Vail Resorts - Q3 2023
June 8, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Good day, everyone. Good afternoon, welcome to the Vail Resorts Fiscal 2023 third Quarter Earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. Currently, all callers have been placed in a listen-only mode, following management's prepared remarks, the call will be opened up for your questions. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you need to remove yourself from the queue, press star two. To get to as many questions as time permits, we ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. At any time, if you should need operator assistance, press star zero. I will now turn the call over to Kirsten Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of Vail Resorts. You may begin.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to our fiscal 2023 3rd quarter earnings conference call. Joining me on the call this afternoon is Angela Korch, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind you that some information provided during this call may include forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties as described in our SEC filings. Actual future results may vary materially. Forward-looking statements in our press release included this afternoon, along with our remarks on this call, are made as of today, June 8th, 2023. We undertake no duty to update them as actual events unfold. Today's remarks also include certain non-GAAP financial measures.
Reconciliations of these measures are provided in the tables included with our press release, along with our quarterly report on Form 10-Q, were filed this afternoon with the SEC and are also available on the investor relations section of our website at www.vailresorts.com. Let's turn to our fiscal 2023 third quarter results. We are pleased with our overall results for the quarter and for the 2022, 2023 North American ski season, with strong growth in visitation and spending versus the prior year. After the challenges experienced in the 2nd quarter of fiscal 2023, driven by weather disruptions in Tahoe and across our Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast resorts, collectively referred to as our Eastern U.S. resorts, the results in March and April improved as expected, with strong demand from local and destination guests, driving visitation and resort net revenue above prior year record levels.
Favorable conditions enabled an extended season at resorts across Utah, Tahoe, and the Northeastern U.S., while some resorts in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions closed earlier than originally intended due to the unseasonably warm weather and lack of terrain. Our results throughout the 2022, 2023 North American ski season highlight both the stability that comes from the advanced commitment of our season pass products and our strong operational execution through the season. The winter season included significant weather-related challenges from the travel disruptions over the peak holiday period, abnormal weather variability across our Eastern U.S. resorts, and significant storm-related disruptions at our Tahoe resorts during multiple peak periods throughout the season.
Despite these weather events, the company grew visitation, resort net revenue, and Resort Reported EBITDA to record levels, supported by the stability created from our advanced commitment strategy and a strong finish to the season, with good spring conditions at our resorts in Colorado, Utah, Tahoe, and the Northeastern U.S. Our ancillary businesses, including ski school, dining, and retail rental, experienced strong growth compared to the prior year period, when those businesses were impacted by capacity constraints driven by staffing and, in the case of dining, by operational restrictions associated with COVID-19. Staffing levels enabled our mountain resorts to deliver a strong guest experience, resulting in a significant improvement in guest satisfaction scores, which exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels at our destination resorts. I would like to turn the call over to Angela to further discuss our financial results and fiscal 2023 outlook.
Angela Korch (CFO)
Thank you. As Kirsten mentioned, we are pleased with our overall results for the quarter, as expected, we saw improved results in March and April. Net income attributable to Vail Resorts was $325 million, or $8.18 per diluted share for the 3rd quarter of fiscal 2023, compared to net income attributable to Vail Resorts of $372.6 million, or $9.16 per diluted share in the prior year. The decrease in net income attributable to Vail Resorts compared to the prior year is primarily due to an increase in expense associated with a change in the estimated fair value of the contingent consideration liability related to our Park City resort lease.
Resort Reported EBITDA was $623.3 million in the 3rd quarter of fiscal 2023, an increase of $12.8 million, or 2.1% compared to the same period in the prior year. Resort Reported EBITDA was impacted by the timing of recognition of past product revenue as a result of delayed resort openings in the prior year and early resort openings in the current 2022, 2023 North American ski season. This change in resort opening dates resulted in a past product revenue decrease of approximately $40 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2023, compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2022, and represents a timing difference that offsets with our second quarter of fiscal 2023. Now turning to our outlook for fiscal 2023.
The strong finish to the season produced Resort Reported EBITDA results that were in line with our expectations. We now expect net income attributable to Vail Resorts for fiscal 2023 to be between $251 million and $283 million, and Resort Reported EBITDA for fiscal 2023 to be between $837 million and $853 million. Our balance sheet remains strong. The business continues to generate robust cash flow. Our total cash and revolver availability as of April thirtieth, 2023, was approximately one and a half billion dollars, with $896 million of cash on hand and $628 million of combined revolver availability across our credit agreements. As of April thirtieth, 2023, our net debt was 2.3x trailing twelve months total reported EBITDA.
