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spk06: Good morning and welcome to the Lindblad Expeditions Inc. Fourth Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Craig Fallenstein, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
spk02: Thank you, Kate. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Lindblad's 2020 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings Call. With me on the call today is Sven Lindblad, our Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Sven will begin with some opening comments, and then I will follow with some details on our financial results and liquidity before we open the call for Q&A. You can find our latest earnings release in the Investor Relations section of our website along with a presentation regarding the acquisitions that we announced this morning. Before we get started, let me remind everyone that the company's comments today may include forward-looking statements. Those expectations are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and performance to be materially different from these expectations. The company cannot guarantee the accuracy of any forecasts or estimates, and we undertake no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. If you would like more information on the risks involved in forward-looking statements, please see the company's SEC filings. In addition, our comments may reference non-GAAP financial measures, a reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, and other associated disclosures are contained in the company's earnings release. And with that out of the way, let me turn the call over to Sven.
spk05: Thanks, Craig, and good morning to everybody. We appreciate you joining us today. While preparing for this review for 2020, and my thoughts on the future, I look back at my comments from a year ago on our 2019 year-end call. I couldn't have been more wrong as it related to expectations regarding the effects of COVID-19. This turned out to be very different than SARS, 9-11, the 2008-2009 economic crash, and really anything else I or you have ever experienced. This is now an event that has shut down and most other travel businesses globally for a year. And while we are optimistic that we will be sailing again soon, exactly when that will be is still not certain. No one in our lifetimes has experienced such a long-lasting business interruption outside of war. As Charles Darwin suggested in his seminal book, The Origin of Species, it is not the most intellectual that survives, It is not the strongest that survives, but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself. At Lindblad Expeditions, we are indeed adaptable, and the entire organization is very much focused on how not to let this crisis go to waste. We have done it before over our last 40 years, and we are determined to come out of this pandemic as strong and vibrant a company ready once again to take our guests to the world's most remarkable destinations. So what have we done that ensures that this will be the case? First and foremost, we shored up our capital position. Greg will discuss this further, but it started immediately upon shutting down our operations last March and is still a focal point today. We have been inordinately successful at cutting costs across all facets of the company without destroying the fabric of our enterprise. We also were opportunistic with regards to raising additional capital externally. In August, we added $85 million through a preferred stock offering, and in December, we added an additional $85 million of low-interest funds via the Main Street Lending Program. As a result, we ended the year with over $200 million in total cash, which provides ample runway as we return to operations, which allows us to further invest in augmenting our future. One of the areas that we continue to invest in significantly is building our capabilities across our marketing platform. It was a process that we had started in earnest prior to the pandemic, which we had paused once the pandemic took hold. As you may be aware, we hired a new chief marketing officer at the end of the year, David Goodman, who was previously the head of global marketing and digital media at Sotheby's. and the architect of their online digital platform. He's hit the ground running. We are taking advantage of the current low in operations and redirecting resources, both financial and human, to come out of COVID with a vastly more powerful marketing engine built for growth. We've already grown our social media. followers by 150% over the last quarter. We are planning on launching a new website during the second quarter with our new reservation system to follow. The end result will be a more dynamic platform leveraging data insights to be more efficient and effective with our marketing spend. Aside from investing in our existing operations, we're also using our strong capital position to continue broadening our product platform to serve an omnivorous clientele interested in diverse travel