disneyland.

“If we keep trying to beat out Mickey Mouse, we’re always going to lose,” said Kevin Strege, owner of an Avalon vacation rental company. “We can’t just focus on Southern California anymore. It’s time we reached out.”

Attorney and business owner Creigh says the island also cannot rely on “sunshine and memories” to keep visitors coming--especially during an economic slowdown.

“It’s like we’re out here, people know we’re here, but then we have to work to keep their attention,” Creigh said. “I call it the Statue of Liberty syndrome. People live in Manhattan all their lives and never go see it. Same with us.”

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An Island Ignored

Catalina Island’s tourist trade, which generally has been lackluster in recent years, has slumped this year.

*

Annual visitors*: (Percent change in number of visitors to the island)

2001**: --13.1%

*

Avalon hotel occupancy rates***: (Percent change from previous year)

2001: --20%

*

Fares to Catalina Island:

Rountrip tickets on Catalina Express

Adults: $41.50

Children (2-11): $31

Parking:

Dana Point, Long Beach, San Pedro or Newport harbors: $7-9 per day

*

*Numbers include passengers on cruise ships, which arrive twice per month in Avalon

**January through May

***Year round

Source: Catalina Island Visitors Bureau