United Parks & Resorts Inc.

Good day and welcome to the United Parks and Resorts second quarter 2024 earnings 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 1 on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, then 2. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Stroud, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to United Parks and Resorts second quarter earnings conference call. Today's call is being webcast and recorded. A press release was issued this morning and is available on our investor relations website at www.unitedparksinvestors.com. Replay information for this call can be found in the press release and will be available on our website following the call. Joining me this morning are Mark Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Forrester, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning, we will review our second quarter financial results, and then we will open the call to your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. that could cause actual results to be materially different from those forward-looking statements, including those identified in the risk factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K and the quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risk factors may be updated from time to time and will be included in our filings with the SEC that are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, on the call, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures and other financial metrics such as adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. More information regarding our forward living statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is included in our earnings release available on our website and can also be found in our filings with the SEC. Now, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Mark Swanson. Mark?

Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report another quarter of strong financial results. We grew attendance and revenue during the quarter despite not seeing any material improvement in weather during the quarter compared to prior year. We also achieved a record level for in part per capita spending, which is a testament to the continued success of our strategies and investment in this area. We are also happy to have been able to repurchase approximately 6.3 million shares since the end of March through August 5th, or nearly 10% of our outstanding shares at what we believe were depressed and highly attractive prices, underscoring our significant free cash flow generation and our commitment to thoughtfully and opportunistically return excess capital to shareholders. Looking forward, we continue to be encouraged by the booking trends at our Discovery Cove property, along with our group bookings, which continue to run well ahead of 2023. International visitation, while still down compared to 2019, was again up for the quarter compared to prior year. We're very excited about our remaining summer events, including Dan's Brew and Barbecue at SeaWorld Orlando, summer spectacular at SeaWorld San Diego, bourbon and barbecue at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, beer fest, brews and barbecue at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and red, white and barbecue at SeaWorld San Antonio over the next few weeks. Later in September, we will start our popular Halloween events, which will be followed by our Christmas events. These special events have continued to grow in popularity and I expect this year's events to be among the best ever. For the full year 2024, we continue to expect to deliver new records in revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We have high confidence in our ability to continue to deliver operational and financial improvements that will result in meaningful increases in revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and shareholder value. I want to thank all of our ambassadors for their hard work and dedicated efforts these past few months as we wrap up the summer season and head into our popular Halloween and Christmas events for the balance of the year. Now let me give a brief update on some other items. Let me comment on our debt repricing activity last week. Last week we launched an opportunistic debt repricing on the back of strong credit markets and tightening credit spreads. The repricing was going well and it was scheduled to price on Monday of this week. Needless to say, given the market volatility on Monday, we decided to pause the repricing and we'll come back to market when conditions normalize. During the second quarter, we repurchased 4.1 million shares for an aggregate total of approximately $213.4 million. Subsequent to June 30, 2024, through August 5, 2024, we purchased approximately 2.2 million shares for an aggregate total of approximately $116.1 million. The board and company strongly believe our shares are materially undervalued. We have significant confidence in our business, our prospects, and the value of our assets. In any reasonable way you look at it, we feel we are materially undervalued and that there is significant upside opportunity in our current share price. Our balance sheet continues to be strong. Our June 30, 2024 net leverage ratio is 2.76 times, and we had approximately $605 million of total liquidity, including approximately $232 million of cash on the balance sheet in advance of us starting our summer season where we generate a majority of our cash flow. The strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders. When we continue to progress with our cost and efficiency-related work, and we expect approximately $50 million of realized savings in 2024. We're actively working to build a new list of cost-efficiency initiatives and still have areas we have not meaningfully impacted as much as we'd like, including things like utilities, insurance-related items, and other areas. As you all know, cost management and discipline is a key focus of our management team and we have demonstrated our ability to deliver on cost efficiencies. On the digital transformation front, we continue to make investments in and build out our CRM capabilities and our mobile app. On CRM, we created a pilot program projected to generate incremental revenue and support existing marketing and email strategies while proving out a better more holistic approach to customer engagement, among other things. We expect the CRM will be a component of our growth strategy over time. In regards to the mobile app, we continue to make progress on functionality, adoption, usage, and financial impact. The app is being used by an increasing number of guests in our parks to improve their in-park experience. The app has now been downloaded more than 10.7 million times up from $9.4 million at the end of Q1. Total revenue generated on the app continues to grow and we are now seeing an approximate 32% increase in average transaction value for food and beverage purchases made through the app compared to point of sale orders. Mobile ordering is operating at more of our targeted restaurants. We are excited about the potential of the app and its ability to improve the in-park guest experience, drive increases in revenue, and decreases in cost. On the international front, we have discussions on several new international projects and expect to have more news to share in the coming quarters. On the hotel front, we continue to have discussions with various potential partners on a variety of structures. And as we have discussed previously, we are very excited about the opportunity to monetize portion of our substantial and valuable unused land holdings and have hotels integrated into our properties. As a reminder, we are very focused on achieving a minimum ROI for our capital projects. I'm very excited about the significant investments we are making and the many initiatives we have underway across our business that we expect will improve the guest experience, allow us to generate more revenue, and make us a more efficient and profitable enterprise. we are building an even stronger and more resilient business that we expect will deliver improved operational and financial results and meaningful increases in shareholder value. With that, Jim will discuss our financial results in more detail. Jim?

