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spk03: Good day and welcome to the SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialists 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 touchtone phone. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. And if you have further questions, you may re-enter the question queue. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Matthew Stroud. Please go ahead, sir.
spk04: Thank you, Chuck, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to SeaWorld's first 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.seaworldinvestors.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 Elizabeth Galaxi, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning we will review our first quarter financial results, and then we will open up the call to your questions. Before we begin, I'd 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 factors 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 would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Mark Swanson. Mark?
spk01: Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report another quarter of record financial results. while our first quarter performance was strong and continued our momentum from 2021. We have scope for further recovery as it still does not yet reflect a normalized operating environment. In particular, international and group-related visitation is improving but was not back yet to pre-COVID levels, and we have opportunities to improve staffing levels to capture even more in-park spending demand. Looking ahead, forward demand indicators are encouraging. Our past base, as of April 30, 2022, is at a record high for this point in the season and 21.9% higher than at this point in 2019, which was the previous high. International and group business is returning, and we expect our pricing power and efficiency initiatives to continue to offset cost pressures and allow us to continue to expand margins. We are also thrilled by our guests' reception to the new rides and attractions we've opened to date, and we are particularly encouraged by the early reviews and results from our new Sesame Place San Diego Park, which is our first new park since 2013. As we have demonstrated, we have systematically improved our business model starting before and during the pandemic period, and we expect these improvements to continue to be reflected in our operating and financial results. While we still have opportunities to take advantage of areas where we can certainly improve, based on the work we have done to date, the work we are currently undergoing, and the specific plans we have for the future, we are confident we can continue to deliver additional operational and financial improvements that we expect will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. Before moving to Elizabeth and her update on financial performance, let me comment on a few more items. First, let me comment on our balance sheet. Thanks to important decisions we made over the last two years and the hard work of our entire team, we are in the fortunate position to have an extremely strong balance sheet. Our LTM net total leverage ratio is below 2.5 times, and we have over $745 million of total available liquidity, including $380 million of cash. And we expect to generate significant additional cash as we are entering the high cash flow generation part of the year. This strong balance sheet provides a great advantage and gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business make opportunistic investments, and to thoughtfully return capital to our shareholders. Second, let me update you on the new rides and attractions for 2022. In February, we opened the Icebreaker Roller Coaster at SeaWorld Orlando. In March, we opened the Tidal Surge Screaming Swing at SeaWorld San Antonio, the Iron Gwazi Roller Coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, the Reef Plunge Waterslide at Aquatica Orlando, the Emperor Rollercoaster at SeaWorld San Diego, the Pantheon Rollercoaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and the Riptide Race Waterslide at Aquatica San Antonio. In April, we open Big Bird's Tour Bus Ride at Sesame Place, Philadelphia. And later this month, we will open Water Country USA in Virginia for its traditional operating season featuring its all-new Aquazoid Amped waterslide, and at Adventure Island Tampa, we will open the Rapids Racer and Wahoo Remix waterslides. As I've said before, we believe this is one of our best lineups ever for rides, attractions, and park enhancements, and we are excited as we head into our busy summer season with our new attractions and great events planned, including guest favorites, Electric Ocean at all SeaWorld parks, and summer celebration at all Busch Gardens parks. We invite everyone to come and enjoy what we have to offer this summer. Third, we continue to realize double-digit pricing increases in our admissions and in-park products. Our admissions per capita grew 2.5% in the quarter. Higher realized prices were partially offset by a higher mix of past visitation, which comes at a lower relative per capita. and the impact of park mix. We had normal operations in Q1 of 2022, including parks operating that generate lower relative per caps compared to Q1 of 2021, where some of our parks that would normally be operating were closed or only partially operating. In-park per caps grew 2.4 percent in the