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spk06: All our parks were operating with capacity limitations and or modified or limited operations at the beginning of the quarter. By the end of the second quarter, all 12 parks were open and operating without COVID-19 related capacity limitations. Our pricing and product strategies, along with the strong consumer demand environment, continued to drive higher realized pricing and strong guest spending resulting in record total revenue per capita in the quarter. We continue to see success with our strategic pricing initiatives and our quarterly events, including new or expanded food, beverage, and entertainment events at some of our parks, as well as several new or reimagined venues we have launched during the past few quarters, which also helped give guests more reasons to spend. On the merchandise side, we have refreshed our retail offerings by adding new products and improving the product mix. These and other initiatives have all contributed to the increase in guest spending, and we are encouraged by these successes as our guests have been returning to our parks over the last few months. Looking to July, we continued to generate strong performance versus 2019 with our attendance down approximately 7% and revenue up approximately 13%. We are very proud to have recently received recognition from USA Today readers for having some of the best parks and attractions in the country. SeaWorld Orlando was voted best amusement park in the United States. The Mako Roller Coaster at SeaWorld Orlando was voted Best Roller Coaster in the United States. Aquatica Orlando was voted Best Outdoor Water Park in the United States. And Celtic Fire at Busch Gardens Williamsburg was voted Best Amusement Park Entertainment in the United States. Several of our other parks and attractions received top 10 rankings as well. We are thrilled to receive these awards and proud of the ambassadors in our parks that help deliver amazing guest experiences. We are on schedule of our build out of Sesame Place in San Diego and look forward to opening that park next year. And SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, the first SeaWorld park outside of the United States, is also on track to complete construction by the end of 2022. We continue to closely study additional business development opportunities to grow the company, including hotels located on or nearby our existing parks and other potential international development locations. On the technology front, we have rolled out our new mobile app for the SeaWorld and Aquatica parks, and the remainder of the parks will be online later this year. We did extensive testing and received positive feedback from beta users, and now guests in our SeaWorld and Aquatica parks can use the app to navigate the park, order food, make purchases, or check schedules and wait times. We expect to expand this capability over time and anticipate positive impacts on in-park spending as guests adopt and use the app. Also, we have selected our CRM system provider and are beginning to migrate our data to the new system, which will eventually lead to full CRM capabilities. Once complete, we anticipate that our marketing, analytics, and business capabilities will significantly improve, allowing us to better understand and engage with our guests, which we expect to lead to reduced overall marketing costs increased visitation, and increased overall revenue opportunities. Looking to the next few months, we have an outstanding lineup of fall events. Next month, we will begin our award-winning Halloween events, including our daytime, family-oriented SeaWorld Spooktacular event at the SeaWorld parks, and our nighttime Hollow Scream event at all our Busch Gardens and SeaWorld parks, including for the first time ever, SeaWorld Orlando and SeaWorld San Diego. We are excited about adding this event for our thrill-seeking adult guests in Orlando and San Diego. There will also be craft beer and cultural festivals at several of our parks. We believe there is something for everyone to enjoy this fall. Our teams have worked hard to operate our parks in an extraordinary environment and better position this company for revenue growth and increased profitability. As we have demonstrated in the second quarter, we believe the strategies we have developed and refined over the past few years, along with the actions we have taken throughout the past year, will continue to lead to significantly improved financial results for the company. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Elizabeth to discuss our financial results in more detail. Elizabeth?
