Q3 2022 Viad Corp Earnings Call
Spyros and $23 million for Ges exhibition.
The remaining revenue growth at Spiro and exhibitions was primarily driven by strong recovery of the industry.
As compared to Q3 2021, Ges's consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $10 $7 million improved $14 9 million on a revenue increase of $102 9 million.
This flow through of approximately 14% is below our annual target of 20% plus as we have made intentional adjustments to our staffing levels to support the increased business activity we are experiencing.
We remain on track to achieve full year flow through of about 20% on a year over year revenue growth.
And as Steve mentioned in his opening remarks.
Ges drove a significant increase in profitability versus the 2019 third quarter. When we had negative adjusted EBITDA of $2 8 million on a similar level of revenue.
This is a clear indication that our improved cost structure is driving value.
Next I'll quickly cover some balance sheet and cash flow items before turning the call back to Steve.
We ended the third quarter with total liquidity of approximately $166 million.
Uprising $79 million in cash and $87 million of capacity available on our revolving credit facility.
Our cash flow from operations during the quarter with an inflow of approximately $61 million or capital.
Expenditures totaled about $23 million for the quarter and were mainly at pursuit, including growth Capex for the Forest Park Hotel the mountain coaster at Goldman Scatter bridge and fly over Chicago.
At September 30, our debt totaled approximately $479 million, including $397 million on our term loan b finding.
Financing obligations of approximately $60 million.
A $10 million construction loan to help fund the development of the Forest Park Hotel.
And other debt of approximately $12 million.
Additional details can be found in the appendix of our earnings presentation.
And now I will turn the call back to Steve to provide some business highlights for pursuit and Ges.
Thanks, Alan I'll start with pursuit, where our 3800 seasonal and year round team members delivered record quarterly revenue and strong quarterly EBITDA, along with healthy improvements in our attraction visitation in lodging performance metrics page 10 of our earnings presentation helps to illustrate how our ongoing.
Two our refresh build buy strategy is driving pursuits strong revenue growth.
From 2019 through today, we have opened or acquired 11, new experiences that pursuit, but collectively delivered $38 $5 million in revenue during the 2022 third quarter.
Are these new experiences are still early in their growth journey and we expect they will continue to drive meaningful revenue growth with improved margin in the future.
Additionally, we have been successful driving revenue growth from existing experiences that were part of pursuit. Prior to 2019, even in the face of continued pandemic headwinds as global leisure travel continues its multiyear recovery.
In 2021, we saw essentially a full recovery of our U S based experiences on strong domestic leisure travel.
And with reduced restrictions affecting travel to Canada. In 2022, we are capitalizing on our strong but not yet full recovery across our Canadian experiences this year.
On a same store basis pursuit grew third quarter revenue by 3% versus 2019 through a relentless focus on elevating the guest experience and maximize the revenue wherever possible.
As I'll expand upon shortly our overall same store attraction ticket revenue continues to lag in the recovery as some attractions have traditionally see high volumes from long haul international visitors.
Through a persistent focus on growth the team at pursuit has grown same store revenue through other categories like lodging room revenue retail and food and beverage. These categories offer good margins, but not as strong as the very high margins that incremental same store attraction ticket revenue would bring.
On page 11, you will see highlights from our attractions performance during the quarter.
Third quarter ticket revenue grew by approximately 54% as compared to 2021 and by 25% compared to 2019.
We welcomed about $1 5 million third quarter attraction visitors as compared to about 936000 in 2021 and about $1 3 million in 2019.
On a same store basis, excluding those attractions that we opened or acquired in 2019 or later.
Traction visitors increased nearly 50% year over year, but remain 15% below our 2019 levels.
Certain attractions were near or above 2019, including our late cruises in Banff, and Jasper, which saw strong consumer direct bookings and an increased level of travel partner itinerary inclusions and our Banff gondola, which remains the number one rated attraction in Banff.