quarter. Higher realized prices were offset by less than optimal staffing levels which impacted our ability to fully capture strong consumer demand as well as pass and park mix. Going forward, we expect to continue to grow admissions and in-park per caps by taking advantage of the pricing environment and continuing to enhance and execute on our pricing and product strategies and capabilities. Fourth, like many other companies, the current labor market continues to present challenges. But we are working hard to find new and better ways to attract, motivate, and retain talent, including expanding our use of international workers at our parks, something that we didn't take advantage of as much as our competitors may have in the past. We are optimistic these initiatives will better position us going forward as we answer to and respond to the expected demands of the busy summer season. Fifth, we continue to work on cost reduction and efficiency opportunities. including continuing to eliminate unnecessary and redundant costs, optimizing our staffing and spend levels, and investing in and leveraging technology. These efforts will allow us to reduce our labor requirements, increase throughput and speed of service, and improve overall guest experience. Sixth, we continue to make progress on our new mobile app, which guests are utilizing to improve their in-park experience. So far, there have been approximately 1.4 million downloads of the app, and a growing percentage of our guests are using and engaging with the app. We are seeing an increase in average transaction value for food and beverage purchases made through the app compared to point-of-sale orders, and we are seeing double-digit percentage revenue penetration across other in-park products that guests are purchasing through the app. We are in the very early innings with our app, and we are looking forward to sharing more of the progress we make in this area in the coming quarters. We now have our CRM system up and running and are in the early stages of harnessing the power of the system. We have already benefited from increased engagement with our guests, and we have begun early piloting and testing of personalized communications. We expect value-enhancing contributions from this new powerful tool, that we were admittedly behind the curve in implementing. We also very much look forward to sharing more about our CRM and its expected value-creating impacts over the coming quarters. Finally, we continue to make progress on our inorganic growth initiatives related to hotels, new parks, and international expansion, and expect to have more to share later in the year. We repurchased approximately 1.5 million shares of common stock at a total cost of approximately $109.9 million during the first quarter of 2022, and we completed our previously authorized share repurchase program by purchasing an additional $140.1 million in the second quarter of 2022. Overall, we are proud to report record net income on a trailing 12-month basis of $292 million and record adjusted EBITDA on a trailing 12-month basis of over $702 million, which was achieved with attendance of only 21.4 million guests, well below our historical high of over 25 million guests that we achieved in 2008. These achievements reflect the extraordinary efforts of our teams to operate our parks despite the challenging environment we faced and continue to position this company for revenue growth and increased profitability. As we have demonstrated in the first quarter and throughout last year, we believe the strategies we have developed and refined over the past few years, along with the actions we have taken since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 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: Thanks, Mark, and good morning, everyone. As Mark mentioned, our results of operations for the first quarter of 2022 and 2021 continue to be impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic due in part to a decline in both international and group-related attendance in both periods. The first quarter of 2021 was also significantly impacted by capacity limitations modified and limited operations, temporary park closures, and decreased demand due to public concerns associated with the pandemic. I'll provide commentary today around our financial results compared to 2021. However, due to the impact the global COVID-19 pandemic had on our 2021 financial first quarter results, we provide a comparison of some of our key results versus both 2019 and 2021 in our earnings release charts and we'll do so as well in our Form 10Q. During the first quarter, we generated record total revenue of $270.7 million, an increase of $98.8 million, or 57.5%, when compared to the first quarter of 2021. The increase in revenue is due to an increase in attendance of 53.7%, and an increase in total revenue per capita of 2.5%. Attendance benefited from an increase in demand and operating days, resulting from a return to more normalized operations when compared to the first quarter of 2021, which included COVID-19-related impacts. Our pricing and product strategies continue to drive higher realized pricing, resulting in total revenue per capita in the quarter of $79.54 compared to $77.63 in the first quarter of 2021. The increase was driven by improvements in both admissions per capita and in-park per capita spending. This is the highest total revenue per capita we have ever