spk00: Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. As you know, we typically discuss our results for each quarter in comparison to the prior year's quarter. Given the disruption we experienced last year when we temporarily closed all of our parks on March 16, 2020, we believe a comparison of our results to the second quarter of 2019 provides a more meaningful insight on our performance and operating trajectory. As such, like last quarter, I'll provide commentary around our financial results compared to 2019. For those interested, we provide a comparison versus both 2019 and 2020 in our earnings release, and we'll do so as well in our Form 10-Q, which we plan to file tomorrow. As Mark mentioned, our second quarter results were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, With a return to more normalized operations towards the end of the quarter, along with the work we have done in both revenue management and our cost savings initiatives, we reported record total revenue, record net income, and record adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. During the quarter, we generated record total revenue of $439.8 million, an increase of $33.8 million. or 8.3% when compared to the second quarter of 2019. The increase in revenue is primarily due to an increase in total revenue per capita of 20.5%, partially offset by a decline in attendance of 10.1%. When compared to the second quarter of 2019, attendance declined primarily due to COVID-19 related impacts, including capacity limitations, and or modified or limited operations at our parks for some of the second quarter. Attendance was also impacted by decline from international guest visitation and group events. Including international and group events guests, attendance would have increased by approximately 3% when compared to the second quarter of 2019. Our pricing and product strategies along with a strong consumer demand environment, continue to drive higher realized pricing and strong guest spending, resulting in record total revenue per capita in the quarter of $75.71 compared to $62.82 in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 20.5%, driven by improvements in both admissions per capita and in-park per capita spending. Admissions per capita increased by 18.8% to $41.87, and in-park per capita spending increased by 22.7% to $33.84 in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the second quarter of 2019. The increase in admissions per capita primarily relates to the realization of higher prices in our admissions products, resulting from our strategic pricing efforts, along with the net impact of the admissions product mix when compared to the second quarter of 2019. In-park per capita spending improved primarily due to increased guest spending, higher realized prices and fees, an improved product mix, and new, enhanced, and or expanded in-park offerings. We generated record net income of $127.8 million, compared to net income of $52.7 million in the second quarter of 2019. We generated record adjusted EBITDA of $218.8 million, an increase of $69.1 million, or 46.2%, when compared to the second quarter of 2019. The improvement in adjusted EBITDA resulted primarily from a combination of increased total revenue and a decrease in both operating expenses and selling general and administrative expenses, which together offset the decline in attendance that occurred primarily as a result of the impact of COVID-19. The decrease in these expenses primarily related to reduction in labor-related costs as well as marketing and other operating costs resulting from structural cost savings initiatives and the impact of modified or limited operations due to COVID-19 for most of the quarter. Looking at our results for the first half of 2021 compared to 2019, total revenue was $611.7 million, a decrease of $14.9 million, or 2.4%. Total attendance was 8 million guests. a decrease of 1.8 million guests, or 18.1%. Net income for the period was $82.9 million, an improvement of $67.2 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $244 million, an improvement of $77.9 million, or 46.9%. Now, turning to our balance sheet. Our current deferred revenue balance as of the end of the second quarter was $238.7 million, an increase of approximately 46.3% when compared to June of 2019. We continue to be very encouraged with the trends we're seeing in our pass base. Our pass base grew approximately 53% between the first quarter and July of 2021. At the end of July of 2021, our pass base was up approximately 14% compared to July of 2019 and is approximately 12% higher than the peak pass base we had in 2019. We are also seeing a higher mix of premium passes in our pass base as our pass holders continue to recognize the value and benefits of our higher tiered products. Additionally, we continue to see the impact of our pricing strategies taking hold, with stronger realized prices on our past sales versus 2019 and 2020. As of June 30, 2021, our total available liquidity was approximately $927.8 million, including $615.8 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet, and $312 million available on a revolving credit facility. Cash flow from operations was a record $229.7 million in the second quarter and $248.1 million for the first six months of 2021. Free cash flow was a record $200 million in the second quarter and $203.1 million for the first six months of 2021. We spent $29.7 million on CapEx in the second quarter of 2021, of which approximately $20.8 million was on core CapEx and approximately $8.9 million when it's on expansion or RRI projects. For 2021, we still plan on spending between approximately $120 million and $150 million on capital expenditures. Lastly, On July 14th, 2021, we redeemed $50 million of our 9.5% second priority senior secured notes. Together with our board, we continually evaluate the company's capital structure with an objective of maximizing shareholder value. Now, let me turn the call back over to Mark, who will share some final thoughts. Mark.