Thank you, Mark. During the second quarter, we generated total revenue of $497.6 billion, an increase of $1.6 million or 0.3%. when compared to the second quarter of 2023. The increase in total revenue is primarily a result of an increase in attendance, partially offset by a decline in total revenue per capita. Attendance for the second quarter of 2024 increased by approximately 47,000 guests, or 0.8% when compared to the prior year quarter. The increase in attendance was primarily due to increased demand. Total revenue per capita decreased a modest 0.4%, Admission per capita decreased 2.9% and in-part capital spending increased 2.5%. Admission per capita increased primarily due to lower pricing on certain promotional admission products and the net impact of the admissions product and part mix when compared to the prior year quarter. In-part per capita spending, defined as food, merchandise, and other revenue divided by total attendance, improved primarily due to pricing initiatives when compared to the second quarter of 2023. Operating expenses decreased $5.5 million, or 2.8%, when compared to the second quarter of 2023. The decrease in operating expenses is primarily due to decreased non-cash self-insurance reserve adjustments, a decrease in non-cash asset write-offs, and a decrease in non-recurring contractual liabilities and legal costs resulting from the previously disclosed temporary COVID-19 park closures when compared to the second quarter of 2023. Selling, general, and administrative expenses decreased $4.4 million, or 6.4% compared to the second quarter of 2023. The decrease in selling, general, and administrative expenses is primarily due to an $8.6 million decrease in third-party consulting costs, including approximately $8.3 million of non-recurring costs for strategic initiatives when compared to the second quarter of 2023. We generated net income of $91.1 million for the second quarter, compared to net income of $87.1 million in the second quarter of 2023. We generated adjusted EBITDA of $218.2 million, a decrease of $6.1 million when compared to the second quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA declined due to an increase in expense used to calculate adjusted EBITDA, which was in part due to items related to timing and certain expenditures that we do not intend to repeat. Looking at our results for the first half of 2024 compared to 2023, total record revenue was $795 million, an increase of $5.6 million or 0.7%. Total attendance was 9.6 million guests, an increase of 119,000 guests or 1.3%. Net income for the period was $79.9 million, an increase of $9.3 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $297.3 million, an increase of $0.6 million or 0.2%. Now turning to our balance sheet, our June 30th, 2024 net total leverage ratio is 2.76 times, and we have approximately $605 million of total available liquidity, including $232 million of cash on the balance sheet. The strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders. Under our $500 million repurchase authorization from the Board, during the second quarter we repurchased 4.1 million shares for an aggregate total of approximately $213.4 million. Subsequent to June 30, 2024 through August 5, 2024, We purchased approximately 2.2 million shares for an aggregate total of approximately $160.1 million. As Mark said, we believe our shares are materially undervalued. Our deferred revenue balances of the end of June was $230.5 million, an increase of approximately 3.5% when compared to June of 2023. As a reminder, our deferred revenue balance contains a number of products to include ticketing, vacation packages, annual and seasonal passes, and ancillary products. We also continue to still see many pass holders who have been with us for at least a year who transition to month-to-month payments at the completion of their initial pass commitment. This month-to-month revenue does not show up as deferred revenue. Our pass base improved from the end of the second quarter. Through July 2024, our pass base, including all pass products, was down 2% compared to July 2023, but up 26% when compared to July of 2019. We are pleased that we are seeing mid single to low double digit price increases depending on our past products compared to the prior year. We're about to launch what we feel is our best past benefits program ever for 2025, which we expect will drive additional increases in past sales and a strong past base for the remainder of this year and next year. We spent $79.5 million on CapEx in the second quarter of 2024, For 2024, we expect to spend approximately $170 to $180 million on core CapEx and approximately $55 to $70 million on CapEx on expansion and our ROI projects. Now, let me turn the call back over to Mark, who will share some final thoughts. Mark?

