Viking Holdings Ltd

Good morning. My name is Paul and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Vikings second quarter 2024 earnings conference call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. 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 at that time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press star two. Thank you. I would now like to turn the program to your host for today's conference, Vice President of Investor Relations, Carola Mangalini.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Vikings Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. I am joined by Tor Hagen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Leah Talaktak, Chief Financial Officer. Also available during the Q&A session is Lynn Vaughan, Executive Vice President of Finance. Before we get started, please note our cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information. During the call, management may discuss information that is forward-looking and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause the actual results to be different than those expressed or implied. Please evaluate the forward-looking information in the context of these factors, which are detailed in today's press release as well as in our filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements are as of today, and we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We may also refer to certain non-IFRS financial metrics which are reconciled and described in our press release posted on our investor relations website at ir.viking.com. Tor and Lia will provide a strategic overview of the company, a recap of our second quarter results, and an update of the current booking environment. We will then open the call for your questions. To supplement today's call, we have also prepared an earnings presentation that will also be available on our investor relations website following this call. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Tor.

Thank you, Carola. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'll start today's call highlighting a few key performance indicators. I will then take the opportunity to touch on demand, sharing with you some of the characteristics and qualities of our target customer. As you can see on slide three, this morning we reported successful second quarter results with our consolidated net yield up 6.6% from the prior year. Additionally, we continue to experience robust demand for our core products with 95% and 55% of our 2024 and 2025 capacity already sold as of August 11th. Our momentum was strong throughout the second quarter, culminating with two sales milestones at the end of July. First, the week ending July 31 was the company's highest-grossing ever, and it included the highest-grossing day of sales. These results speak to the strength of our One Viking brand and give us confidence that our core consumer demographic continues to show financial resiliency, prioritizing travel, and actively seeking enriching memorable experiences. And these results also speak to the effectiveness of our sales and marketing teams and strategy. Now, if you look at the next slide, I mentioned in the past that our approach to sales and marketing is different. We have a marketing platform that directly engages with consumers, supported by a database that includes more than 56 million North American households. This has enabled us to develop deep relationships with our guests through a strategy that leverages robust digital capabilities and data-driven decision-making. As you see, we can generate demand, and to this end, we will continue to invest in sales and marketing during the second half of the year to support our growth plans and to keep momentum going. Now, if you follow me on slide five, Last quarter, I discussed our identity and unique differentiators, one of which is our dedicated focus on a specific target demographic. Today, we'll delve deeper into this. You can see that we cater to curious, affluent, English-speaking travelers, age 55 and over. Since our inception, we have focused on mature travelers who not only seek to explore the history and culture of the destinations, but also possess the time and financial flexibility to travel. On slide six, we are sharing a few graphs that visualize the strength of our target demographic, more precisely the U.S. demographic, which currently represents most of our guests. As you can see on the left side of the slide, the population age 55 and over is the fastest growing segment, expected to increase by 13%, to 110 million by 2030. Moreover, the segment is not only growing fast, but their spending power is also increasing. Adults over 55 have the largest spending power of any demographic, holding 73% of U.S. wealth, and that metric has been on the rise, with the net worth of this group currently up 41% since 2019. To give you some perspective on metrics related to our current customers, this quarter we carried about 200,000 guests. We spent an average of almost $8,000 each on their holiday. Now moving to slide seven. It is one thing to have a clear profile of the consumer we are targeting, and it's another to align our product and deliver a great experience. And we believe we are winning on both fronts. Our guests share a passion for travel and a keen interest in the destination. At Viking, we have a mantra about tailoring experiences to this group. We do not try to be all things to all people. We understand that our guests are thinking people who are traveling to learn and engage with the destination. To this end, when guests book with us, we provide destination-specific content from reading lists to language classes. Once on board, our comprehensive programs cover the past, present, and future of the destinations through lectures, performances, and local demonstrations. We offer these experiences on itineraries across all seven continents. Interestingly, our 2025 itineraries include over 500 unique destinations, significantly more than the 350 visited in 2018. Now we're talking about how we believe our offering resonates with our target customers. It's always encouraging to see this being publicly recognized. On slide number eight, we are highlighting that this summer we received top honors from Travel & Leisure and Travel Age West for our river, ocean, and expedition voyages. Travel & Leisure readers once again recognize us as the world best for all these three categories. Additionally, we also earned five category wins in the 2024 Travel Age West Wave Awards, and these awards are voted by travel advisors and showcase the success we have had with these important stakeholders over the years. Last October, we were also ranked number one by Conde Nast Traveler across rivers, oceans, and expeditions. No other travel company has simultaneously been honored for rivers, oceans, and expeditions by both Travel & Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler, something Viking has achieved for two years in a row. This is very special for us. In summary, we will continue to obsess over our guests by providing an excellent travel experience at good value, catering our offering to what we know they desire and enjoy. We believe that our clear focus on our core consumer demographic and our product is the essence of our brand promise and the cornerstone of our success. I will now turn to Leah to discuss the financials.