reported in a first quarter. Admissions per capita increased by 2.5% to $44.33, and in-park per capita spending increased by 2.4% to $35.21 in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021. As Mark discussed, the increase in admissions per capita was primarily due to the realization of higher prices in our admission products resulting from our strategic pricing efforts and was largely offset by the impact of our admissions product mix due in part to an increase in past visitation and the impact of park mix when compared to the prior year quarter. In-park per capita spending was also impacted by less than optimal staffing during the first quarter of 2022 which impacted our ability to fully staff and or open some of our food and beverage and retail outlets. Operating expenses increased $45.2 million, or 41.9%, when compared to the first quarter of 2021. The increase in operating expenses primarily results from an increase in labor-related and other operating costs due to return to more normalized operations and an increase in operating days, and was partially offset by structural cost savings initiatives when compared to the first quarter of 2021. Operating expenses as a percent of revenue were 56.5% in the first quarter of 2022 compared to 62.7% in the first quarter of 2021. Selling, general, and administrative expenses increased $14.6 million, or 46.4% compared to the first quarter of 2021. The increase is primarily due to increased marketing-related costs, partially offset by the impact of cost savings and efficiency initiatives. The increased marketing-related costs result from a return to more normalized operations, as we substantially reduced marketing-related costs in the prior year quarter. Selling, general, and administrative expenses as a percent of revenue was 17% for the first quarter of 2022, compared to 18.3% for the first quarter of 2021. We generated a net loss of $9 million, the smallest net loss we have reported in the first quarter. This compares to a net loss of $44.9 million in the first quarter of 2021, and we generated record adjusted EBITDA of $65.9 million, an increase of $40.8 million when compared to the first quarter of 2021. The improvements in net loss and adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2022 were primarily impacted by an increase in attendance and total revenue per capita when compared to the first quarter of 2021. Now turning to our balance sheet. Our current deferred revenue balance as of the end of the first quarter was $208 million, an increase of approximately 7.6% when compared to March of 2021, which included the impact of some COVID-19-related extensions. including the extensions in the prior year quarter, deferred revenue would have been up approximately 38.9%. Compared to March of 2019, deferred revenue increased 37.5%. As Mark mentioned, at the end of April 2022, our past base was up approximately 22% compared to April of 2019, which was our previous April record, a very healthy indicator of consumer demand for our parks and the coming summer season. This is especially encouraging as we are currently in the peak pass selling seasons of spring and early summer. Importantly, we're also seeing a higher mix of premium passes in our pass base compared to prior year as our pass holders continue to recognize the value and benefits of our higher tiered products. We also continue to see the impact of our pricing strategies with stronger realized prices on our pass sales. And our current average PAC price is up a double-digit percentage compared to 2021. In the first quarter, we continued to opportunistically repurchase shares, buying approximately 1.5 million shares of common stock at a total cost of approximately $109.9 million. And in the second quarter, we repurchased another 2 million shares at a total cost of approximately $140.1 million, which now completes our previously authorized $250 million share repurchase program. As Mark mentioned, we have a very strong balance sheet position. As of March 31, 2022, our total available liquidity was approximately $745.3 million, including $380 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet, and $365.3 million available on a revolving credit facility, which was undrawn. Cash flow from operations was a record $70.8 million for the first quarter of 2022, and free cash flow was a record $35.7 million for the first quarter of 2022. We spent $35.1 million on CapEx in the first quarter, of which approximately $23 million was on core CapEx, and approximately $12.1 million was on expansion ROI projects. Looking ahead for 2022, we plan on spending approximately $150 million in core capital expenditures and another $30 to $50 million in gross ROI capital expenditures. We are investing in rides, attractions, events, and habitats to continue our strategy of having something new and compelling across our parks each year. And we have more one-of-a-kind, world-class attractions that we are excited to unveil when the time is right. We are also investing in and enhancing our food and beverage and retail venues across our parks, including offering a higher quality offering and more variety. We're investing in technology to make our business more efficient and to enhance our guest experience. and we are investing in our inorganic growth strategies to further drive shareholder value. Now let me turn the call back over to Mark, who will share some final thoughts. Mark?