Thank you, Jim. Before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the second quarter of 2024, We came to the aid of 215 animals in need. Over our history, we have helped over 41,000 animals, including bottlenose dolphins, manatees, sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, birds, and more. I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts. We're certainly excited about the remainder of 2024. with the exciting events we have coming with Halloween and Christmas. I want to thank our ambassadors for their efforts during this busy summer season and their preparation for our upcoming fall and winter events, which are guest favorites. We continue to believe there are significant additional opportunities to improve our execution, take advantage of clear growth opportunities, and continue to drive meaningful long-term growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We continue to have high confidence in our long-term strategy and our ability to deliver significantly improved operating and financial results that we expect will lead to meaningful increased value for stakeholders. Now, let's take your questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Steve Levinsky of Stiefel. Go ahead, please.

Yeah, hey, guys. Good morning. So, Mark, you know, I want to first ask about the, you know, the pressure that you guys kind of saw in the admissions per caps and, you know, wondering if you can give us a little bit more color around some of the, you know, maybe the pricing decisions around, you know, lowering pricing on certain, what you call certain edition products. And, you know, I guess, you know, we've heard some of your competitors in that Orlando market talk about their customers maybe becoming a little bit more price conscientious. So, so just wondering, you know, how you're thinking about pricing your, you know, your daily tickets, I guess, given, you know, Jim noted that you still feel like your past product can and probably should get pricing increases in that, that mid single digit range.

Yeah. Hey Steve, I can take that question. So, so look, as, as, as we've said, um, in the past, and I'll say again, we're focused on driving total revenue, right? And we're confident we can grow per caps over time with all the initiatives we have going on, our new events, new attractions, our dynamic pricing, CRM, things like that. And look, what we've said, look, we may use offers at times, and in kind of this current environment, we did use some in the quarter. And then also, you know, you have the mix or the impact of, you know, park and product mix and those things, you know, can ebb and flow quarter to quarter, right? So I think overall we, again, feel confident over time we can grow per caps, but we're going to defer to driving more total revenue, and that's what we did in the second quarter. And some of those offers at a time, so maybe at odds with per cap a little bit, helped us achieve that growth. Let me just add, because you kind of alluded to it. The other thing I'd point out is we do have a strong value proposition. I think to the extent you kind of commented about maybe people being more value conscious, I think we have a tremendous value proposition, especially with our season pass products. You can come to a park for a full year, and when you start to calculate the cost per visit when you buy a pass, it's it's a great value, and especially when we're adding new things. So I think that'll continue to be something that we showcase as well, and I think it also points out kind of the resiliency of the business that even in times that maybe people are looking for value, we provide that, and it's a resilient business.

Okay, gotcha. Thanks, Mark. And then The second question, you know, Mark, if we think about the second half of the year, you know, obviously you're still kind of holding on to the, you know, the record EBITDA comment. And that would mean you'd probably, you know, you need to produce, I guess, you know, what is it, about 430 million of EBITDA in the second half of the year to, you know, to exceed that 2022 record. So with weather being, you know, with weather being unpredictable, you know, guess it's not giving you guys a lot of wiggle room if something, you know, does go wrong. So I guess, yeah, I'm just wondering if you kind of look at, you know, we look at kind of current consensus right now, I think it's sitting around $434 million for the second half of the year. You know, so what is, you know, what is consensus essentially getting wrong? Or, you know, where do you get that comfort from that, you know, kind of getting north of that $430 million for the second half of the year is really going to be, you know, plausible? Thanks.