We're also very pleased to report that our two attractions at the Columbia ice field, which had been some of the most impacted by disruption to long haul international travel trade visitation. So all visitors more than double from the prior year, we expect to see continued recovery here in 2023.
The six new attractions that we've opened or acquired from 2019 forward welcomed approximately 367000 visitors during the third quarter. These new attractions continued to gain momentum and received very strong guest reviews.
We continue to make solid gains building awareness for our flyover Las Vegas attraction and securing important partnerships with marketing channels and distribution networks and I am pleased to report that following the second quarter visitation increase of 13% over the first quarter third quarter visitation at flyover Las Vegas grew another 17.
Percent from the second quarter.
Our two attractions in Iceland, the Sky lagoon in flyover, Iceland, both posted very strong sequential quarter and year over year growth in guest visitation.
By the end of the summer overall visitation into the country had reached 2019 levels that combined with our solid capture rate of international guests bodes well for continued strong performance from Sky lagoon in flyover Iceland.
The Golden Skybridge delivered solid results in its second year of operation with third quarter revenue, increasing 25% year over year.
As Alan mentioned, we've been working on an addition of a mountain coaster to drive further growth from this amazing attraction.
With construction now complete we look forward to having that online when the Golden Skybridge reopens for the 2023 season.
The Glacier rafting company, which we acquired earlier this year delivered meaningful third quarter revenue and EBITDA in its first summer as part of pursuit.
And finally, our new open top touring attraction in Banff continued to delight guests with stronger year over year visitors.
We're encouraged by the momentum, we're seeing and proud of the experiences we've added our work isn't done and our plans for the fourth quarter and for 2023 remain focused on strategies for realizing the full visitation potential at our world class attractions.
Now, let's discuss the results of our lodging properties, which we reference on page 12 of our earnings presentation.
Third quarter room revenue grew by 20% as compared to 2021 and 11% compared to 2019.
Year over year growth was largely due to stronger occupancy, particularly at our Canadian properties and the growth from 2019 was due largely to higher average daily rates as we remain very focused on elevating the guest experience at each property.
In Montana, our hospitality teams again delivered record room revenue with strong occupancy and increased ADR at our Glacier Park properties.
Rooms revenue from our Alaska Hotel was also higher than 2019, which is especially impressive given that land access to our Denali back country Lodge was cut off due to the closure of the Denali Park Road for road repairs.
Our team rose to the challenge and pivoted to launch a one of a kind remote back country stay experience complete with a 35 minute scenic helicopter transfer into the heart of the Denali Wilderness and.
In Jasper, we couldnt be prouder of how our teams on the ground responded to the challenges created by the chat them on wildfire, which damage critical power infrastructure disrupted operations over a two week period and prompted Jasper National Park officials to recommend that guests traveling to the Jasper area.
And make other plans.
The team worked hard to rebook guest redirect them to our bank based properties and manage arrangements with key travel partners thankfully the situation recovered quickly and although occupancy was lower our Jasper properties, we're still able to realize an 11% increase in third quarter rooms revenue as.
Compared to 2019.
With our seasonal operations in Montana, and Alaska now closed for 2022, we're poised for a strong finish in our year round operations.
Fourth quarter lodging pacing for our hotel properties in Banff and Jasper remained very strong.
Our year round attractions also have positive momentum heading into the fourth quarter.
For the full year, we continue to expect 2022 attraction visitors to nearly double the $1 5 million visitors we hosted during 2021.
This will put our total attraction visitors above 2019, but it still does not reflect the full potential of these economic engines that offer very strong margins on incremental visitors.
We continue to see upside in 2023 and beyond as international long haul visitation returns to its pre pandemic level.
International travel recovery combined with the continued acceleration of our recent investments in our never ending focus on revenue maximization at existing assets and experiences paints an exciting picture of growth into the future.
I am very proud of pursuits performance during the 2022 peak season, and I am grateful for our teams and leaders who bring their best every day to connect to guests and staff to iconic places through unforgettable and inspiring experiences.
Now, let me switch gears and discuss Ges's third quarter performance.