spk01: Thank you, Elizabeth. Before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the first quarter of 2022, we came to the aid of over 300 animals in need, bringing the total number of animals we have helped over our history to over 40,000. including bottlenose dolphins, manatees, sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, birds, and more. During the quarter, we announced that we will expand our manatee critical care facility in Orlando to add more capacity in the state of Florida to care for manatees in need. The build-out will include a new three-pool complex that adds 200,000 gallons of water for manatee response and a new lift floor to an existing pool that doubles the size of the critical care space at SeaWorld's Rescue Center in Orlando. Upon completion, SeaWorld Orlando will have the ability to care for 60 manatees in need, the largest capacity in the state of Florida and in the U.S. The expansion is necessary to care for the record number of manatees in crisis due to the unusual mortality events. I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts. I want to thank them and all our ambassadors for all that they do to operate our parks in this current environment. We are excited about 2022, particularly as we head into our busy summer season. We have an exciting lineup of new rides, attractions, and events that we believe is one of our best offerings ever. We recognize that we have made good progress over the past year, but 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 we believe will lead to meaningfully increased value for stakeholders. Now, let's take your questions.
spk03: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. Again, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. And if you have further questions, you may re-enter the question queue. And at this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And the first question will come from Steve Wyzynski with Stifel. Please go ahead.
spk06: Hey, guys. Good morning. So I want to ask about your pass base, which is, you know, obviously running at record highs at this point. And I'm wondering – if you can help us think about maybe what percentage of your visitation in the first quarter was driven by passes, and then how you've been expanding your outreach to potential customers that you might not have targeted before, and then maybe also how you are thinking about total per caps moving forward as your pass base grows. So that's kind of a three-part question. Sorry.
spk01: Hey, Steve, it's Mark. I can take that. So, look, we're really – pleased with our pass base, as you heard in our remarks, up approximately 22% for this time of the year. So very pleased with that. We think, obviously, our passes offer tremendous value with our lineup of attractions, events, and then, you know, all the refreshes we've made in the different parks. A lot of reasons to come out and visit, and obviously a pass is one of the most effective ways to do that. You know, pass visitation as a mix of our attendance is at about 48% for the first quarter, higher than normal in part because, you know, people are coming, we're selling more passes, and then obviously we still have a little bit of the drag there from international and group business. But certainly we're pleased with our pass base. We're going to continue to promote those products and outreach to people, you know, to come and visit the parks. As far as, like, how we think about the per capita, you know, the third part of your question is, look, pass holders we know deliver more total revenue on a yearly basis, and obviously we're focused on driving total revenue. Having said that, we certainly believe we can continue to drive per capita growth, even with a higher pass visitation. And there's a number of initiatives we have in place to do that. And we're getting pricing. You heard me talk about that. We're getting pricing, and we believe we continue to, with our pricing power and other initiatives, continue to drive that. So we like where we stand and look forward to having those folks come out and visit more often.
spk06: Great. Thanks, Mark. And then a second question. Your balance sheet is obviously in very good shape at this point. I'm wondering, with your share authorization now having been exhausted, how do you balance returning capital to shareholders moving forward? And I guess what I might be getting at here is there's obviously a fear out there around the economy and potentially going into some type of slowdown. And does that change your view of how you return capital to shareholders?
spk01: Yeah, thanks, Steve. So as we noted, we, again, bought back a number of shares in Q1 and then completed that basket, as you noted, in April of this year. So We'll continue, like we've always said, to work with our board and our advisors on what is the highest and kind of best use of cash from an ROI standpoint. And I think we've demonstrated our ability to do that, and we'll continue to do that.
spk06: Okay, great.
spk03: Thanks, Mark. Appreciate it. Sure. The next question will come from James Hardiman with Citi. Please go ahead.