spk06: Thank you, Elizabeth. Before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the second quarter, we helped rescue over 500 animals and have exceeded 39,100 animal rescues over the company's history. We are one of the world's leading animal rescue organizations, and we are proud of our efforts to protect and save wildlife. We want to thank our employee ambassadors for their continued dedication and effort to welcome guests while operating our parks in accordance with the latest health and safety protocols. As always, we are focused on providing a safe and fun guest experience while continuing to offer innovative special events and creating new events for our guests to enjoy our parks. Despite the progress we have made, we continue to believe there are significant additional opportunities to improve our execution, take advantage of clear growth opportunities, and continue to drive meaningful growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We continue to have high confidence in our long-term strategy and in our ability to deliver significantly improved operating and financial results that will lead to meaningfully increased value for stakeholders. Now, let's take your questions.
spk01: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your touch tone phone. If you are using a speaker phone, 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 2. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to one question and one follow up. If you have additional questions, you may re-enter the queue. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question will come from Michael Swartz with Truist. Please go ahead.
spk04: Yeah. Hey, good morning, everyone. Mark, maybe you want to touch on attendance trends during the quarter. I think when we last spoke in April, we had come out of the first quarter with about eight attendance standings from around 80, 82%, I believe, of 2019 levels. It appears that that improved materially during the quarter, and in, I think, July, you said attendance was down 7% versus 2009. It appears to imply attendance is running over 90% of 2019 levels. So, help us understand maybe how that trended during the quarter and if those numbers are, in fact, correct.
spk06: Yeah. Hey, Michael. It's Mark. I can take that question. I mean, look, I think, as you noted, the trends kind of improved, if you will, during the quarter. as we moved April to May to June. So we were pleased with that. And ultimately, where we ended the quarter, down 10%. And then July, as we mentioned, only down 7%. So we're pleased with the trends we're seeing in the attendance performance.
spk04: Okay, great. And I think in the press release you had mentioned that you're adding a number of operating days to the back half of the year relative to 2019. So maybe help us understand just maybe the magnitude of the operating day increase and maybe are there incremental special events and festivals that you are adding to the back half of the year?
spk06: Yeah, so most of the operating days are going to be in the back half of the year. And it's really around, I think, some incremental days around some of our events, around Halloween, around Christmas, but also some other things that we learned a good deal of last year, like some of our drive-through experiences, for example. So we're going to take advantage of some of those opportunities and drive some additional days in the quarter, obviously. And we're also excited about adding the nighttime Halloween experience, Holla Scream, to SeaWorld Orlando and SeaWorld San Diego.
spk04: Okay. Thank you.
spk01: Our next question will come from Steven Wesinski with Stifel. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hey, guys. Good morning. So, Mark, I want to ask about the margin opportunity moving forward. I mean, you just posted a – I think it's about a 1300 basis point improvement relative to the second quarter of 2019. You know, how should we think about the gives and takes of, you know, margin acceleration or pressures moving forward? I mean, and this is even with a, you know, super tight labor market right now. So, you know, how have you been able to combat labor while at the same time not impacting the guest experience?
spk06: Yeah, hey, Steve, what I'll say is I think, you know, we have a tremendous focus on cost and operating costs. the business in an efficient manner. And we're very committed to that. And we'll continue to do that as you've witnessed. We're also obviously getting a lot of margin expansion from the revenue side as well. And I think the work we've done on per caps has really shined through here the last several quarters, especially this quarter. So we're going to continue to do our part to grow margin as much as we can. We're going to be very careful, obviously, to protect the guest experience. And look, our goal is to have a good guest experience in our park. Having said that, we think the combination of revenue enhancements and cost efficiencies can do some good things for our margin. And you saw that here in the second quarter.
spk02: So to follow up on that, you know, from a, from a labor perspective, you know, in terms of what you guys are seeing today is, is the labor market, uh, you know, intensifying, is it kind of staying the same, uh, or, you know, is it, is it getting better?