experiences. NADRAV was the first with stunning results prior to the pandemic, having more than doubled its contribution in 2019 from when we acquired the company in 2016. And we are using the lessons learned from that acquisition regarding the expansion of our addressable market, cross-promotion, product marketing, and system integration as a blueprint for the latest additions to our platform. We are extremely pleased to announce the acquisition of two additional companies joining our portfolio that are natural complements to our existing product offerings. Off the beaten path is a Bozeman, Montana company that was founded with the goal of facilitating exclusive recreational possibilities, largely in the American West and the Southwest. It has since expanded its geographic reach, but still remains focused on the core business as originally envisioned. the North American National Parks. I've known and worked with off-beaten passage for the past two decades. When we were ourselves in the land business, we collaborated on a variety of programs, including extensions to some of our ship expeditions with them. Corey Lawrence, the CEO, is an outstanding leader, and he's enthusiastically continuing to lead OBP into this next phase of growth. DuVine Cycling and Adventure Company was founded in 1996 by Andy Levine, who is still the company's CEO. DuVine is a very high-end adventure travel company exploring the world by bicycle. Biking in general is exploding, particularly with greater production and use of e-bikes, which significantly broadens the demographics of potential participants in bicycle touring. I'm extremely excited about bringing this self-powered form of travel into our orbit. As people become more and more health conscious, this business should naturally grow and appeal, and the cross-marketing potential will be significant in accelerating Divine's growth. Together with that, have these businesses dramatically increase our addressable market, and we are at the beginnings of creating a platform that can accommodate multiple interests, and as a consequence, keep travelers and their families, so to speak, safe. We can cross-market and develop technological synergies that smaller companies could never justify or afford. It's very exciting, and when you look at the possibilities that our platform can provide, expedition cruising as far as Africa, exploration of U.S. national parks, biking through Burgundy, to name a few, and the opportunity to combine packages using the expertise of all the companies is endless. These two new additions are relatively small but very focused on what they do and are at the top of the food chain in terms of quality and trust. Each in isolation may not be overly contributed financially today. However, much like NetHab, we see real opportunity to grow them in the years ahead and certainly they will add value to our brand more broadly as a diverse high-end travel aggregator. We are the ideal company to aggregate unique small brands and make them into a bigger whole. We know how to energize the key elements that made them attractive. We are insiders. We understand their worlds. We respect and value founders. We know where we can help and learn to not get in the way. You can find more information regarding these acquisitions in the presentation we have posted to our website this morning. As we integrate off the beaten path in design, we continue to look for additional opportunities to broaden and deepen our product platform, while also evaluating a variety of options to further increase the capacity of our fleet. Since 2017, we have added three new builds to the fleet with a fourth, the National Geographic Resolution, anticipated for delivery in Q4 this year. With the addition of the resolution, we will have increased our available guest nights by more than 70% over the last four years, and thus far, we have been able to maintain occupancy levels and expand our nightly rooms at the same time. There is certainly a growing demand for expedition travel, and our long track record of delivering authentic and immersive experiences positions us well to capitalize on this trend in a thoughtful manner. This balanced strategy of focus on expanding our existing operations while responsibly adding to our current fleet and acquiring companies which broaden our platform is, in my belief, a solid approach to growing Lindblad Expeditions for the long term, and we believe our offerings are particularly well-suited for the times. These recent articles are just two which reinforce our value proposition. Nature, wellness, and giving back are trending for 2021 travel. Forbes magazine, February 7th, 2021. Nature, wellness, and giving back, having space to breathe is the new luxury. Travelers are seeking remote destinations and open spaces. Second article, how we'll travel in 2021 from the Financial Times. Quote, a post-lockdown yearning for open space, along with anxiety about crowded spaces, has brought remote, empty destination to the top of many