As shown on page 14, both Ges exhibitions, and Spyros performed very well during the quarter with revenue significantly up year over year and in line with the 2019 third quarter.
In addition to delivering strong topline results GFS also drove a substantial increase in profitability with an adjusted EBITDA improvement of $13 $5 million compared to 2019 on similar revenue I'm very proud of the entire ges team for delivering such strong results.
First I'd like to discuss our GFS exhibition business, which provides tradeshow services to leading organizers in North America, Europe , and the United Arab Emirates.
Like last quarter trade shows continue to recover to their 2019 revenue level and the lower cost structure that was put in place during the pandemic drove increased profitability.
On a same show basis revenue from our U S exhibitions was 91% of its 2019 level for the third quarter as shown on page 15 up slightly from 87% in the second quarter of 2022 and in line with our expectations.
We continue to see significant variability in the speed of recovery across the individual trade shows, but the overall recovery trend is clear.
This quarter marks the fifth consecutive quarter of increasing same show growth in the U S. Since the recovery started over one year ago.
Ges exhibitions third quarter results of $147 $9 million in revenue and $6 million in EBITDA illustrates the improved profitability of the Ges exhibition business compared to prior years.
The third quarter EBITDA of $6 million is significantly higher compared to the loss of $5 5 million in EBITDA in the third quarter of 2019 on similar revenue.
2022, the team has managed to improve overall EBITDA margins relative to 19, despite lower revenue.
Through the third quarter Ges exhibitions, EBITDA margin was six 6% versus five 9% in 2019 with about $150 million less in revenue.
Additionally, as shown on page 16, the year to date flow through to EBITDA on incremental exhibition revenue over 2021 continues to be strong at 21%.
Over the past two quarters Ges exhibitions has focused on selectively recruiting and hiring talented individuals to rebuild our business and service our clients trade shows in the quarter and beyond at the end of the third quarter. The business was close to our targeted run rate head count, which remained significantly below our 2019.
The annualized third quarter level of exhibition SG&A is about 25% below our 2019 SG&A level.
Despite the lower SG&A level. The <unk> exhibition business continues to face headwinds of increased direct cost and limited availability of specialized equipment in 2022.
During the third quarter, we saw elevated costs for direct labor and specialized equipment of approximately 5% to 7% compared to 2019.
Increased costs were partially offset by increased pricing to our clients and improved efficiency.
Now I'd like to turn our attention to Spyros, our experiential marketing agency, which serves as the agency of record for Fortune 1000, corporate clients Spyros specializes in results based experiences, we activate grow and evolve brands.
Last quarter I described how our relationship with J P. Morgan has evolved with spire is new capabilities and our delivery of their new experience called the connected car experience across the U S and Europe .
Today I want to share another great example of our spire routine.
During the third quarter spiral worked with our client advisory circle to create what's been dubbed the world's first wealth festival future proof.
This event, which took place on the standard in Huntington Beach set out to redefine the traditional finance conference spaces that were used for speaker sessions. During the day, we are transformed into stages for musical acts at night to offer a compelling combination of education networking and entertainment.
<unk> generated a lot of interest with over 2000 financial advisors investors and Fintech professionals in attendance and great news coverage by the Los Angeles times during the third quarter spiral delivered results of $73 $3 million in revenue and $4 $7 million and EBITDA is.
Client spending relative to 2019 remains strong.
On a same client basis revenue in the quarter from Spyros clients was approximately 90% of their 2019 third quarter spend this is similar to the client spending level in the second quarter and in line with our expectations.
Spyros continues to benefit from a favorable client mix, primarily focused in pharmaceutical industrial and defense industries.
I want to thank both the Ges exhibition inspire our teams for their efforts in delivering another solid quarter as we move into the fourth quarter, we expect to see solid demand at Ges exhibitions inspire ROE as the recovery trends continue.
Same show growth and client spending should be similar to the 2022 third quarter level, despite economic headwinds of rising inflation and slowing GDP, we have not seen any impact on trade show participation or corporate client spending our budgets are.