spk06: Yeah. Hey Steve, I would say, look, labor, you know, like many companies have, have talked about labor, labor continues to be a challenge. Having said that, we're working hard to control. We can control and attract people to come work here in our environment. We think we have a fun environment working at a theme park. And so we'll continue to do that, and we have a lot of focus on doing just that going forward.
spk02: Okay, maybe if I can ask one more quick one. Obviously, you guys are now generating a pretty significant amount of free cash flow at this point. So can you just help us understand your current uses for cash at this point?
spk06: Yeah, it's a good question. So certainly we're pleased with the cash flow generation in the quarter. As you mentioned, it was a record free cash flow. So very, very pleased with that. And we've been working through a list of items with our board that we can deploy that cash, some quick hitting items around CapEx in our parks, some venue refreshments, some upgrades in some areas of the park, and then also some ROI type items on expenses, you know, where we can, some utility savings, things that we can invest in and will drive expense improvement. So we've been, you know, deploying that list and continue to review that list. So those are kind of, you know, making investments in the business, if you will. And, you know, beyond that, we also, as you heard Elizabeth mention, you know, we did pay down some of the notes in July. Beyond that, we're certainly open to M&A opportunities, hotels, you know, the things I mentioned in my prepared remarks. We certainly find those things intriguing. And, you know, should the right thing come along, I think we're in a position, you know, to be able to evaluate that and see what might make sense for us. So those are kind of investing in the business. Over the kind of longer term, if you will, I can tell you that we certainly have frequent communication with our board on the best ways to deploy cash, and we'll continue to do that. We'll be opportunistic, and we'll make sure to deploy that in a way that we believe is best for shareholders. So the good news is, in general, we're very pleased with the generation we have, the cash flow generation we have, a number of opportunities ahead of us, I think, that are compelling uses of that cash.
spk02: Okay, great. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
spk01: Our next question will come from James Hardiman with Wedbush Securities. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hey, good morning, and congrats on a great quarter here. Just to follow up on Steve's question, is there any way to quantify the labor piece, whether it be, you know, dollars of incremental inflation versus where we were in 2019 or incremental versus how you thought it would be heading into 2021? Yeah.
spk06: Hey, James, look, we're focused on labor. I'm not going to provide a number. Obviously, you know, there is inflation in those numbers. But I think, as I said earlier, we're committed to the cost savings and efficiencies in our business. And our goal obviously is to, when we have inflationary increases that are above kind of the norm, and many companies have this year, our goal is to offset as much of that as we can with additional efficiencies and additional automation efforts in the business, and that's what we're attempting to do.
spk03: Okay, fair enough. And then, as I think about, and you talked about in the prepared remarks how significant of a drag group sales and international sales were. Can you maybe tease those two out to the extent you feel comfortable, or at least maybe order of magnitude between those two? And secondly, was it a similar drag in the month of July, which would suggest X those numbers? You had some nice growth in July. And I guess lastly, just the pace of recovery of those two buckets, the international piece and the group sales piece. Thanks.
spk06: Sure. So, you know, in regards to July, it was a similar trend. We would have been up 2% without, you know, kind of international and group impacts in there. So it's a, you know, it's a good, you know, backdrop, if you will, that those, as those hopefully become tailwinds in the future. We don't know when, but at some point international attendance will come back and we're also optimistic that group events will come back over time. Those are going to be tailwinds for us. I think between our prepared remarks and what I just commented on about July, you can see that the business, absent those things, is growing or attendance is growing and those will just be tailwinds as we move forward and recover from those whenever they do recover.
spk03: Is there a way to think about those versus 2019 levels? I would think that group is maybe pacing ahead of international, but is there a way to quantify that in any way?
spk06: I think the way I think about it is, look, there's very little, as you would expect, international attendance, and that'll – You know, while it's, you know, overall to our company about 10% of our attendance in 2019, you know, that gives you some order of magnitude there. You know, groups, again, you know, school groups and church groups and camps and stuff are, you know, certainly not traveling, and you've heard others talk about this dynamic as well. So that will return as well, but I think between, you know, Like I said, in July we were down seven. We would have been up low single digits absent those things. That gives you kind of some order of magnitude on that.