wish lists for 2021. And there are more and more articles out there every day talking about this phenomenon. People want to travel, there's pent-up demand, and they want very often to go to places that are not crowded. While we are well-positioned for sustained long-term growth, we are obviously focused on returning to operations. Nearly 12 months with suspended sailings has been far longer than anyone would have anticipated last March. Our startup team continues to work diligently on our robust set of stringent protocols. We are in constant dialogue with local authorities where we have longstanding relationships, and guest demand remains strong from both returning travelers as well as new audiences. We have canceled all voyages through the end of May, but remain optimistic that we will return to operation in June with a focus on Alaska, Galapagos, and Iceland. By June, it looks like most, if not all, adult Americans will have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, which clearly will accelerate demand. Looking ahead, we are already well-positioned with strong bookings for the back half of the year and throughout 2022. and the pent-up demand we are seeing in the market will build upon that strength. Before I finish up, let me speak for the idea of giving back, and I'm happy to see that the business community and media are beginning to recognize the importance of this more broadly. The human brain is wired with definite priorities. We are extremely well-suited to swerve out of the way of an oncoming vehicle. We react swiftly and with urgency with a threat, is a day or a second away. In other words, we are wired to respond to clear and imminent threats, not so much those that unfold over time, like climate change or the potential collapse of biodiversity. These are real challenges that, if not directly and urgently faced, will create an unbelievably big future for generations to come. I believe that the travel industry has both an opportunity and a responsibility to engage our audiences with not only the wonder of what we provide them, but also with an understanding of the challenges these places face and ways in which they can, as a consequence of having experienced the place, help with support. We have used our unique position to enhance and support the places we have come to love and which has given us so much joy and business value. In 2019, we committed as a company to go carbon neutral. meaning that we went deep into all our activities in order to find creative ways to reduce emissions. Those that remain have been offset 100%, all our ships, our offices, and staff and crew travel. Our guests appreciate this and perhaps look a bit differently at their own energy use. Each year, we part as part of the Lindblad Expeditions National Geographic Fund, raised between $1.5 and $2 million from our guests to support conservation, science, education, and exploration. 100% of these funds directly support specific projects. Our guests really appreciate being able to participate. This year, we launched the Galapagos Island Relief Fund. In the Galapagos, over 80% of all employment relies on tourism. They have been devastated. Their health and well-being are critical to the health and protection of the ecosystem, a global jewel. The fund is a microloan program with an initial goal of $500,000. Between the company, our board of directors, and me and my wife personally, we offered a challenge grant of $150,000 and gave our Galapagos travelers an opportunity to participate. To date, the fund, together with the matches, has raised over $300,000, and we will easily reach our goal in the second round of fundraising. Our guests really appreciate this opportunity, and the people of Galapagos even more so. Why is this important in an earnings call? Because success is made up of many parts, and social responsibility is an important component. It matters. Guests appreciate the efforts. Personnel value what we do. and the people in places where we travel appreciate our efforts as well. And our cumulative efforts are meaningful in terms of the work done. I'm totally convinced that these sensibilities are core to our success as a brand and our reputation. We've been at this for decades. We built the business based on respect and understanding of geography, the same for the aspirations of our guests. We offer something that people deeply, deeply want and perhaps even need, a connection with wonder, authenticity, and the opportunity to explore. We represent optimism in a troubled world. We are ready to emerge from this traumatic, dark time and build and grow and capitalize on the frustration that people have had in being restricted. We are ready with open arms to provide adventure, inspiration, exploration, and joy to the millions who have been denied all this for over a year. We will thrive in a post-COVID world, we will grow in a post-COVID world, and we will succeed in a post-COVID world. Thank you for your time today, and now let me turn the call over to Craig.