Our new cost structure will allow us to react quickly if we see signs of a broader economic slowdown.
And with that I'll turn the call over to Ellen to provide some more detail on our financials Ellen.
Thanks, Steve.
With much of the year successfully behind US we have tightened our full year adjusted EBITDA ranges for pursuit and Ges.
As shown on page 18, we expect perceived adjusted EBITDA for the 2022 full year to be in the range of 70% to 74 million.
As compared to our prior guidance range of 70 to 89.
The reduction in the top end of the range, primarily reflects pristine third quarter performance.
For the seasonally slow fourth quarter, we expect proceeds adjusted EBITDA loss to be in the range of $9 million to $5 million.
The expected improvement relative to the 2021 fourth quarter, primarily reflects our expectation for higher same store revenue in Canada and year over year growth from our new year round experience.
Now turning to Ges on page 19.
We expect Ges's adjusted EBITDA for the 2022 full year to be in the range of $54 million to $60 million as compared to our prior guidance of 50 to 60 million.
The improvement in the bottom end of the range, primarily reflects ges third quarter performance.
For the fourth quarter, we expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $611 million as compared to $9 6 million in 2021 quarter.
We expect to deliver higher year over year revenue with continued strength in same show revenue and spending by major spiral clients.
We expect the benefit of higher revenue will be partially offset by higher performance based incentives and some nonrecurring benefits that we realized in the prior year.
I'd also like to quickly touch on some changes to the ges business, they're affecting comparisons to the fourth quarter of 2019.
While we expect exhibition same show revenues inspire our client spending at about 90% of pre pandemic levels. We anticipate ges's overall fourth quarter revenue will be about 30% lower than the 279 million delivered in the 2019 quarter.
This reflects a reduction in revenue from lower margin business that we exited over the past few years in connection with our efforts to improve key assets overall margin profile on a full year basis, partially offset by new client wins by rail.
Now onto cash flow outlook for the full year. We currently expect an operating cash inflow of $85 million to $90 million with a fourth quarter outflow in a range of $20 million.
We expect full year capital expenditures of approximately $80 million, including about $25 million in the fourth quarter.
This level of Capex reflects our commitment to percent refresh build buy growth strategy with growth Capex for key projects, including flyover Chicago pneumatic tester at the Goldman Sky Ranch and completion of the New Forest Park Hotel.
And now I will turn the call back over to Steve for some concluding remarks.
Thanks, Alan I'm very proud of what we've accomplished in a very dynamic operating environment. Our teams have done an excellent job responding to the rapid acceleration of business activity. This year to deliver great service and strong improvement in profitability.
We are well positioned for continued growth on both sides of the business New world class experiences at pursuit and a stronger more profitable ges.
We remain committed to our strategy to create extraordinary experiences and strong returns for our shareholders for pursuit. We continue to selectively invest in high return growth opportunities to advance our proven refresh build buy strategy for Ges, we will build on the progress we've made to date to improve the margin profile.
File and resumed generating strong cash flow through our more flexible cost structure and focused on higher margin clients and services.
I want to thank our hard working dedicated employees and our shareholders for your continued support and beyond and with that I'd like to open up the call for questions.
At this time I would like to remind everyone that in order to ask a question.
Star then the number one on your telephone keypad.
We will pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster.
Our first question is with Tyler Batori from Oppenheimer.
Tyler Your line is open.
Thomas Your line is now open you May proceed.
Yeah.
Hi.
Alright.
Okay.
Tyler you May proceed.
Okay.
Yeah.
Our next question will be from Bryan Maher from B Riley.
Brian Your line is open.
Thank you and good evening.
Maybe I'll get them on the question of the Tyler was going to ask.
Thank you for all those comments really appreciate the Powerpoint deck that goes with your earnings.
That's very helpful.
A question on margins.
Are you anticipating any changes relative to your thoughts just a quarter or two ago. When it comes to ges margins and pursue relative to what we're seeing with inflationary pressures.