Yeah, I mean, I think, Steve, the way to think about it is we have a lot of focus on the things that are in the second half of the year, and one of those would be driving more demand with our events like Halloween, Christmas, the new rides that open like here in Orlando and in Tampa, and then our pricing and per cap initiatives as well. and then our cost initiative. Getting contributions from volume, from per cap, from cost efficiencies, I think when we step back and layer all those things into how we think about the back half of the year, those are the things we're pointing to. It's a lot of effort on things we are doing to drive that. Not to get too cute or anything, but obviously anything over a dollar over the prior record EBITDA would be a new record but certainly we're focused on getting to something higher than what we achieved in 2022 and we'll continue to focus on that and that is what we'll work towards obviously and we'll be able to update you guys in November on if we feel like we're still pacing towards that but I think a lot of efforts around our initiatives, our events, our per caps, our cost discipline.

Okay, great. Thanks, Mark. Really appreciate it.

Sure.

Our next question comes from Ben Chaiken of Mizuho. Go ahead, please.

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just to follow up on the per cap one, I believe last quarter, You mentioned that April per caps were up on the admission side and then obviously down slightly for 2Q. Could you just help us with any cadence through the year? And then if there's any color on early July trends, that'd be helpful as well. Thank you.

Yeah. Hey, Ben. I can help you on that. So, look, I'll focus on the quarter. Like I said, they were very slightly positive in April. You can read into that that they would have been impacted from that point forward. Again, we're focused on driving total revenue, and so there's going to be times that we run promotions that are at odds with per caps, but we feel good about the volume or the revenue that's associated with that. It's going to vary, again, from quarter to quarter, but I think over time, We still are confident we can grow the per caps with all the initiatives, the new attractions, the CRM, the mobile app, new things in our parks. So we'll continue to focus on that. What I can tell you just preliminary, you know, July is that the per caps were up very low single digits, so.

Great. That's super helpful. And then on CapEx, you gave us the number for the year, 170 to 180 in core, and then 55 to 70 on expansion. Is that a good way to think about the business on a go-forward basis, including stuff like a hotel, or would that change those numbers at all?

Yeah, I think, you know, as we look at what we spent last year, what we were spending this year, we continue to to right-size our amount of capital spend, I would say that we continue to make sure that we're in that 225 to 250 range this year and then continue to find ways to spend less capital and be more efficient with that. That does not include any hotel expansion in those numbers.

Okay. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

The next question comes from James Hardiman of Citi. Go ahead, please.

Hey, good morning. So, Mark, you mentioned maybe better per caps in July. I figured I'd ask. Anything else you can tell us about July? Obviously, you know, the second quarter attendance was up a little bit, per caps were down a little bit. Now per caps up in July, is total revenue up in July as well?

What I would point out to you in July is there's a, if you look at July of this year, versus July of last year. There's two less weekend days in July of this year versus July of last year. So as you can imagine, that certainly has an impact on the reported numbers when you're just looking at one month like that. So that would be a drag on revenue. And so I think overall, you can assume revenue would be down. But one of the ways we look at it, though, is on a day-to-day basis, which is kind of lining up like days, which adjusts for that calendar shift rate. When you do that, the attendance was up a little over 2% or so in July, which is, I think, an indication that on a like-for-like basis or day-to-day basis, attendance increased there.

Got it. That's really helpful. You know, maybe speak to the state of Orlando. You know, you've got Universal who put out some pretty weak numbers and Disney with some cautionary comments. Obviously, that's just a portion of your business. But are you seeing any of that weakness in the Orlando market? You talked about some mixed effects. I didn't know if, you know, Orlando underperformance was maybe one of the factors impacting mixed. But anything you could tell us there, and is the local business maybe offsetting some of that destination business?

