Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Alex Fuhrman: And then, just my last question here. You — it looks like last year, you guys had some pretty nice success with night time winter programming at the Banff Gondola. Just given that you operate that asset all year round and it doesn’t really generate a whole lot for you for half the year. How big of an opportunity can that be? And should we expect to see more activity at the Gondola this winter than last?

David Barry: Yes. I think that given where consumer trends are, given that we’ve seen no decrease in spend or participation, we’ve actually seen the opposite and that our overall revenue per visitor for traction visit has increased. We anticipate that’s going to continue. The Banff Gondola popular on a 12-month basis as people enjoy the experience. So Night Rise is becoming more well-known and also the Canadian dollar is positioned very favorably for incoming visitation from the U.S. into Canada and other international markets. They’ve got some early snow. So it’s an exciting part and start to the ski season. And I think that we will see some increased visitation. Time will tell and we’re working hard on making that happen.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]The next question today comes from the line of Kartik Mehta from Northcoast Research. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.

Kartik Mehta: Steve, I was just wondering, I think you’ve answered this question by talking about what you’re seeing in terms of spend. But I’m wondering, when you talk to customers, any concern about what’s happening in the economy? Is that uncertainty flowing into their plans for how they want to exhibit or the amount of space they want to take, anything that might give you pause or maybe encouragement from your conversations with your customers?

Steve Moster: Yes. It’s a great question, Kartik. We continue to see strength in both the exhibition space and in the experiential marketing space with Spiro. Both of them have continued to increase over the course of 2023. I think you can see on one of the slides where we indicate kind of what’s happening from a revenue and a square footage perspective within the exhibition space is increased sequentially each quarter and we’re thrilled with that performance. So as I look forward and I speak to some of our clients that have events coming up in the fourth quarter as well as into 2024. That strength continues to be there from what I’m hearing from our customers in both sides. And so for me, it’s a very positive outlook and no signs of any impact from broader economic issues.

Kartik Mehta: And then just a big picture question on GES, Steve. Before the pandemic, there was always a concern that we would move away from face-to-face and go to a fertile or at least a big portion might. And I’m wondering now that the pandemics happen, people not at face-to-face and now back to face-to-face. Is that debate ending? Are you having any conversations with customers that think that maybe the virtual comes back or that’s a good option rather than the face-to-face?

Steve Moster: Kartik, I think there’s been multiple times through history where people have challenged either through technology or other means the need for face-to-face meetings and consistently that human interaction for face-to-face meetings continues to prevail. There are certainly areas where technology can complement or supplement a face-to-face engagement but it does not surpass and it doesn’t replace the need for human interaction. And so the strength of the industry is very strong. It rebounded very quickly as soon as meetings were able to be held in person. And I see that continuing going forward. There will be opportunities where technology will add new features and new elements to an event but I see strength in exhibitions, conferences and experiential marketing in general.

Kartik Mehta: Perfect. And then just one last question on Pursuit. I think the RevPAR for same-store is up like 14% if you compare it to ’19. I’m assuming that’s a mixture of price and the types of rooms you’re selling. A, is that accurate? And then B, it seemed like there was a lot of demand for high-end experiences as we came out of covet. And I’m wondering if you anticipate that similar demand as we go into 2024.

Steve Moster: Yes. All indicators are that the demand is going to continue. A couple of things driving RevPAR growth. One is refreshing properties. As you make experiences better, you’ve got an opportunity to charge more for those experiences and guests are willing to support that because the experience just fundamentally got better. So we’re encouraged by that. We’re encouraged by demand and just the overall performance of the lodging business has improved and we see that continuing to improve.

Operator: Thanks, Kartik. There are no further questions at this time. Steve Moster, turn the call back over to you.

Steve Moster: Thanks, Baily and thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to giving you another update at the end of the quarter. Thanks so much.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect your lines.

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