spk09: Hey, good morning. So maybe following up on Steve's last question there, I mean, what can you tell us? This is sort of an open-ended question, and I'll have a specific question, but state of the consumer, right? I don't know that I've ever seen as much divergence in terms of fears and some of the economic data versus, you know, really excellent results like what you guys reported this morning. So maybe speak to what you're seeing. beyond the reported metrics? And then, you know, maybe more specifically, what can you tell us about, I guess, most notably visitation momentum within the quarter and anything you want to give us on April? I think that the fear is that as inflation has worsened and some of the war issues have cropped up, that the consumer is deteriorating. maybe you can tell us otherwise or maybe you support that view. Thanks.
spk01: Yeah, sure, James. This is Mark. I can take that question. Look, obviously, as you noted, we reported strong revenue and tenants and per cap growth in the quarter. So those are, you know, we're very pleased with that. So we're seeing consumers coming out, spending in our parks. We talked about the double-digit pricing that we've seen in our products. So Still coming out and spending, I think it just points to the value of visiting a park like ours. And, you know, what I can tell you in April is that continued. I can't give you specific numbers, obviously, but we continue to see people visiting and people coming out and spending. And, again, I would just come back to really the value that we offer as a community. as an offering to come and visit and the resiliency of our business, even if times were to get tough, I like where we stand. And if you look historically when there has been a recessionary activity, we have generally outperformed the industry. So we like the position we sit in and we look forward to continuing to provide a great product for people coming out to visit. Got it.
spk09: And then, um, I guess my second question here, you talked a number of times in the prepared remarks about labor and maybe some headwinds from an in-part per capita perspective, people not spending based on sort of maybe suboptimal levels of labor. What does that look like right now, specifically from a guest experience? or the line's too long or they're unmanned food counters. And then from a financial perspective, what does that look like as labor normalizes? Should we be anticipating a positive from better in-park spending but offset to a degree by higher labor costs as we move forward?
spk01: Yeah, thanks. What I can tell you there is we certainly – called it out, and look, there's times when we don't have optimal staffing in the parks, and I view that as, again, a tailwind. And it's not every day, and it's not every park, obviously, but there's times we know we can do better, and our goal is to have a good guest experience, and we know there's times we can do better. So we've done some things here that we think are going to put us in a better position for the summer and to capture the demand we're seeing really around the in-park spend. So that's our goal. And I view it as really another tailwind that had we had a more optimal staffing level in Q1, we would have driven, you know, I believe, more revenue and a higher impact per cap. You know, as far as the labor that comes along with it, I mean, sure, there would be some additional labor. But, again, I think the revenue that we left on the table perhaps would more than offset that significantly and still is a very strong margin profile.
spk09: Makes sense.
spk03: Thanks, Mark. The next question will come from Chris Warwonka with Don't You Bink. Please go ahead.
spk10: Hey, good morning, everyone. Maybe to follow up on Steve's last question, as we think about going into peak summer, where do you think you are on hiring in terms of having what you have lined up and what are the – Are there any potential risks to that with more hiring going on across the space?
spk01: Yeah, hey, Chris, this is Mark. I can take that question. So one of the things I called out, which is a little bit newer to us, not entirely new, but, you know, we did not use the international program quite as much as some of our competitors did in the past, and this year we're using it in all our markets. And so I think that's one of the reasons we – feel optimistic about being in a better spot, those folks will start to show up here for the summer. So, you know, if that holds true, which it should, obviously, you know, they'll show up and we'll be in a better staffing position to capture that demand that I've talked about. And look, even if you go back to Q1, we still grew revenue pretty significantly. So, again, I view this as a tailwind. We've We want to capture more of that demand, and we know we need to have more things open and things like that, and we'll do that. So it should be a tailwind.
spk10: Okay, very helpful. And then as a follow-up, is there any way to kind of triangulate the, you know, the impact per caps between, you know, pricing increases and just higher volume and that, you know, whether we're talking food and beverage or retail? Is there any way to just directionally think about that?