Yeah, so I can take that, James. So, look, I think that one of the things I would start with is just the resiliency of the business, right? So I think we've proven over a pretty long history here of when there are, you know, perhaps – people looking for other alternatives or coming back on things, our business has remained resilient through past recessions. And so we like the opportunity to continue to be a great value proposition to people in the market for wanting to have fun. And we know people are reluctant to want to cut activities with their family and friends, and I think we offer a strong value proposition for that. I'd say specifically to Orlando, on a year-to-date basis, we are pleased with our Orlando parks. I won't comment any more beyond that, obviously, for competitive reasons, but we're pleased with our Orlando performance, and we like the resiliency of the business here. Got it. Thanks.

If I may, what's the mixed comment when you talk about mixed herding per caps? Can you be a little bit more specific on that?

Well, I was saying in general, James, so each quarter you're going to have the potential of mix from either the type of product that somebody's using. So if there's more of a multi-day product or more promotional products, that can be a negative to the per capita rate. And then on the park mix, if you have water parks doing better, for example, You know, they traditionally have a lower per cap than a bigger, you know, a non-water park. So there's mixed impacts that can impact the quarter as well. Got it. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Thomas Yee of Morgan Stanley.

Go ahead, please. Thanks so much. Maybe just to ask James' question a little bit of a different way. Can you help put a finer point on the consumer health picture and how that's evolved over the last quarter or two and any indication on the consumer behavior at the low end versus the high end? I think historically you've spoken to Orlando attendance being like 65% of coming in from like a driving distance and then 80 to 90% at your other more local parks. Is that still holding true generally?

Yeah, what I would say, Thomas, is I'll just reiterate, you know, on a year-to-day basis, we're pleased with the attendance performance in Orlando, right? So, you know, obviously we get, you know, a good portion of our attendance from people who drive to our parks and are from the state of Florida, that type of thing. So I think, again, it's a resilient business during maybe what, you know, we see the news. We know... Things are a little tougher out there, obviously. I think it shows the resilience of our business. Specifically, I think your other question on the health of the consumer was ... I look at a couple things. One would be our in-park per caps. They were up in the quarter. They're up again in July. You know, I think that's one indicator people are, you know, our strategies on MPARC are working. Jim mentioned the past, you know, pricing and, you know, getting the increases on that is a positive. And then certainly our group revenue bookings, you know, are trending ahead of 23. And then our Discovery Cove bookings, you know, over not only 24, but into 25, we're pleased with as well. I take all those things together. You could even look at our deferred revenue being positive. If you take all those things together, I think at least in our parks, we're still getting spending, and I think it points to the what we offer, which is a compelling value proposition, and the resiliency of the business.

Okay, that's helpful. And maybe just the last one from me, any help on thinking through the new attraction timing? I think last year you saw some delays on launches. I noticed Penguin Trek opened in July, and you talked about Halloween and Christmas and some more opportunities in the back half of the year. Is the capacity that's coming online greater than the launches that we saw last year? Is that kind of supportive of an opportunity on the attendance front?

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, what I would point out is, you know, our parks rarely operate at full capacity, right? So there's room for more people to come to our parks. And so I think that that will remain. And so our goal is to certainly drive as many people for the most parts as we can to our parks and especially our events, whether that's Halloween or Christmas or the opening of the new ride. The ride in Orlando, Penguin Trek, it's a really well-done ride. What I like about it, and back to my maybe comment about our business model, it's differentiated in the sense that it's one of the few places you can go and ride a ride and then when you're off that ride, you're getting up close with penguins. So it incorporates not only a ride, but then our animal experiences as well, and I think that's obviously somewhat a unique thing to us relative to some of the others in the industry, and I like that product differentiation, and we're pleased with that ride.

Is it safe to say that just on an

new attraction launch perspective that it's more normalized relative to last year I guess just given the delays that we had seen last year look I mean all all things equal we we would generally want to open things earlier than July so I would not necessarily consider this year you know more you know that much more normal I mean you know that that ride we would have preferred to open earlier and And there was some things that popped up that kept it from opening as early as we'd like. But ideally, we would have opened that ride closer to Memorial Day or early June or something like that. So we lost almost a month or so of not having that ride. We'll have it for the rest of the year. And we'll lap next year with that ride in June. So ideally, we're focused on trying to get things open before you know, the key parts of the season, which would be, you know, either for spring break or, you know, Memorial Day, depending on the park.