spk01: Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question will come from Brett Andres with KeyBank Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
spk05: Hey, good morning. So when you gave the illustrative targets, you know, your per capita assumption I think was 10% growth above 19, and here we are through July, you're tracking, I think it implies 20% above 19. So I guess how has your thinking evolved around those per cap targets, right? Is the gap between that 10 and 20% right now just macro factors like higher consumer demand that you expect to roll off, or do you think you're doing anything specifically that would drive upside that 10% increase you gave us in the targets?
spk06: Yeah, hey Brett, let me kind of unpack that a little bit. I'll start with your per cap question. Look, certainly we recognize we're operating in a strong demand environment. Having said that, we are doing a lot of things much better than we have before, and I think the fruits of all the efforts that we've had over the last couple of years are really kind of shining through. I'll start with our revenue management team, a group of people who are looking at our pricing products and how we position those things on a regular basis. And a lot of the work they're doing has benefited us in the per-cap area. We're also, as I mentioned, the mix of the product in our park, whether it's the merchandise mix, upgrading some of our food and beverage menus or rebranding them or redoing them has been beneficial as well, along with the new venues we've opened in a number of our parks. So we have a number of new kind of in-park venues from ice cream parlor to a coffee shop to several new bar venues in a number of our parks. So we are, you know, those things are all benefiting us clearly in the per capita area. So that's just, you know, something we feel good about going forward. Is it always going to grow at 20% or something? I don't think so. There would be some normalization, but are we going to be able to get more than you know, inflationary growth or, you know, more than that? I think so. Because keep in mind, our mobile app just rolled out. And, you know, that is going to continue to expand. And it's not even in all our parks yet. That'll help in park spending. And then we also have the CRM system, which is still a little ways away. But when that does roll out, we think that's going to allow us to be a lot more targeted to our guests, a lot more, you know, target events and ticket offers to them, that type of thing. again, which we think will be a benefit to spending. So those are also tailwinds, not to mention the international visitation that we know at some point will come back. We don't know when, but when it does, we know those folks are generally higher per-cap spenders. So feel good about the per-cap position. As far as your kind of a question as far as the 690, I think you were alluding to the per-cap assumptions in that. Obviously, we're well ahead of the per cap assumption or illustration that we gave you in that 690 illustration. And so certainly our goal would be to do better than what we laid out in that illustration. And that illustration certainly was not guidance. It was not a goal. It assumes we don't grow any attendance from 2019. And certainly our expectation is that we will grow Attendance over time this collection of parks has done much more attendance than we did in 2019 in its history So our goal would be obviously to do more attendance and then obviously we're outperforming the per caps that we Illustrated and then as I mentioned the other component of that and I've mentioned earlier was on the cost savings were committed to You know driving efficiencies in the business and achieving cost savings so that uh you know, I think we feel pretty good about the outlook of this business. And we will, you know, probably come back at some point in the future with how we're viewing that, you know, as we move through. We want to get through this year, obviously. So, but that gives you a little bit of flavor for where things stand.
spk05: Got it. That's helpful. And then, obviously, a lot of Delta fears out there, but maybe more specifically on Florida, which I think is a you know, unique, you know, maybe approach down there, plus it's a destination market. I mean, have you seen any trend changes on the ground in Orlando in the most recent week, you know, or days? And I know you also have some, you know, booking visibility at Discovery Cove. Just curious if anything, you know, real time there.
spk06: Hey, Brett, look, obviously we know it's out there. The media has been talking about it. It's on people's minds. You know, having said that, we don't see an impact to, or a change in our attendance trends that we can attribute to the Delta variant.
spk05: Thank you.
spk01: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mark Swanson, CEO, for any closing remarks.
spk06: Thank you, Matt. On behalf of Elizabeth and the rest of the management team at SeaWorld Entertainment, I 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 for stakeholders. Thank you, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.
spk01: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation.
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