Viad Corp

Good afternoon. My name is Aisha, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to VIAD Corp's second quarter 2023 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 followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press the pound key. Thank you. Carrie Long, you may begin your conference.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Viad's 2023 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. We issued our earnings press release after the market closed today, along with an earnings presentation, which are both available on our website at viad.com. We will be referencing specific pages from the presentation during the call as we discuss our business performance and outlook. I also want to point out that our earnings press release and presentation contain important disclosures regarding non-GAAP measures that we'll be referring to during the call, including adjusted EBITDA and income before other items. During the call, you'll hear from Steve Moster, our President and CEO and President of GES, Ellen Ingersoll, our Chief Financial Officer, and David Berry, President of Pursuit. Before turning the call over to Steve, I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements made during the call, which are not historical facts, may constitute forward-looking statements. Information concerning business and other risk factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those in the forward-looking statements can be found in our annual, quarterly, and other current reports filed with the SEC. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Steve, who will start on page four of our earnings presentation.

Thanks, Teri. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us to review our strong second quarter results and improved outlook for the remainder of 2023. I'm extremely pleased with our performance so far this year. And as you'll be hearing about in more detail throughout the call, I'm happy to report that both GES and Pursuit continue to demonstrate strong momentum this year with high demand for leisure travel and live event activity near 2019 levels. GES delivered another very solid quarter with revenue and adjusted EBITDA above our prior guidance range. I continue to be impressed with the team's focus on margin enhancement and the speed and the strength of GES's recovery from the pandemic. Based on GES's performance and our outlook for the second half, we're raising our full year guidance to reflect the opportunities ahead of us. Pursuit delivered strong year-over-year growth in line with our adjusted EBITDA expectations for the quarter. With the borders open and no travel restrictions in place, leisure travelers are actively seeking one-of-a-kind experiences and selecting Pursuit's iconic and unforgettable experiences. Pursuit's lodging booking pace for the second half of 2023 across all geographies is stronger than the 2019 and 2022 pacing at the same point in the year. On the attraction side of the business, we're seeing strong visitation to our geographies and higher conversion to passengers at our attractions. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Ellen to discuss our second quarter financial performance in more detail. Ellen?