Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Bryan Maher: Okay. And then last for me and maybe both Steve and Dave, you can both weigh in for each of your segments. Given what we’re seeing with macroeconomic uncertainty, rising interest rates, various geopolitical issues around the world. Are you seeing any spots of weakness even if it’s just anecdotally in any parts of your business as yet?

Steve Moster: No. I’ll speak to the GES side of the business. And we’ve been looking heavily into the kind of first quarter. We have visibility into kind of first quarter, maybe early second quarter events that are coming up in client spend. And I currently don’t see any signs of pullback in any way at this point. So if anything, the momentum kind of continues from Q4 into Q1.

David Barry: Yes, very similar. I mean, we’re not seeing any consumer price resistance as we continue to take rate in a variety of things. We’re not seeing any signs of recession. And in fact, we’re seeing things continue to accelerate. It was a great job to report historically low unemployment, consumer discretionary spends and high-quality leisure travel experiences is really strong. So we continue to see the opposite, which is more of an acceleration. Certainly, our visitation from the U.S. just looking at pacing bookings and the kind of ski season they’re having is terrific.And little things like this is the largest flight schedule in the history of Iceland Air happening in 2023, more destinations, more gateways, 950 departures a week inbound in Iceland for the season, which is all at record levels. So we’re actually quite encouraged.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Tyler Batory with Oppenheimer.

Tyler Batory: First question for me, a couple on the GES side of things. I think Steve made a comment 70% or what range, I think, in terms of shows. I think it’s 70% some show or 70% in 2019, some are 140% in 2019, a pretty decent amount of variability there, which may be a little bit surprising. Can you give a little bit more detail on the types of shows that are doing better or worse? And for the shows that are still quite a bit down versus 2019, what needs to happen for those to improve?

Steve Moster: Yes. It is surprising. It’s been this way for the last several quarters where on average, the same show growth versus ’19 has been relatively high, kind of in the 90-plus percent or close to 90%, even greater. But the variability has been there in each of the quarters. And each show has its own dynamics, but I can highlight a couple of industries that are slower to recover versus others. And so auto, some of the auto shows are slower to recover. Certain sectors of retail are slower to recover as well. But we’re optimistic. And I think I mentioned it during my talking points, but there’s a large opportunity as that variability decreases that creates a tailwind for us in the future.As to why those aren’t recovering.

Some of it is industry-specific and some of it is just the international exhibitors not participating in 2022 and different shows have different level of international participation. I also see fewer small U.S.-based companies participating in 2022. And both of those, I think, will come back. It’s a question of when and I believe that will happen later in this year and into 2024.