spk01: Yeah, I mean, I'll try to take a stab if I understand your question correctly. I mean, what I talked about in my prepared remarks is we are seeing double-digit pricing increases on the MPARC products in most cases. So that's good. So we're getting the pricing. We have the pricing power. People are coming out and spending. And that continued into April, as I mentioned earlier. Where then there's a little bit of a drag on that number, obviously, is just from the mix of pass holders visiting who spend more in total revenue but have less per visit. And then we have some other, as I mentioned, just not having everything open that we'd like to would have helped as well. So those things are, you know, we'll have hopefully more things open this summer, which should help us. And then, you know, at some point the pass mix probably normalizes over time. And also the international attendance should be a positive for us.
spk10: Okay, very good. Thanks, Mark.
spk03: You're welcome. The next question will come from Ben Chaiken with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
spk07: Hey, how's it going? What's the appetite for more Sesame Place projects? My understanding is these are pretty high ROI and high margin projects. I'm just curious in your thought process.
spk01: Hey, Ben. Yeah, thanks for the question. Look, we were really thrilled to get the park open in San Diego. It opened really late in the quarter, but we've been excited. It's a beautiful park. I was out there for the opening, and it just looks great. And we know that's a good product, and certainly we have the, you know, under our contract with them, ability to do more of those. And I think that's something that we are, as I said, are looking closely at. I don't, don't have anything to share specifically today, but it's something that we definitely are reviewing and, and, and, and looking at. And if we, if, and when we have something to share, we will do that, but we like the product. We like those types of parks.
spk07: And do you think conversions like this? I think this one previously was an aquatic. Does that make the most sense for you or would you start from scratch as well?
spk01: It could be a conversion like we have did in San Diego, or it could be a brand-new thing. I think we would look at all those options. It could be an expansion of one of our existing parks as well. So there's a couple different ways to look at it, and I think those are all kind of in the options that we're considering.
spk07: Gotcha. And then on the – on the per-cap side, however you want to think about it, whether it's just total per-caps or admission per-caps, I think you mentioned there was kind of a pass mix slight headwind and also a park mix slight headwind. Is there any way to kind of like decipher that or to separate those? Maybe what was the park mix headwind? Like quantify?
spk01: Sure. I don't know that I can give you a quantification. What I can tell you is You know, the past mix was up several hundred basis points. And so, again, we know that more total revenue but less per visit. So that just naturally has just the math on that is going to impact your per capita. But, again, we get more total revenue over the long term. The park mix is a little bit more relative to the parks we have open now in 2022 in Q1. The parks that would normally be open were open. If you go back to Q1 of last year, we didn't have everything open for or some of the things that were open were more restricted. So as those parks came online this year at kind of full operation, just the mix of some of those parks had a little bit of a lower per cap relative to some of our other parks that are open. So again, that just had a natural impact just from a mass standpoint to pull the per cap down a little bit.
spk07: And just to be totally clear, you're saying the beginning of the quarter had that headwind or the end of the quarter had that park mix?
spk01: I'm not going to comment at the beginning. I mean, just during the quarter. So, I mean, you can kind of go back and look at SeaWorld California when it was open in 2021 versus 2022. There were some differences there in its operating schedule. Similarly at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Okay, thanks.
spk03: The next question will come from Barton Crockett with Rosenblatt Securities. Please go ahead.
spk05: Okay, great. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask around the attendance opportunity and also a little bit around kind of the cyclical environment. So with attendance, you know, you've got 15%, let's say, kind of left on the table from international and group sales. And, you know, my question is, you know, If those come back, we're going to be, I think, pretty close to your all-time high. So how much room is there for more attendants in your parks? You know, some of your peers, like Six Flags, you know, is kind of pivoting to less attendants, higher per caps. Disney feels like they're kind of talking in a similar kind of vein in some ways. So there is ceilings in this industry. And, you know, where do you guys see your ceiling? How much room do you have to go before you kind of hit it?
