Viad Corp Reports 2024 Second Quarter Results

• Strong second quarter results exceed prior guidance
• GES show performance and client spend remain strong; raising full year outlook
• Pursuit experiencing stronger guest demand; wildfires in Jasper bring uncertainty to full year outlook

Viad Corp (NYSE: VVI), a leading global provider of extraordinary experiences, including attractions, hospitality, exhibition services, and experiential marketing, today reported results for the 2024 second quarter.

Steve Moster, Viad’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We delivered very strong second quarter results that exceeded our expectations. Both Pursuit and GES have seen significant demand for our extraordinary experiences and achieved remarkable results. Pursuit's 14% revenue growth during the quarter was largely driven by strong performance from our attractions, with a 15% increase in visitors at higher effective ticket prices. GES continues to deliver solid profitable growth primarily from stronger high-margin corporate client spending and disciplined cost management.”

Financial Highlights

In addition to the commentary below, further information regarding our financial results, trends, and outlook are available in a supplemental earnings presentation, which can be accessed on the “Investors” section of our website, and in the financial tables accompanying this press release.

Second Quarter Results

• Revenue of $378.5 million increased $58.2 million (18.2%) from the 2023 second quarter.
  • Pursuit revenue of $101.2 million increased $12.7 million (14.4%) year-over-year due to growth across our collections of properties, with particularly strong demand for our attractions and contribution from Flyover Chicago (opened March 2024).
  • GES revenue of $277.3 million increased $45.5 million (19.6%) year-over-year primarily due to new client wins and continued underlying growth.
• Net income attributable to Viad of $29.3 million increased $18.4 million and adjusted net income* of $29.2 million improved $17.4 million from the 2023 second quarter primarily due to stronger business performance from both GES and Pursuit, partially offset by higher depreciation expense.
• Consolidated adjusted EBITDA* of $64.3 million increased $21.5 million from the 2023 second quarter.
  • Pursuit adjusted EBITDA* of $23.7 million increased $4.2 million year-over-year primarily due to stronger revenue and improved margin.
  • GES adjusted EBITDA of $44.4 million increased $17.6 million year-over-year primarily driven by higher revenue and significant margin expansion.

Cash Flow and Balance Sheet Highlights

• Our cash flow from operations was an inflow of about $20 million for the second quarter.
• Our capital expenditures for the second quarter totaled approximately $17 million, comprising $14.4 million for Pursuit (inclusive of about $6 million for growth projects) and $2.7 million for GES.
• Our debt proceeds (net) totaled $2.5 million for the second quarter.
• Our total liquidity was $128.4 million at June 30, 2024, comprising cash and cash equivalents of $49.0 million and $79.4 million of capacity available on our revolving credit facility.
• Our debt was $490.9 million, and our net leverage ratio was 2.4 at the end of the second quarter.

Jasper Wildfire Update

As we previously reported by 8-K, Jasper National Park was closed and evacuated on July 22, 2024, and a wildfire entered the Jasper townsite on July 24, 2024. The Municipality of Jasper reported that about 70% of the town, including homes, businesses and hotels were thankfully untouched by fire and are intact. All critical municipal infrastructure was successfully protected, and power is being restored as authorities work to safely re-open the town.

All Pursuit hotels and experiences in the Jasper townsite, as well as our Pyramid Lake Lodge, Miette Mountain Cabins, and Maligne Lake Boat Cruise were not reached by the fire and remain intact. Our known property losses have been limited to the Maligne Canyon Wilderness Kitchen, a restaurant and retail operation about 3 miles outside the town of Jasper.

The majority of the park, including the town of Jasper, remains closed as authorities continue work to control the fire and restore critical services to the Jasper townsite. Parks Canada communicated that if current conditions continue, visitor services in the park are expected to resume September 3, 2024.

We are working with our insurance carriers to determine the extent of potential recoveries from our policies, which will be highly fact determinative based on what we learn when we and our insurance adjusters are able to access our properties.

2024 Outlook

Steve Moster, Viad’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Given our stronger than expected performance during the first half of 2024 and the favorable underlying demand trends we are seeing, we were prepared to raise our full year guidance. However, following the Jasper wildfire activity, which resulted in the temporary closure of our properties in the area, we are providing revised guidance for Pursuit that estimates the potential impact. For GES, we are raising our full year Adjusted EBITDA guidance range by $5 million.”

Our guidance for Viad consolidated, Pursuit, and GES is below. Pursuit's guidance range assumes Jasper National Park re-opens on September 3 and is subject to change due to the evolving wildfire situation. We will update as appropriate during the third quarter.

Conference Call Details

Management will host a conference call to review second quarter 2024 results on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, at 5 p.m. (Eastern Time).

The conference call can be accessed with operator assistance by calling (404) 975-4839 or (833) 470-1428 and entering the access code 153001.

To avoid wait time and bypass speaking with an operator to join the call, participants can pre-register using the following registration link: https://www.netroadshow.com/events/login?show=e6b43f98&confId=68140. After registering, a calendar invitation will be sent that includes dial-in information as well as unique codes for entry into the live call. We recommend that you register in advance to ensure access for the full call.

A live audio webcast of the call will also be available in listen-only mode through the “Investors” section of our website. A replay of the webcast will be available on our website shortly after the call and, for a limited time, by calling (929) 458-6194 or (866) 813-9403 and entering the access code 573476.

Additionally, we posted a supplemental earnings presentation, containing our financial results, trends and outlook, on the “Investors” section of our website prior to the conference call. We will refer to this presentation during the call.

About Viad

Viad (NYSE: VVI) is a leading global provider of extraordinary experiences, including attractions, hospitality, exhibition services, and experiential marketing through two businesses: Pursuit and GES. Our business strategy focuses on delivering extraordinary experiences for our teams, clients and guests, and significant and sustainable growth and above-market returns for our shareholders. Viad is an S&P SmallCap 600 company.

Pursuit is a global attractions and hospitality company that owns and operates a collection of inspiring and unforgettable experiences in iconic destinations. Pursuit’s elevated hospitality experiences enable visitors to discover and connect with world-class attractions, distinctive lodges, and engaging tours in stunning national parks and renowned global travel locations, in addition to experiencing our collection of Flyover Attractions in the vibrant cities of Vancouver, Reykjavik, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

GES is a global exhibition services and experiential marketing company offering a comprehensive range of services to the world’s leading event organizers and brands through two reportable segments, GES Exhibitions and Spiro. GES Exhibitions is a global exhibition and trade show management business that partners with leading exhibition and conference organizers as a full-service provider of strategic and logistics solutions to manage the complexity of their shows with teams throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle East. Spiro is a global experiential marketing agency that partners with leading brands around the world to manage and elevate their experiential marketing activities, bonding brand and customer.

For more information, visit www.viad.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains a number of forward-looking statements. Words, and variations of words, such as “will,” “may,” “expect,” “would,” “could,” “might,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “anticipate,” “deliver,” “seek,” “aim,” “potential,” “target,” “outlook,” and similar expressions are intended to identify our forward-looking statements. Similarly, statements that describe our business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions, or goals also are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts and are subject to a host of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following:

• general economic uncertainty in key global markets and a worsening of global economic conditions;
• travel industry disruptions;
• the impact of our overall level of indebtedness, as well as our financial covenants, on our operational and financial flexibility;
• seasonality of our businesses;
• unanticipated delays and cost overruns of our capital projects, and our ability to achieve established financial and strategic goals for such projects;
• the importance of key members of our account teams to our business relationships;
• our ability to manage our business and continue our growth if we lose any of our key personnel;
• the competitive nature of the industries in which we operate;
• our dependence on large exhibition event clients;
• adverse effects of show rotation on our periodic results and operating margins;
• transportation disruptions and increases in transportation costs;
• natural disasters, weather conditions, accidents, and other catastrophic events;
• our exposure to labor cost increases and work stoppages related to unionized employees;
• our multi-employer pension plan funding obligations;
• our ability to successfully integrate and achieve established financial and strategic goals from acquisitions;
• our exposure to cybersecurity attacks and threats;
• our exposure to currency exchange rate fluctuations;
• liabilities relating to prior and discontinued operations;
• sufficiency and cost of insurance coverage; and
• compliance with laws governing the storage, collection, handling, and transfer of personal data and our exposure to legal claims and fines for data breaches or improper handling of such data.

For a more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties that may affect our business or financial results, please see Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” of our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. We disclaim and do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement in this press release except as required by applicable law or regulation.

Forward-Looking Non-GAAP Measures

The company has not quantitatively reconciled its guidance for adjusted EBITDA to its respective most comparable GAAP financial measure because certain reconciling items that impact this metric, including provision for income taxes, interest expense, restructuring or impairment charges, transaction-related costs, and attraction start-up costs have not occurred, are out of the company’s control, or cannot be reasonably predicted. Accordingly, reconciliations to the nearest GAAP financial measure are not available without unreasonable effort. Please note that the unavailable reconciling items could significantly impact the company’s results as reported under GAAP.