Okay, understood. Thank you so much.

Our next question comes from Matthew Bass of J.P. Morgan. Go ahead, please.

Hey, this is John on for Matt. Mark, maybe can you elaborate on some of the changes you're seeing from international traffic? You know, what did you embed in the back half of the year and how you view the multi-year recapture opportunity there?

Yeah, sure, John. So, you know, as I said in my prepared remarks, the international attendance is still down to 2019. It was up slightly for the quarter versus 2023. So we still have I think a pretty substantial opportunity to recapture international. We're trying to do things on our end, but obviously there's macro factors and I'm sure other reasons as well, things we can probably do better also. But I don't know when that will come back, but it used to be back in 2019 roughly about 10% of our attendance overall, so a little more than 2 million people. We are not – we are still – I don't know, probably 40-ish percent shy of that. Between, I don't know, 35 and 40, depending on kind of the quarter and how it ebbs and flows throughout the year. Between like 35, 40, 45 percent, still down to 19, depending on the quarter.

Okay, great. Thank you. And then just one more on the cost side. Can you speak, I know you reiterated the $50 million this year, but You know, longer term, can you speak to kind of the efficiency opportunities you have and how best to think about the multi-year cost profile here relative to the top line growth?

Well, yeah. So I'll give you just a high-level comment, and then if Jim wants to add anything, he can. I think we've talked about this before. We view this business in a somewhat simple way. If we can grow our tenants a little bit each year, If we can grow our per caps a little bit each year and then manage our costs to a reasonable level, that equation will generally result in EBITDA expansion. There is a lot of focus on cost. It's something we spend quite a bit of time on, as you can imagine. I think we've proven over time that we can deliver on efficiencies. new things that we work to identify and new things that we'll continue to identify into the future. We have a lot of focus on that, something we take very seriously.

The only thing I'd just add, Mark, is we had provided the $50 million of cost savings in 24 in our illustration at the beginning of the year. I think we continue to remain pleased in our progress on meeting that commitment. and that we also have good plans in our 2025 planning cycle to achieve the balance in the coming year.

Great, thank you.

Our next question comes from Chris Wronka of Deutsche Bank. Go ahead, please.

Hey, good morning, guys. So as we think about the kind of universal, the EPIC opening next year, Mark, do you guys have any plans? Is the marketing going to ramp up or change much ahead of that? I mean, is there going to be any kind of, like I said, call it counter-programming to try to reach folks as they consider their Orlando plans?

Yeah, of course we would have things. So, you know, we have a new attraction coming to World Orlando next year that I'm really excited about. And we'll have other, obviously, initiatives. You know, one of our things we do, I think, a good job with our events, and we brought back Vans Brew and Barbecue this year, which was an event we had done in the past and bringing it back this year. We've done some things even for Halloween this year. We're adding what I think is a really cool 5K run that starts at midnight on Friday the 13th. So I think those are the type of things that are, other reasons that make our events exciting and reasons to come visit. So, yeah, we will absolutely have things. We have obviously been focused on, just like any other year, we're focused on growing the business. The thing I would just remind everyone is we've been in Orlando since the early 1970s, and we've added two parks of our own, Aquatica and Discovery Cove, since that time. And we have, you know, as the market's growing, you know, as the market has grown since the 1970s with Disney and Universal and other parks coming on board, we've continued to participate in EBITDA growth, right? So we like the opportunity to, when more people come to the market, that we have an opportunity to compel those folks to come visit our park as well. I'm sure Epic's going to be a great park and I'm sure there's going to be days where they're very crowded and we might feel it a little bit, but I think we like the opportunity to participate in more people coming into the market. We'll have our attractions, we'll have our events, we'll have our strategies around that as well. Also, it's a differentiated product, as I mentioned previously. Coming to SeaWorld is different than going universal. We have animals, we have different events and things like that. So that is another thing that sets us apart. And then certainly our value proposition. I think we feel good about our value proposition and the opportunities that people can take advantage of that. And then, as I mentioned previously, we get a lot of our attendance in Florida from people who can drive in. So taking all those things together, we're excited about being in Orlando and we're going to continue to do our part to attract people.