spk01: Yeah, no, hey, Barton, thanks for the question. Look, a couple things. There's a lot of room to grow our attendance. And I said in my prepared remarks, I don't know if you caught it, but back in 2008, with one less park, we did over 25 million in attendance. And if you look at 2019, we only did 22.6. So you just take the math between those two numbers, that's several million, that's almost 2.5 million attendance. in attendance just to get back to what we once did, that's pretty meaningful growth, right, when you flow that through at an average per cap. And then if you consider that, you know, the rest of the industry in most cases has grown attendance over time. You know, we've kind of grown it at some times, but still not back to what we once did in 2008. And so there's, I think, a lot of opportunity to grow our attendance, and that certainly is our goal. And then on top of that, you know, we've got the other initiatives around new parks, which I talked about. We added one this year in San Diego, obviously. And, you know, our plan would be to add more of those, you know, more things going forward. We've got the international expansion opportunities. So we've got hotel opportunities. So there's a series of, you know, I would say tailwinds ahead of us that can continue to drive performance. I would just remind you, too, we – You know, and your kind of question about less attendance, higher per caps, I mean, we rarely operate at full capacity at our parks. So, yeah, there's a few days every year that we have to close down, obviously. But we have room in most cases for more people. So our goal would be to try to drive more attendance to our parks. And, you know, the flow through from that incremental visitation is strong.
spk05: Okay. That's helpful. Other question I was curious about was, you know, with looking back at kind of past recessions, SeaWorld's been around through some of that under different management, obviously. But, you know, you're kind of a tweener, right? You're in Orlando, so you have kind of the destination traffic, which can be pretty meaningfully hit. That kind of travel traffic that comes to Disney Universal and spends a day at SeaWorld, that can be hit pretty hard in a recession. The local kind of regional kind of traffic tends to be more kind of durable in a recession. You guys have a mix of both. So how do you see your kind of exposure to recession, you know, just looking at what's happened historically and how you feel about your setup right now? If we get into one, what do you think – how would you see yourself guys kind of set up for that?
spk01: Yeah, good question. So we – look, historically, when you go back and you look at kind of the recessionary periods, in 2001, 2002, and then 2008, 2009. You know, in 2001, 2002, we actually saw growth. And then in 2008, 2009, we grew a little bit in the one year and then had a small decline in the other year. So we like our ability to weather recessions. I think in general, we've outperformed the industry in those type of periods. So we like our ability to What I would, you know, just to unpack a little bit, one of the advantages we have, you kind of alluded to it, is we are in both regional and destination markets. But even in Orlando, while it's a destination market, we get a good portion of our tenants, you know, over 50% of the attendance, you know, for the most part is in that range. It's coming from, you know, people in the state of Florida or even more local than that. So, The state's obviously growing, and we like our position here. I think maybe relative to others, I don't know specifically, but I like that setup for us that we get more local attendance. So that's kind of a good playoff between local or regional parks and destinations. And just as a reminder, we've said this before, the vast majority of our attendance is within a driving distance or drives to our parks, if you will. So, again, I think that sets us up well for recessions if one were to occur. Okay, that's great. Thank you.
spk03: The next question will come from Michael Schwartz with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
spk11: Hey, good morning, everyone. I maybe just wanted to follow up on the new Sesame Place Park in San Diego. I think you had mentioned that you had seen some pretty strong results out of that, albeit in less than, I think, a month's operation. But Maybe give us a little context into what you've seen there, maybe how you measure success, and then just a follow-up to that is, was the additional overhead from that park material during the quarter?
spk01: I mean, look, we opened the park at the end of March, and obviously we would have had some costs in there to get it open and things like that. But I don't know that I would consider anything material. There were more More operating costs, obviously. But we like what we're seeing out of that park. We like the product. Obviously, I was out there. People are seeing what that type of product can deliver. So we're excited about the park out there.