spk02: Thanks, Ben. Before I begin, let me once again thank our dedicated crew across the world, as well as our diligent office personnel, for the resiliency during this uncertain period. and for their commitment in preparing us to return to operations while preserving capital wherever possible. It has been nearly a year since we paused our operations and we continue to execute on the comprehensive plan we put in place back in March of last year to fortify our liquidity position. This was and remains an imperative for two reasons. First, given the uncertainty around when operations resume and how quickly they will ramp back to normal levels, we want to ensure we emerge from the COVID pandemic as the same strong and vibrant company we were prior to the cessation of operations, with expanded capacity and the ability to capitalize on the growing demand for expedition travel. Second, building a strong liquidity runway allows us to be opportunistic with regards to additional growth drivers, both organically and through targeted acquisitions. As a result of the proactive steps we took this past year, we ended 2020 with $188 million in unrestricted cash and $17 million in restricted cash related primarily to deposits on voyages that originate in the United States, a $95 million increase over where we ended 2019. We previously discussed the reduction of our cash burn, which I will highlight for Q4 in a moment, as well as the $85 million we raised in August through the issuance of redeemable preferred stock to a diversified group of high-quality, long-term focused investors. This past quarter, we further enhanced our liquidity position with the issuance of $85 million under the Main Street Expanded Loan Facility Program. This loan, which has a five-year tenure and carries an interest rate of LIBOR plus 3%, has solidified that when we emerge from this pandemic later this year, we will do so as a strong company poised to regain the momentum we had prior to the virus. It also provided us additional financial flexibility to look for opportunities to augment our long-term growth profile. And as you have seen, we did just that with our recent acquisitions of Divine and Off the Beaten Path. Sven has walked you through the strategic rationale of each, so let me lay out the financial parameters. Combined, the total acquisition price was approximately $10.5 million, comprised of $8.7 million in cash and $1.8 million of Lindblad stock. While not yet material to our current earnings, as Sven mentioned, we do believe there is a significant opportunity to grow these businesses, given their strong brands and attractive addressable markets, combined with our marketing platform, expertise, and resources. Plus, we have a blueprint, having grown natural habitat from 3.9 million in EBITDA in 2016, the year we acquired them, to over 8.6 million in 2019. We also think this is just the beginning, and we will look to continue to be opportunistic on both the M&A and organic growth front. Turning to our operations, during the fourth quarter, all of our ships remained safely laid up with a minimally required crew, and we continued to minimize ship and land-based expedition operating and capital costs. We did spend a little over $1 million on maintenance capex this past quarter, primarily due to dry docks for the Explorer and Endeavor 2 as we prepared to resume sailing. For the full year 2020, we managed to reduce maintenance capex by over 70% versus our original budget for the year. On the advertising and marketing front, we suspended the majority of our spend during the fourth quarter, focusing primarily on digital opportunities and paid media that was generating appropriate returns with regards to future bookings. And we continued to minimize general and administrative spending through employee furloughs, workload reductions, and elimination of all nonessential travel, office expenses, and discretionary spending. Looking at the P&L, the measures we have taken enabled us to reduce total operating expenses before depreciation and amortization interest taxes by 70% during the fourth quarter versus the same quarter a year ago. On the cash front, we lowered our cash spend this past quarter to $26 million, which included approximately $18 million in operating costs, $5 million in principal and interest payments, and $3 million in capex. The cash usage was partially offset by the positive net cash flow from guests as payments for future travel exceeded guest refunds on rescheduled voyages. On the voyages canceled and rescheduled thus far, which primarily includes expeditions through the end of May, the majority of our guests continue to opt for future travel credits as opposed to full refunds. And as I mentioned last call, our refund exposure is significantly lower moving forward as the majority of our unearned revenue is for travel where the guests have already decided on their future travel plans. Turning to current booking trends, demand for travel continues to be very strong, and we are well situated for once we return to operations later this year, as well as for 2022. Bookings for the back half of 2021 are currently in line with where they were for the second half of 2022 a year ago. And when you look ahead to next year, we are currently 37% ahead of where we were for 2021 at the same time a year ago. The strong year-on-year trends do reflect guests on canceled voyages that have opted to reschedule, but they only make up about a quarter of our bookings for the remainder of this year and 16% for 2022. We are also seeing strong new bookings from both returning guests as well as new audiences, and we have only just begun to market in earnest, focusing on digital targeting and social opportunities as well as increased outreach through trade advertising and travel advisors. Based on the feedback we are getting from guests, we believe that there is significant pent-up demand to get out and explore the world's amazing geographies, and these efforts will secure additional bookings for this year as well as next. As we work towards resuming operations, we estimate that our cast usage will return to 10 to 15 million monthly on average, including all ship and office operating expenses, necessary capital expenditures, and expected interest and principal payments, but excluding any new guest payments for future travel and refunds of previously made guest payments. This includes the rampant marketing spend I just referred to, spending on our digital transformation project, and bringing back furloughed employees as necessary to prepare for a resumption in operations. Looking at our debt obligations, we ended the year with $496 million in principal outstanding, an increase of $266 million from the end of 2019. This reflects the incremental $85 million Main Street loan during the fourth quarter, as well as the drawdown of $45 million under our revolver earlier in the year. During the year, we also borrowed $108 million in conjunction with our final payment upon delivery of the National Geographic Endurance in March 2019. and an additional $30.5 million for the third installment payment for the National Geographic resolution in April. With regards to our leverage covenants, the company has worked with its lenders to amend its existing credit agreements, including suspension of leverage ratio covenants through June 30, 2021. Turning to our expectations for 2021, due to the uncertainties around COVID-19, we are not providing P&L guidance at this time. We will continue to update our anticipated cash usage as circumstances evolve. Aside from our operational cash usage, we anticipate maintenance capex in the $15 to $17 million range, which includes modification of ventilation systems across our fleet to increase fresh airflow and mitigate the spread of contaminants. Growth capex, which includes costs for the resolution and spending on our digital projects, is projected to be between $75 and $80 million this year. This does not factor in any potential new ship builds that we continue to explore. The remaining contract installment payments on the resolution are fully covered by our second export credit agreement with $15 million scheduled to be drawn in April and $45 million drawn upon delivery of the ship, which is still anticipated to be towards the end of this year. Lastly, in 2021, we will also have approximately $10 million in principal payments, predominantly for payments under our export credit agreements. As we move closer to resuming operations, the steps we have taken to reduce costs and increase our liquidity runway will enable us to emerge from this pandemic as a strong company ready to once again capitalize on the growing demand for expedition travel. At the same time, the strategic steps we are taking to expand and enhance our product platform will provide us further avenues to drive long-term growth and build additional shareholder value in the years to come. Thank you for your time this morning, and now Sven and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
spk06: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch tone phone. If you are using a speaker phone, please pick up your handset before pressing the key. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star then two. Our first question comes from Steve Wisinski of Stifel. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hey, guys. Good morning. So, Sven, I want to be sure that I heard you right, but it sounds like you fully expect to be operational now in June and, you know, at some capacity level. And that's, you know, it sounds like a focus around Alaska. And I think that's pretty important given, you know, obviously the bigger cruise operators, you know, are essentially going to be restricted from that market this year. So I guess the question is, you know, I assume the demand for that type of product is, you know, has to be extremely, extremely strong. And I guess, are there any issues with getting your passengers into position to actually get to Alaska? And hopefully that all makes sense.
spk05: Yeah, no, I do not believe there is an issue with getting our passengers or our guests to Alaska at all. We have a very deep relationship with Alaska Airlines, which has been cultivated over many decades, actually. And we're in constant conversation with them about, you know, how the landscape is changing, when we're anticipating starting, et cetera, et cetera. As I think I've mentioned before as well, you know, we've had a team in place since the very beginning of the pandemic or starting in April of last year where – whose charge is to really – constantly assimilate new information in terms of opportunities related to protocols, vaccines, et cetera. And so that's been a very dynamic aspect of our business. And we talk about it literally every day in our management meetings. You know, where are we? What have we learned? Does it change the landscape at all? And we believe everything is moving in a very, very positive direction. Certainly in terms of people getting vaccinated, which is a total game changer. And we believe that certainly by the end of June, you know, by the end of June, pretty much everybody in the United States who wants to be vaccinated will have had the opportunity that and certainly most people in our demographic by the end of May will have been given the opportunity to be vaccinated. So this is a big, big deal in terms of vaccination. you know, getting the world moving again in relationship to travel.
spk03: Okay, gotcha. Thanks. And then the second question would be, you know, really a bigger picture question of just about competition. And, you know, obviously there's a lot of competition these days for markets like Antarctica, the Galapagos, where it seems like every operator is trying to, you know, to move some type of asset into those markets. So I guess the question is, what keeps you guys at this point in such a good position? I mean, is it something that your assets at this point can go to places where other competitors can't go? Is it the length of service of your captains? Or how would you position yourselves? Or what do you tell folks in terms of the way you market yourselves as to why you should take a Lindblad product versus somebody else's?
spk05: Well, just using Galapagos as an example, the amount of new entrants really isn't changing. There are a certain number of these licenses. They're called cupos. And what they do is they occasionally change hands from one company to another. But the maximum number of people or the number of those cupos hasn't changed in many, many, many, many years. So unlike Antarctica, where anyone who wants to go down there can basically do that, that's not true in the Galapagos. But in Antarctica, certainly an inordinate number of ships have been built and are continuing to be built, and they are focusing on these polar areas for a variety of reasons. And so it is going to become... certainly more competitive. But there's also, it's happening because there's clearly defined growing interest in the geography. I believe that our leg forward, if you will, is, you know, we are the pioneers of these, of most regions of the world, actually, but certainly Antarctica. My father began in his company bringing people to Antarctica in 1966. And so there's a legacy factor there. that has been built into a trust factor that I believe is meaningful. You know, we put tremendous priority into the quality of our Marine teams because I don't care what anybody says, Antarctica does pose unusual circumstances that can become threatening to people who are not incredibly well-trained. So our captains have been down to Antarctica over 100 times. And they know the area backwards and forwards. And our expedition leaders and the officers on the bridge, they're just extremely knowledgeable. And we talk about that a lot because we believe if it's not important to people, it should be. And it's a very distinguishing factor. I don't believe anybody else has the depth of experience, the depth of personnel, and the depth of respect for that geography. And in fact, every geography, but that one happens to be one where you need, you need a bit more respect than a lot of others, because it can hurt you if you, if you don't.
spk03: Okay, gotcha. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
spk06: The next question is from Chris Wolonka of Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
spk04: Hey, good morning, guys. Wanted to ask, again, you sound pretty confident that you'll be able to get back in a couple months. How do you say some of the changes or protocols that you're going to be required to do in all the various destinations, how have those kind of changed and evolved over the past couple months? And are you pretty certain at this point that the goalposts don't move again at the last minute?
spk05: Yeah, I don't believe that those goalposts will move in a negative way. You know, we've been so deeply in tune or engaged with people, not only from the CDC, but from the state of Washington, the medical community there. I can't remember her title right now, but the director of health in Alaska. And We knew that various requirements were going to be developed even before they were. And we were really on top of those and began constructing our protocols around what we anticipated was coming. And so I do believe that our protocols are the strongest in the industry, the strongest in the industry. And I believe that the authorities recognize that. And in certain instances, they've looked at our approach to this as a potential blueprint to what they might require industry wide. I don't want to be specific about the institutions right right now, but it's absolutely the case. And so we feel. really buttoned up as it relates to protocols. You know, we've made changes on our ships, physical changes on our ships as it relates to the ventilation systems where necessary. I mean, we've really put in the hard work to make ourselves almost impossible to reject going forward.
spk02: Chris and Craig, one of the other things that I'll mention is, you know, some of the requirements have certainly changed over time, and the steps that we've taken previously will make it easier to deal with those moving forward, especially because some of the things that we're going to have to do will be less relevant. So, for example, when we first started looking at getting back into operations, one of the things that we spent a fair amount of time on was charter flights for the various destinations that we served. With the advent of the vaccinations, those charter flights, many of them will not be necessary. So the cost components of those certainly go way down. We've also secured, you know, the testing requirements, the testing capabilities have already been solidified for us. So we'll have the capabilities of doing that. How much we have to do that and how often remains to be seen. But we already have the capabilities to do that. So I think a lot of the investment that we needed to make has already been done. And if anything, moving forward, it'll be less restrictive than we originally anticipated.
spk04: Okay. Thanks. Very helpful. And then on the acquisitions you announced this morning, both look pretty interesting. The question is, you know, as you look forward, I mean, I guess how broadly can you cast the net? And then from a more of a financial point of view, how do you underwrite these in terms of, is it, is it a value potential value of a customer that you might acquire or is it something, something else in terms of making these businesses, not just more profitable bottom line, but growing their, their top line. And it's just difficult for us to just get, get a better understanding of how you underwrite some of the smaller companies that you, that you see.
spk05: Yeah. And then Craig might weigh in as well, but here, here's, Here's the basis of it. Our travelers, and we've known that for a long time, are very omnivorous in their interests. So you might run into somebody in Antarctica one year. The next year, they'll be on a safari in Africa. The following year, they want to tootle around southern France. or whatever. And at the end of the day, if we create a family of companies that can provide interesting opportunities in the areas of their diverse interests, like, for example, if you have a family that one day came with us, grandmother organized to regenerate and they came to Antarctica, that's a very extravagant decision. And they may not do that type of thing again for many many years but they'll do other things because they're kind of committed to doing things as a family so the more we can offer them the more we can keep them in the family so to speak and the cost of acquiring a new guest uh drops dramatically once they've had a positive experience. And so this, this notion of keeping them in the family to us is a big deal. Uh, it, it, it, it's very, very cost effective. Uh, it's been proven with that. I mean, across marketing between ourselves and that, it's just grown exponentially year after year after year. And it's become really meaningful for both, uh, both organizations. And, uh, You know, it keeps them, if we're smart enough in creating a broad enough platform, which we're absolutely committed to do, it keeps them from going or needing to go elsewhere. And there's so many benefits as a consequence of that.
spk02: Yeah, I'll add on top of that, Sven, you know, aside from the capturing a greater share of wallet from the existing travelers, you're also going to be able to help them to increase their loads, right? So, These are very strong businesses and very strong brands that were built by some very strong founders. And what we bring to the table is we bring an operating expertise that we've been doing for many, many years, even before we acquired natural habitat, but now including natural habitat. And if you could increase the occupancy across all of these opportunities, you'll certainly be able to ramp revenue relatively quickly. You know, you look at what happened with natural habitat having gone from, you know, $45 million of revenue back in 2016 to supposed to have been well over $80 million of revenue in 2020. It's a pretty fast ramp, and that was done partially by cross-promotion, partially by adding additional marketing leverage, partially by adding increased occupancies. So we think there's a unique opportunity across both of these assets moving forward.
spk04: Okay, very helpful. Thanks, guys.
spk06: The next question is from Greg Pendi of Fidoti. Please go ahead.
spk01: Yeah, just a quick question. In light of the digital marketing hire, I believe pre-COVID you guys had a step up in your marketing efforts. And if I'm correct on that, just I guess it sounds to me like you might be moving more in a digital direction. Is that the case? And kind of what is the net run rate when things normalize that we should be thinking about, if that's correct?
spk05: I'm not sure how to answer the net run rate part of the question, sorry.
spk01: I'm just curious, is there going to be savings as you move more dollars? If you're moving more dollars towards digital advertising, is this a potential savings effort? Or is it just a better return on what you're seeing out there, that more dollars moving into digital advertising is just giving you a better return?
spk02: Yeah, let me take that, Sven, and you can chime in afterwards. So, you know, the question is an interesting one because, You're not comparing apples to apples, right? So when you think back to where we are today versus where we were pre-pandemic, the amount of inventory that we have across our ecosystem has gone up dramatically. We've increased the number of beds. We've increased the number of high-priced beds. So the notion of reducing marketing is probably not at the forefront of what we're trying to accomplish here, especially given the explosion that we're seeing in the space. We want to be able to capitalize on the explosion in the space. But what we will be able to do because of this digital transformation is we can be much more efficient with that spend. So we'll be able to target folks with regards to the marketing materials that they're receiving in a much more focused manner, which will allow us to have a higher return on the marketing dollars that we're spending. And we could also be a lot more flexible. It's a lot easier to turn the spigot on or off when you're looking at digital spend than versus when you send a hardcore brochure. So it's going to be a marriage of the old and the new as we move forward and will be much more efficient as we move forward, and we can certainly tweak that up or down based off the returns that we're getting as we're spending.
spk01: Great. That's helpful. And then just one final one. As things return normalized and you start to ramp back up efforts in June, is there any relief you'll see on dry docking as the ships have been stationed, or is that just still – kind of in place goes over every three years or so?
spk05: No, there won't be any meaningful difference in terms of dry docking. Some of those dry docks are regulatory. You have to do them every, you know, it depends which ship and which flag, and that won't change. There's certain work we've just delayed at the moment as a consequence of the pandemic that we'll do in the future that we had originally planned to do, but no material change.
spk01: Okay. Thanks a lot.
spk06: As a reminder, if you have a question, please star then one. The next question is from Sven Lawrence of Undervalued Shares. Please go ahead.
spk07: Hi, good morning everyone. So Sven and Craig, you've spoken a lot about building a platform and you've just announced these two acquisitions, neither one of which is a cruise ship company. So this is maybe more a question for Sven. So if you looked out 10 years into the future, would you still see Lindblad Expeditions as primarily a cruise ship company or would you see something more like a broader travel company specialized in nature and exploration experiences?
spk05: I think the latter because I think – well, we still – by the way, Swen, nice to hear your voice. It's been a long time. Yes, indeed. Yeah. Hope you're well. In any case, the expedition ship aspect of the business I believe will absolutely be dominant in our entire mix. I see no change to that. But we will – But we will have added a considerable amount of other opportunities because what we really believe we should be doing and are on the path to do is to be a diversified sort of adventure, experiential travel company. And there are lots of different ways in which people travel. And I think applying our ethos to that and – And then particularly working with, which is the aspect of this which I find the most interesting, you know, founders of companies, travel companies, are a special breed of people. They have, you know, deep passion, deep commitment to what they're doing. And so they are tremendous resources. You need to have great ideas, you need to have the right capital structure, and you need to have the right ability to market what you have. And very few of these have all of those things. Almost all of them have the first, the ability to create compelling ideas. Most of them don't necessarily have a deep financial structure, and marketing is elusive. to some degree because it's become a very sophisticated idea. You know, how do you market in today's world? And the advantage that we have is we built a marketing platform and they're constantly building and, you know, augmenting our marketing platform built for, you know, garnering 30,000 plus and growing rapidly ship travelers. And so we can apply a lot of that technology to these companies and give them something that they've never really had before, rather than having to build everything from scratch all the time, which is what these companies have to do. They have to build all of those systems from scratch, which is limiting when you're a small company. So I really look forward to this opportunity to work with entrepreneurs, to work with founders, to recognize and appreciate the extraordinary creations they have developed and to augment those efforts with some practical structural needs in such a way to make them far more productive and far more profitable. We had considered at one point, do we want to build a land business, we refer to it as a land business ourselves, because we were, prior to 9-11, deeply involved in the land business. But what we did after 9-11, we decided to focus purely on our ships and to really focus on where we had fixed commitments. And that turned out to be a very good idea. Focus is a really meaningful term. idea when it comes to building travel businesses. And so we decided, no, we were not going to go back and build these ideas ourselves. We were going to develop them through the acquisition of competent and able companies. And so now we have three of them, and we are looking very, very closely at where are the next opportunities in this regard.
spk07: Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. And if I can just ask one follow-up question, please. Obviously, your platform and your marketing depends a lot on the National Geographic link that you have, which is an amazing link. And there's always that looming date of that partnership expiring the next time in 2025. I obviously appreciate you can't look that far into the future, but is there something you can do or you could say to alleviate anyone's worries about that coming up for renewal in four short years?
spk05: Yeah, I mean, this is a very mutually productive relationship that has now gone on for upwards of 16 years. And so we feel very confident that we will continue beyond 2025 because it will be in our interest and it will be in their interest. And so I just don't see, you know, it's a deep, deep, longstanding relationship, and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't continue.
spk07: Great. Thank you. Best wishes for this amazing year, Ed. Thanks, Sven.
spk06: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference over to Craig Fallenstein for closing remarks.
spk02: Thank you, everybody, for joining us this morning, and we look forward to speaking to you over the next couple of days about the full year, the fourth quarter, and the acquisitions that we just completed. Thank you.
spk06: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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