Yeah. Thanks, Mark. Appreciate all the, all the perspective there. And then the follow-up is on, on 25 past product lineup. You kind of previewed it earlier, but, and I know that the details might be limited, but are you, is there going to be any, any kind of change in strategy relating to, to, ancillary attachment and the way you might be able to do that through the pass or any other changes that might be notable on strategy?

I think overall, I mean, we will continue to offer a great suite of benefits to our pass holders. And, you know, again, we're going to target reasons for them to buy a pass. So that strategy's not gonna change. I think we're always looking for new ways to engage our pass holders, new ways we can drive them to come more often and to secure their commitment. So there will be some things we do, and we'll announce that. Jim alluded to we feel we're gonna have some of the best benefits we've had, right? So details will be forthcoming, but I think the strategy of really securing people's commitment earlier, securing their commitment for the year will continue to be a strategy. In fairness, people buy passes to our parks throughout the year, so we're always kind of selling passes. But obviously when we launch something new for 2025, we're going to try to make sure people have a compelling reason to buy that product.

Okay. Very good. Thanks, Mark. Sure.

The next question comes from Lizzie Dove of Goldman Sachs. Go ahead, please.

Hi there. Good morning. Thanks for taking the question. Going back to the kind of park mix comment that was kind of made, I am curious, you know, we all see the foot traffic data, and it's interesting because the Orlando Park kind of attendance growth is holding up nicely, but there's been some weakness this year, like year to date, in terms of the Bush Gardens parks. Curious if there's anything you can kind of share there in terms of trends between, you know, the different parks and the different brands.

Yeah, thanks, Lucy. I mean, I don't want to get into too much for competitive reasons, but I think you kind of echoed my comments that we're pleased with the Orlando performance on attendance year-to-date. So you can kind of read into that. Certainly, we have opportunities at all our parks, and certainly Busch Gardens Tampa would be one of them. It's a great park. It's got a lot of great rides and animal attractions. I think we need to do a better job of making people aware of what that park has to offer. It's a wonderful park with the rides and the animals. So we'll continue to work on that. I think that's a big opportunity for us.

Got it. Thank you. And then also as we kind of look to 2025, you know, as I think it was Chris just mentioned, Epic launching, I guess, what is your kind of base case here? Like, are you assuming that there's this rising tide? Maybe you get some kind of pricing power with a pricing umbrella? Or I guess said a different way, you know, Orlando is a big part of your base, maybe 40% of EBITDA, if I were to kind of guess. Do you think EBITDA growth is achievable on the business as a whole in 2025?

Oh, yeah, yeah. No, we would expect to grow the business in 2025. Again, I would go back to, you know, we've been here a long time in the market. Like I said, we've participated in the EBITDA growth of the market, and, you know, the EBITDA at the SeaWorld Park has grown over time. So our expectation is we will continue to grow, right? Yeah. That's what we're planning for. Again, more people you would think would come to Orlando next year with that epic opening. And again, I'm sure there's going to be days where they're very crowded and we might feel it a little bit, but I think we also have the opportunity to pick off people. I mean, if there's a lot of people in town, not everybody, the park can only hold so much, right? So there's going to be an opportunity for us to pick off people that are in town like we have done historically in this market. On a geography basis, we are closer to Epic than some of the other competitors, so we're not terribly far from that park. I think, again, I would view that as a positive. We welcome people to the market. I think our value proposition, our product differentiation are going to be good reasons to still want to come and visit SeaWorld. And like I said, we're going to have our own attraction, our own new things to do in this park, which I think once we get those announced and talked about, people will see it's going to be an exciting year.

Great. Thanks so much.

This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mark Swanson, CEO, for any closing remarks.

Yeah, thank you, Cindy. On behalf of Jim and the rest of the management team at United Parks and Resorts, we want to thank you for joining us this morning. As you heard today, we are confident in our long-term strategy, which we believe will drive improved operating and financial results and long-term value to stakeholders. Thank you and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.