spk11: Okay, thanks. And then just maybe digging in a little further, the season passed. I think you've said that it was kind of diluted per caps in the quarter. But just in terms of maybe, you know, visitation trends on season pass, has anything changed materially maybe over the past six to 12 months versus what you've seen historically?
spk01: Yeah, I mean, look, as I mentioned, it's a greater mix of our attendance here in Q1 of roughly 48%. So it's higher than kind of the mix we've seen in the past by, several hundred basis points. And, you know, some of that is because we have less international attendance, and some of that is, you know, we're selling more passes.
spk11: But just in terms of visitation on season pass, I'm just talking about, you know, how many times someone visits in a single year with a single pass.
spk01: Yeah, it is up.
spk11: Okay, thanks.
spk03: The next question will come from Paul Golding with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
spk08: Great. Thanks so much for taking the question. I just wanted to dig a bit deeper into the group versus international and just wanted to see if there's any color you could give around anything structural happening there. It seems like as sort of makes logical sense we're seeing group come back and international presumably waiting for testing requirements to abate. Any pricing color you could give around group that you're seeing in terms of is it benefiting to the same extent that past pricing is increasing just relative to its own segment prior? And any leading indicators on international? So sort of those two areas. Thanks so much.
spk01: Yeah, no problem, Paul. So what I would tell you is, I talked about this. The international is improving, still down. If you think about for the quarter, it was down in the 75% range. As we move into April, that's improved, but still negative, obviously. The group business is coming back at a stronger rate. We feel pretty good about where that's trending and how we think about that on a go-forward basis. Just being out in the park, I've seen more field trips and things like that, which is cool to see. As far as your question on pricing, I think similar to our other products, we're taking pricing and so that would include group tickets as well. Then on the forward indicators, we don't have a massive amount of indicators, but obviously what we're seeing in some of our bookings in Discovery Cove, which is generally a pretty popular place with international guests. We like what we're seeing there.
spk08: Great. And on Discovery Cove, which was at a higher price point to start, do you still have pricing levers there? Are you still benefiting even at that sort of more intimate experience level?
spk01: Yeah, I would say that's certainly one area, one park where we have taken a number of pricing initiatives And I think we certainly feel like there's opportunity there. It's just a world-class experience that, you know, I would argue it's priceless, basically. And the exclusivity of it, the, you know, the private nature of it, or, you know, more intimate experience is just a really – we know people are willing to pay for things like that, and it's a great experience. So, yes, we have opportunity there.
spk08: Thanks so much. Sure.
spk03: And the last question will come from Philip Krusek with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hi, guys. Thank you for getting me in. I know you sort of pushed this one off on the call, but on the hotel thinking, anything you can give us about your thoughts, maybe on or off balance sheet, running the hotels yourself or working with an outside company, as well as timing when we might hear more about that. Thank you.
spk01: Yeah, look – You know, I think the different options you laid out, you know, all those things are under consideration. When we have something to report, we certainly will. What I would point you to, I think, as one advantage is we have land, right? And so if you look, you know, across our parks, there's some great locations to put a hotel. And I think just that, to me, is fantastic. one of the key things, do you have the right location in the right land? And I think, I think we definitely have that.
spk02: Okay. Maybe one more, if I can, the buyback, have you reviewed at all the optimal leverage level in the business as we sort of come out of what was a many more violent downturn in revenue than you've seen before?
spk01: Yeah. Our leverage ratio, as I mentioned is, is just below two and a half times. And, And, you know, we're comfortable there, not to say we wouldn't be comfortable in other places, but we don't really have a target. Our goal is obviously to, you know, deploy our cash in manners that we believe drives the highest return for shareholders. So, you know, we'll be opportunistic where it makes sense and work with our board and our advisors on that.
spk02: Thanks again.
spk03: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Mark Swanson for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.
spk01: Yeah, thank you, Chuck. On behalf of Elizabeth and the rest of the management team at SeaWorld Entertainment, 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 for stakeholders. Thank you, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.
spk03: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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