And ongoing pressure from wages and labor that we're hearing from most of our covered companies.
And higher labor costs it comes across in some of the raw materials for our products and services.
I think so.
Teams have both done both at pursuit and Ges have done a good job of offsetting that either completely or mostly offsetting that.
Through pricing and through efficiency more on the GTS side and so.
As we look forward. These are clearly headwinds, but we are confident in our ability to continue doing what we've done this year, so far against the same type of headwinds and we.
We still believe those targets that we've set out are achievable.
Okay, and then as it relates to the long haul international travel coming back in 2023, do you expect that to come back at a pretty robust pace matching pre pandemic levels or are you expecting that to kind of layer on and ramp over the course of a year or two.
Two or three.
Yes.
It's clearly.
Part of our attention and our focus is trying to understand how quickly that will recover we do think there'll be some recovery in 2023, but there are still certain countries that are have COVID-19 restrictions on them for travel so.
We think it is a multi year.
Return to the same levels that we had pre pandemic, but we do see improvement in 2023 and beyond.
Okay, and then just two more for me.
On the exist exhibitions fried GE are.
Are you seeing any change in the mix or.
Exhibitors or industries that are coming back strongly versus pre pandemic.
Kind of a change in who you're dealing with or is it mostly the same type of customers you dealt with before.
First off if we just think about the quarter. We were the annual events were roughly 91% of what they were in 2019. So it's had a pretty strong recovery, although theres a tremendous amount of variability and how quickly some of the events come back.
Meaning some of the events in the third quarter were well above their 2019 levels and others were significantly below so we're still seeing a fair amount of variability.
In terms of the exhibitors and attendees. They look very similar to the ones that we had pre pandemic.
These are large corporations.
<unk>.
That rely on this face to face marketing channel in order to reach their customer I would say the one change we've seen.
This year versus say 2019 is obviously the level of international exhibitors and international attendees has come down versus 2019 levels and we expect.
Has.
That as we roll into 2023 that we will see some of those international.
Exhibitors and attendees start showing up on some of the events.
Okay and then just last for me what is the timeline on flyover Chicago.
And is there any update on Toronto, I believe youre going to have a flyover in Toronto and has your experience in Las Vegas ramping that property kind of changed your appetite for more or less fly overs and the timing to develop this and thats all for me.
Sure Brian I'll talk about the timing first and then we'll talk a little bit about.
Our interest in flavors, So first off Chicago will open in early 2024.
Flyover Toronto is also in 2024.
The pandemic.
Impacting that has had an impact on that.
The speed of permitting and we're working with Canada lands and the city to get a flavor.
Flyover Toronto approved so that we can start construction.
It's been delayed because of the pandemic, but.
We feel that we are making progress.
In 2024 is still our target.
Our target opening.
Flyover Chicago, we're moving along quite well we are already starting into construction.
And we're well on our way and can see a finish line.
That one in early 2024.
To your point about flyover Las Vegas, we remain committed to the concept.
Buying theaters very high.
Margin experiences obviously requires volume.
Two to create those that high margin environment, but these are unique assets that create unforgettable.
<unk> experience and they get very strong reviews from the.
The visitors that have been on fly overs. So we remain committed to it and that's kind of the rough timeline that we have for Chicago and Toronto.
Great. Thanks, that's all for me and hopefully Tyler can reconnect.
Alright, Thanks, Brian .
Okay.
Our next question is with Tyler Batori from Oppenheimer.
Tyler Your line is open.
Great. Thank you and good afternoon apologies for the technical difficulties earlier, hopefully Brian take all the questions I was going to ask the first one for me just in terms of the spiral side of things.
You talked about 80% compared with pre pandemic levels I'm kind of interested the delta there the 80% versus hopefully getting tier two 100% I mean is that.
Maybe just a little conservatism on your part.
Corporate clients, a little bit hesitant to spend.
Given the macro backdrop I'm, just trying to get a sense of how you can close the gap and hopefully get above.
Where you were pre pandemic on that business.