The company repurchased approximately 1.8 million shares at an average price of $225.01, for a total of $400 million during the quarter, representing 4.4% of the company's outstanding stock as of the beginning of the third quarter. We have approximately 1.8 million shares remaining under our authorization for share repurchases and remain focused on returning capital to shareholders, while always prioritizing the long-term value of our shares. Additionally, the company declared a quarterly cash dividend on Vail Resorts common stock of $2.06 per share. The dividend will be payable on July 12, 2023, to shareholders of record as of June 27, 2023.
We will continue to be disciplined stewards of our capital and remain committed to prioritizing investments in our guest and employee experience, high return, capacity expanding capital projects, strategic acquisition opportunities, and returning capital to our shareholders through our quarterly dividend and share repurchase program. I'll turn the call back over to Kirsten to discuss our spring pass sales.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thank you, Angela. We are pleased with the results for our season pass sales to date and with continued unit growth over the strong pass sales results the business achieved last spring. Pass product sales through May 30, 2023, for the upcoming 2023/2024 North American ski season increased approximately 6% in units and approximately 11% in sales dollars as compared to the period in the prior year through May 31, 2022. Pass product sales are adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying an exchange rate of $0.74 between the Canadian dollar and the U.S. dollar in both periods for Whistler Blackcomb pass sales. Relative to season-to-date pass product sales for the 2022/2023 season, the company achieved strong unit growth among renewing pass holders.
The company successfully grew units across destination, international, and local geographies, with the strongest unit growth in destination markets, particularly in the Northeast, and across all major pass product segments, with the strongest product growth in regional unlimited pass products and Epic Day Pass products, as lower frequency guests and local Northeast guests continue to be attracted to the strong value proposition of these products. Pass sales dollars are benefiting from the 8% price increase relative to the 2022/2023 season, partially offset by the mix impact from the growth of Epic Day Pass products. While pass results to date have been strong, we still have the majority of our pass-selling season ahead of us, and given our efforts to drive more guests to purchase passes in the spring, we expect the full year pass sales growth rate may moderate relative to our spring growth rate.
We will provide more information about our pass sales results in our September 2023 earnings release. We are pleased with the performance from ongoing sales of the Epic Australia Pass, which end on June 14th, 2023, and are up approximately 16% in units through June 1st, 2023, relative to the comparable period through June 2nd, 2022. These passes provide advanced commitment for this winter in Australia, but also provide advanced commitment from Australian guests for our North American ski resorts for the 2023/2024 winter season. Our commitment to reinvesting in our resorts and the guest experience remains one of our highest priorities. As part of this, we are pleased to be launching a new innovative business and new technology for the upcoming 2023/2024 North American ski season.
We are piloting My Epic Gear at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, and Keystone for a limited number of pass holders during the 2023/2024 North American ski season, which will introduce a new membership program that provides the best benefits of gear ownership, but with more choice, lower cost, and no hassle. My Epic Gear provides its members with the ability to choose the gear they want for the full season or for the day, from a selection of the most popular and latest ski and snowboard models, and have it delivered to them when and where they want it, guaranteed, with free slope-side pickup and drop-off every day. In addition to offering the best skis and snowboards, My Epic Gear will also offer name brand, high-quality ski and snowboard boots with customized insoles and boot fit scanning technology.
The entire My Epic Gear membership, from gear selection to boot fit, to personalized recommendations, to delivery, will be at the member's fingertips through the new My Epic app. My Epic Gear will officially launch for the 2024/2025 winter season at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Whistler Blackcomb, Park City Mountain, Crested Butte, Heavenly, Northstar, Stowe, Okemo, and Mount Snow, and further expansions are expected in future years. The company is planning to introduce new technology for the 2023/2024 ski season at its U.S. resorts that will allow guests to store their pass product or lift ticket directly on their phone and scan at lifts hands-free, eliminating the need for carrying plastic cards, visiting the ticket window, or waiting to receive a pass or lift ticket in the mail.
Once loaded onto their phones, guests can store their phone in their pocket and get scanned hands-free in the lift line using Bluetooth Low Energy technology, which is designed for low energy usage to minimize the impact on a phone's battery life. In addition to the significant enhancement of the guest experience, this technology will also ultimately reduce waste of printing plastic cards for pass products and lift tickets and RFID chips as part of the company's Commitment to Zero. For the first year of launch, to ensure a smooth transition, the company will provide plastic cards for passes and lift tickets to all guests. In future years, plastic cards will be available to any guest who cannot or do not want to use their phone to store their pass product or lift ticket.
We are also excited to announce the launch of our new My Epic app, which will include mobile pass and mobile lift ticket, interactive trail maps, real-time and predictive lift line wait time, personalized stats, My Epic Gear, and other relevant information to support the guest experience. The company is also investing in network-wide scalable technology that will enhance our analytics, e-commerce, and guest engagement tools to improve our ability to target our guest outreach, personalize messages, and improve conversion. Additionally, as previously announced, this summer and fall, we will be completing important strategic capital projects. At Keystone, we plan to complete the transformational lift-served terrain expansion project in Bergman Bowl, increasing lift-served terrain by 550 acres, with the addition of a new 6-person high-speed lift.
At Breckenridge, we plan to upgrade the Peak Eight base area to enhance the beginner and children's experience and increase uphill capacity from this popular base area. The investment plan includes a new 4-person high-speed 5 chair to replace the existing 2-person fixed grip lift, as well as significant improvements, including new teaching terrain and a transport carpet from the base to make the beginner experience more accessible. At Whistler Blackcomb, we plan to replace the 4-person high-speed Fitzsimmons lift with a new 8-person high-speed lift in calendar year 2023. At Stevens Pass, we are planning to replace the 2-person fixed grip chair lift with a new 4-person lift, which is designed to improve out-of-face capacity and guest experience.
At Attitash, we plan to replace the 3-person fixed grip summit triple lift with a new 4-person high-speed lift to increase uphill capacity and reduce guest ride time on the longest lift at the resort. These lift projects are currently planned to be completed in time for the 2023/2024 North American winter season. Additionally, the company plans to expand parking by more than 500 spaces across Heavenly, Mount Sunapee, Liberty, and Roundtop to improve the guest experience. In closing, we greatly appreciate the loyalty of our guests that visited across our entire network of mountain resorts this past season, and the continued loyalty of our pass holders that have already committed to next season.
With the North American and European ski season coming to an end, I would like to especially thank our frontline employees for their passion and tireless dedication to delivering an experience of a lifetime to our guests. Our employees are the core of Vail Resorts' mission to create an experience of a lifetime. We cannot create an experience of a lifetime for our guests without first creating an experience of a lifetime for our employees. We are all looking forward to a great winter season at our three mountain resorts in Australia. At this time, Angela and I will be happy to answer your questions. Operator, we are now ready for questions.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. At this time, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. You may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. We'll take our first question from Shaun Kelley of Bank of America.
Shaun Kelley (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. you know, Kirsten, maybe we could just start off with the pass sales.
Obviously, plenty of color and an encouraging start. You know, if we go back to last season, there was some commentary around some of the full price products? I was wondering if you could kind of update, you know, sort of where we sit with the some of the behavior you saw in the renewal period here towards full price Epic passes. Are you seeing some of that same behavior you saw last year, or has that started to normalize at all?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Hi, Shaun, thanks for the question. Overall, yes, we are very pleased with the start to the pass selling season being up 6% in units and 11% of dollars, especially on top of a strong start to spring pass sales last year. I'll give a couple of dynamics that I think are particularly encouraging and also talk about what I assume you mean our high frequency products as well. One of the dynamics that I see that I think is really encouraging is strong loyalty. Our renewals among existing pass holders are very strong and is the driver of the growth versus prior year. We're seeing growth across all geographies, destination, international, local geographies, also in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast, where there were some challenges, as you know, with conditions and terrain.
We see growth across all major pass product segments, and that includes our high frequency products, Epic and Epic Local. It also includes our regional unlimited high frequency products as well as our limited frequency products, like Epic Day Pass. We saw strong growth across the board. Epic and Epic Local as that tier or segment of products was up slightly versus prior year. The last dynamic that we saw that I think is very encouraging is strong, effective pass price, with units up 6% and 11% on sales dollars. Really pleased to see price realization on that.
Shaun Kelley (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
That's great. To change gears with my follow-up, we don't typically ask about, you know, buybacks or capital return too much, but obviously, you know, it was a very large amount in the quarter. Just kind of wanted to ask, you know, what made now the right time to lean in there? Perhaps, you know, how should investors think about that versus some of the other investment opportunities you have? I think we all know there was a lot of cash on the balance sheet, but, yeah, what made now the right time, given the size of that relative to, you know, sort of your past behaviors on the, on the buyback program?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Yeah, thanks, Shaun. You know, we are very focused on being disciplined stewards of capital allocation, prioritizing high return capital projects, investing in our people, strategic acquisitions, and returning excess capital to our shareholders. We did share in March that our board had approved an increase in authorization for share repurchase and our intention to be an aggressive in returning capital to shareholders. We really were leveraging the capital we had raised opportunistically over the past few years at extremely low cost of debt to capitalize on this opportunity to repurchase shares at an attractive valuation. We're very confident in the stability of the business, encouraged by our growth outlook.
Dividend continues to be the primary method of returning capital to shareholders, but we are pleased to have had the opportunity to repurchase the shares and have about 1.8 million shares remaining in our authorization, and intend to continue to return capital to shareholders while being very disciplined in prioritizing the long-term value of those shares.
Shaun Kelley (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)
Thank you very much.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Laurent Vasilescu of BNP Paribas.
Laurent Vasilescu (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Hey, guys, it's Laurent. Thanks for taking the question. Also wanted to echo the nice start on the pass unit sales and dollars. I was just wondering, though, you mentioned that pass sale growth could moderate versus the spring to the fall, as, you know, consumers, you're pushing them to purchase earlier.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Mm-hmm.
Laurent Vasilescu (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
I think you mentioned that last year as well. I guess, has anything changed versus last year, or are you starting to see the mix accelerate to more pre-Memorial Day, or is there anything to kind of think about there?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
I don't think there is a change in dynamic, necessarily year-over-year. I would say it's something we're always focused on. As, you know, ideally, we would like to get our guests to commit as early in the sales cycle as possible, and we're always striving for that. I'd say, given that focus and intention that we have, it has been typical for our growth rates to moderate throughout the sales cycle. We are still expecting strong sales growth on a full year, but expect that it may moderate from where it is right now because of that dynamic.
Laurent Vasilescu (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay, got it. Then maybe as a follow-up, you know, maybe you can remind us a bit about the durability of revenues in the event of a downturn? I think things like ancillary might be a little more exposed, but maybe a reminder of how they've performed in previous downturns or how you think about things like ancillary? Thanks.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
In previous downturns, we've seen strong resilience in our visitation and our lift revenue because of our strategy to get our guests to commit in advance. We have seen some impact historically in downturns on ancillary spend, but actually, the commitment in advance has given us a lot of stability through those downturns.
Laurent Vasilescu (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay, very helpful. Thanks, guys. Good luck.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thank you, Ian.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from David Katz of Jefferies. Your line is open.
David Katz (Managing Director)
Hi. Afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. I wanted to just follow on the question regarding capital returns and, you know, how you've thought about the balance between, you know, a hearty dividend and a hearty repurchase? You know, obviously, the circumstances dictate those, but I'd love just a little more color on your philosophy between the two.
Angela Korch (CFO)
Thanks, David. Yeah, you know, as Kirsten mentioned, dividend continues to be our primary method. We also increased the dividend last quarter, and that will continue to be kind of a recurring way that we return kind of excess cash to shareholders. Yeah, I think this quarter, we repurchased the $400 million. Really, we had raised a lot of capital during COVID. We did have some excess cash on the balance sheet. We, you know, said we were gonna be a little more aggressive in returning that back to shareholders. We took the opportunity during the quarter to return it, yeah, what we think was an attractive valuation.
David Katz (Managing Director)
Okay. Just as my follow-up, with respect to the new technology that you discussed at Investor Day and discussed a bit more today, is, you know, is the revenue and profitability opportunity around, you know, pre-ordering gear intended to drive people toward the pass, or is the pass intended to drive people toward the gear? Is the gear more or less profitable in the new model than, you know, it's been the old-fashioned way, if you'll allow?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Yeah, a couple of thoughts on that, David. Starting with your last question, you know, I think we are in a very unique position to do this innovation of My Epic Gear because we have so much existing infrastructure already that we're leveraging. It is not the same as building a business from scratch because we already have, you know, over 200 retail rental locations, distribution centers, a rental delivery business, gear valet services. You can think about us sort of springboarding or catapulting off of an infrastructure that we already have, which is very helpful for this business.
We are investing in gear to be a part of, you know, the program, but the life of that gear and our ability to use the gear in My Epic Gear and then also use it through our rental stores, makes that also very attractive capital investment for us. The intention of My Epic Gear overall is how do you create loyalty and higher retention within our owned and operated resort network, consistent with our subscription strategy approach? We see an opportunity to convert gear owners, to improve the experience for people who already rent with us, and possibly to attract new guests to Vail Resorts. I think it's all of those things.
I think it is beneficial for our pass holders, I think potentially also could be a reason why someone would want to come to our resort network and become a pass holder and a part of this program. The overarching, if I were to summarize it, is the lifetime value and the retention within our Vail Resorts owned and operated network.
David Katz (Managing Director)
Got it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thank you, David.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Ben Chaiken of Credit Suisse.
Ben Chaiken (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, how's it going? My first question is on the Epic Gear initiative. There's gonna be a trial this winter. I guess, first part, high level, what questions are you hoping to answer this winter? Is this a demand pH test, or is it more on the logistics side? As we move into 2024, I think the equipment angle is pretty straightforward, but on the kind of delivery logistics side, how do we think about your ability to leverage existing labor? I have a follow-up. Thanks.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Yes. I mean, I think the pilot will give us a lot of learnings. We primarily are trying to make sure that the logistics and the guest experience are smooth and meet the expectations for the model so that we can scale the business model that we have. If you think about what the business model is promising, we are designing a back-end logistics delivery, gear storage system to ensure that that is a smooth experience for the guests so that they actually see the value of being a member of this program. I'd say, for me, that is primarily what I wanna make sure that we have really dialed in the pilot. I think we'll get some feedback from the guests on demand and how often they'll use it or how they think they would use it.
The guest experience is really critical that we deliver on.
Ben Chaiken (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Just the ability to leverage existing labor. Can you?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Oh, yeah.
Ben Chaiken (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Think about that?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Yeah, I think, you know, I think it's a similar answer, Ben, to the infrastructure point, which is we are leveraging something we already do. We already have gear valet services. We already have rental delivery business. We already have distribution center employees and distribution centers. We already have retail, rental, and tuning location employees and centers. When you think about the leverage we have from that, without getting into specifics about expectations on it, you can hopefully envision that a lot of this exists, but we're now using it to enable a different business model. Whether it's labor or the actual brick-and-mortar facilities, there is a lot of leverage assumed in this model because we're so heavily already in this business.
Ben Chaiken (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, that makes sense. For my second question, on the cost side, historically, you've talked about three areas. I think you highlighted workforce management, you know, guest self-service, and automation.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Yeah.
Ben Chaiken (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
Regarding the workforce management, any color on the timing of that broader rollout? Separately, how incremental was this initiative at Park City and Whistler, where I believe you've been trialing it the last couple of years? Meaning, is there a noticeable improvement in, you know, EBITDA margins at those properties and guest experience? I'm just trying to get a feel of how those assets performed relative to prior years or relative or comparable to, similar mountains, if that makes sense. Thanks.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Yes. We piloted workforce management for two years at Park City and also with Whistler Blackcomb. We did see a noticeable improvement in a couple of areas. One is our managers and our mountain operations ability to be efficient in their allocation of labor based on the demands of the business. We also saw a noticeable improvement in the impact on our employees' experience in terms of their ability to understand what hours are available across the resort that they can actually sign up for based on what their particular needs are, which right now is managed very differently, resort by resort and function by function. Those were some real improvement areas.
You will see us expanding workforce management for this upcoming season because of the positive impacts that we saw on our ability to be efficient with labor and also the positive impact for the employee experience. Yes, we do plan on expanding that this coming season.
Ben Chaiken (Senior Equity Research Analyst)
I appreciate it. Thank you.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thanks, Ben.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Chris Woronka of Deutsche Bank.
Chris Woronka (Senior Analyst)
Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess, Kirsten, Angela, now with the 2022, 2023 North American season in the books, can you maybe give us a little bit of a sense on ancillary, how much of your gains there came from pricing versus volume compared to last season? I guess I'm thinking about things mostly like food and beverage and ski school and stuff like that.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
I mean, on a high level comment, and I'll let Angela comment on it as well. On a high level, you know, we saw very strong growth on ski school, rental, retail, and food and beverage. I think we've shared this in prior earnings calls that even though food and beverage growth was very strong versus prior year, we still didn't get all the way back to where we expected to be on food and beverage and have very specific plans in place next year to continue to build and get that business back to where it was pre-COVID. F&B was really differentially impacted because there were so many restrictions that we had put in place associated with F&B that were unique and different relative to our ski school and our rental retail business.
Angela may have some additional comments that she wants to make. Go ahead, Angela.
Angela Korch (CFO)
The only thing I'll add, I mean, those were the key themes. I mean, we obviously had a very strong rebound from where we were at last year, because of our staffing initiatives, right? Getting us back to full staffing allowed us to fully operate, that had a big impact year-over-year. Then relative to pre-COVID, we saw some really strong, you know, continued improvements, and, you know, we are passing on more than the inflation, to your, to your question on price versus volume. F&B, as Kirsten mentioned, is the one area that we have not seen kind of the volumes return all the way back to pre-COVID.
Chris Woronka (Senior Analyst)
Okay. Very helpful. You know, I guess as a follow-up, I know you mentioned Northeast. You called that out as one of the areas that had strong growth in the season pass sales in the spring selling season.
Angela Korch (CFO)
Mm-hmm
Chris Woronka (Senior Analyst)
Despite challenges. I mean, I know you don't, you know, get into specific numbers, but would you say it was even better than you would have expected from that region, given the challenges, or just kind of in line? You know, do you think there's still more gains to be had from that region on advanced pass sales?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
You know, it's always a concern when we have some resorts that are in geographies where there's extreme weather disruptions. You know, there's always a concern about what impact is that going to have on our pass holders and their desire to hold a pass. We watch it very closely, and I would say I'm very pleased. There's a, if you break down what we call the East Resorts into Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and the Northeast, we collectively call that our East Region Resorts.
We had growth in the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast, and I think that's very encouraging, and it shows the loyalty of our pass holders and the value of a pass, that even after a tough season, they still believe that they will get the usage and the value out of their pass, whether that's being locally or taking a destination trip or maybe even both. Do I still think there's growth potential? Absolutely, I do. I talked about this at the investor conference. We believe that that East region, it has a lot of growth potential for us still. We have very strong resorts that we own and operate in that region. We have a lot of guest data from guests that ski and snowboard in that data.
We have incredibly strong brand awareness of Epic Pass, and every year, we have been growing our penetration in that particular region, and I have full confidence that we will continue to do that this year.
Chris Woronka (Senior Analyst)
Okay, thanks. very helpful.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thank you, Chris.
Operator (participant)
We'll take our next question from Brandt Montour of Barclays.
Brandt Montour (Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Hey, good evening, everybody. Thanks for taking my questions. Just starting on the labor side, you mentioned that you were expanding the workforce management program. I imagine that wages, you still probably expect some growth looking into next year. I know you haven't said that. I'm not putting words in your mouth, but just broader hospitality, let's say, is still seeing wage inflation. I guess my question is, when you think about offsets within that segment for you, is there a world in which, you know, last year you may have over hired a little bit on labor to make sure that you could rebuild that customer experience?
Looking back on the last season, you think maybe, you know, that you don't need quite as many people, or, sort of what's the take on looking back on last season after it's all done now?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thanks, Brandt. I would say overall, I'm very pleased that we got to staffing levels that enabled us to have full operation of our terrain, our lifts, and normal operation of our ancillary. It obviously makes a significant impact in the guest experience and our guest satisfaction, which ultimately impacts our pass sales and our loyalty to our resorts. I think, in terms of what our plans are next year, you know, our mountain operations teams always assess what staffing levels they believe that they need. We are always looking at what is the optimal staffing and the most efficient staffing we can have. Then we have tools, like what I just spoke about, workforce management, that can help our managers allocate labor and understand what labor and hours they need.
I'd say the positive of the wage investment, absolutely 100% believe that that was the right thing to do for our business, given how critical the guest experience is. Do we always have opportunities to be efficient in how we apply that labor? