United Parks & Resorts Inc.

Hello and welcome to the United Parks Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. I'll now turn the conference over to Matthew Stroud, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Welcome to United Parks & 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 Marc 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 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 factor section of our annual report on Form 10-K and 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-looking 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'd like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Marc Swanson. Marc?

Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased with the continued progress we are making across certain initiatives. Results in the second quarter were impacted, as expected, by the shift in the timing of Easter. The earlier holiday met fewer holiday days in Q2 compared to the prior year quarter, and a continued decline in international visitation. Adjusting for these impacts, attendance would have been flat for the quarter. We delivered another quarter of growth in total revenue per capita, driven by continued strong in-park execution. During the quarter, we again grew in-park per capita spending to a record for the quarter. Looking ahead, we continue to see strength in our forward indicators for Discovery Cove and our group business, with advanced bookings revenue for both up double digits versus prior year. We continue to repurchase shares in the second quarter, buying approximately 3.3 million shares for nearly $125 million. These buybacks emphasize our strong cash flow generation Our long-standing commitment to returning excess cash to our shareholders and our belief that our shares are materially undervalued. While we face first-half headwinds across international visitation, weather impacts, and holiday shifts, we are fully focused on executing against our strategic priorities and driving growth in revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and total shareholder value. Our exciting summer event lineup continues for the next several weeks as we close out the season with Red, White, and Barbecue at SeaWorld Orlando and SeaWorld San Antonio, Summer Spectacular at SeaWorld San Diego, and Beer Fest Brews and Barbecue at both Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. In September, we will kick off our award-winning Halloween events, which will run through Thank you for joining us today.