Yes, Tyler I feel pretty strong about corporate client spending going into the fourth quarter and into 2023.
Spend in the quarter was roughly 90% of what they have spent in 2019.
We continue to see strength very similar to the exhibition side Theres variability some clients were above their 2019 levels other ones were below.
So.
Think that.
Having the market's open the borders open and more travel, which we've seen come back over the course of 2022, I think bodes well as we get to 'twenty three to two.
Continue to improve that client spend.
<unk> 2019.
Okay, and then in terms of the margin performance.
Yes.
<unk> been quite strong nice to see the progress there I mean, you called out.
I think some items that were a drag on on margin, we're just trying to offset those with pricing and efficiencies.
Those two.
Categories evenly balanced themselves out in the quarter and was there a little bit of extra drag on margin from you called up the equipment and then some incremental direct costs as well.
Yeah for the quarter, specifically there is.
Some of the events that we did in the third quarter required more unique equipment than the traditional tradeshow wood and so those increased costs.
Did create a little bit of a drag on a couple of events, but.
I feel like we've really made significant headway in terms of our overall cost structure and we continue to find ways to offset.
Cost increase.
Either through pricing or is efficiency as you had mentioned.
Okay, Great and then just.
Last question on the Ges.
<unk>.
I'm trying to remember I think we had talked about this in the past, but just remind us.
How that business performed.
The last time, we had a recession.
Eight of nine timeframe and then perhaps help us think about.
How much better positions you would be this time around the economic environment were to deteriorate significantly from where it is right now.
So as a reminder, Tyler from 2008 to 2009.
Due to the economic environment, we saw a reduction of revenue of about 20% if.
If I remember correctly, you know nine we did finish the year.
Positive EBITDA for the year.
But think about where we are now versus where we were back at that timeframe. Our cost structure is significantly lower than what it was in that <unk> time frame.
If you think about just our.
Really our revenue versus that period of time were substantially down versus that period of time, but yet our margins are recovering.
Recovery healthy and.
There's there's upside so.
I look at it this way there's the were still not back to 2019 levels. There is still a recovery taking place there is strong demand as we've shown over the last couple of quarters as that same show growth metric has continued decline.
I think there's pent up demand and.
We continue to execute more lean initiatives across the organization that will help us in the event that there is some level of downturn and I would also say that 2008 2009 downturn was pretty historic.
I don't see people anticipating that level of decline.
Going forward.
So I think we will weather it well based on the actions that we took over the last two and a half years.
Okay, great very helpful switching gears to the pursuit side.
Sure thing.
Some encouraging numbers you provided in terms of the progression.
Progression sequentially, but visitation at flyover Las Vegas.
Are you getting pretty close to where you would like to be.
In terms of visitation and also profitability.
At that property or maybe still there's still it's still early innings in terms of ramping that up.
I would say, it's still early innings I mean, what I would say is that we have seen.
Growth in terms of the visitation to flyover Las Vegas sequentially over the last couple of quarters, we're happy to see that a lot of the.
This is an effort that we've put into place are really starting to take hold and we anticipate that continuing as we go into 2023, So I wouldn't I would classify it as early innings.
But our strong asset with good reviews, and I think we have our our finger on the right initiatives to move the needle going into 'twenty three.
Okay.
The last question for me with respect to pursue tier long haul group visitation, you'll have tougher conversation you talked about that.
I mean, I know a chunk of that is related to Asia. A good chunk of that is we're able to turn on in China.
Who knows if those guys are going to be able to travel next year not <unk>.
In a scenario where.
They are not coming next year, just help us think maybe at a high level, perhaps what pursue might look like next year.
Some additional levers that you can pull to maybe help you offset some.
Some of the potential missing visitation there.
Yes.
You hit on the right point I mean is that Asia Pacific is where a portion of our long haul visitors come from that is unclear.
All of those countries will be opened up for travel in 'twenty three or not.
But you see a tremendous amount of strength.
And we anticipate seeing strength in the U S visitation to Canada based on FX. If you look back historically as FX has.
Favor the U S dollar visitation to our Canadian properties has always been strong.
We also super proud about the 11, new experiences that we've launched since 2019. They are in their early journey or early ramp and we continue to see or believe that there's strength in those new experiences as we go into 2023 and beyond.
And I got to hand, it to our Rev. Max team.
They not only within the quarter, but just over the last couple of years have done a phenomenal job of <unk>.
Pricing our experiences approach greatly as we continue to elevate those experiences and so that's why when you look at our results for the quarter strong.
Revpar numbers relative to last year and 19 same on the attraction side. So.
I think there's I guess, one last headwind I would also mentioned that.
Sometimes gets overlooked the Canadian government.
Just eliminated there are random COVID-19 testing to answer the country on October 1st I believe it was.
So there was some level of headwind within the quarter based on that is still being in place.
With that eliminated now we believe that's also a tailwind that will help us as we go into 'twenty three if that long haul.
Visitor is unable to come to our properties.
Okay great.
All for me Thank you for the detail.
Yeah. Thanks, Tom.
Our next question is with Kartik Mehta from Northcoast.
Your line is open.
Thank you.
I wanted to ask a little about Ges.
S business.
And just thoughts on as you talk to your clients what they are thinking about 2023, if there's been any caution in the outlook or you anticipate any I know it's early but.
From a budget standpoint.
What the early indications are.
Karthik.
I haven't seen any indication of a slowdown.
I'll talk a little bit about the Tradeshow side, and then the corporate client side. So on the exhibition side.
A lot of the.
A lot of the exhibitors will sign up for space, a full year in advance of the event.
And.
We haven't seen any hesitation or reduction in terms of participation at these trade shows.
Going into 2023 so.
At the moment I don't see anything in them with conversations with our corporate clients that are doing not only.
Marketing experiences at trade shows, but also other kind of face to face experiential marketing.
We are seeing strong budgets are our strength with inspire our clients is really around pharmaceutical.
Defense and industrial companies, which I think has really helped during this period and I think will help also as we go forward into 2023 so.
Not to say that this business is immune from recession, but right now we're not seeing any signs of a slow.
Slowdown there is still a recovery taking place and you see that as our same show growth number continues decline from quarter to quarter.
And just on the pursuit side.
This year, what would you say your capacity was at your hotels and attraction.
Going to figure out if because of the labor issues. If you were constrained at all from.
Utilization and if that changes in 2023, maybe that provides.
Another opportunity or a tailwind for the business next year.
Yes, if you look if you look at.
The Q3 data that was in the presentation.
You'll see that from a lodging perspective, we were at 85% occupancy.
10.
10 points higher than 2021, a little bit down from our 2019. There is no doubt that there were labor challenges in every industry, we are not immune to that but the team really found a way to overcome those labor challenges.
<unk> post very strong numbers and Oxford occupancy is still very high I'll I'll also add in with that 85% occupancy that also includes the two weeks.
The.
Chairman fire, which really.
Cut down the town of Jasper for about two weeks so.
That had a material impact on overall occupancy.
So at this point.
The labor impact there is certainly a labor challenge, but I don't see it having an impact on our rooms available or the occupancy.
We switch gears and talk about attractions, obviously, the attractions are a little bit less labor intensive.
But.
Again, we were able to.
In total see more passengers versus 2019 same period.
Even despite some of the.
The labor challenges that are out in the market, we really we view ourselves as an employer of choice in the markets that we're in.
A lot of repeat seasonal.
Workers coming back each year, and we think that will continue and give us a strength as we go into 'twenty three.
Perfect. Thank you very much appreciate it.
Yes, Thanks, Craig.
At this time there are no further questions.
You'd like to ask a question press Star and then the number one on your telephone keypad.
There are no further questions at this time, Steve Master I turn the call back over to you.
Thanks, Austin and thanks to everybody that joined US today look forward to updating you at the end of our fourth quarter and take.
Take care.
This concludes today's conference call you may now disconnect.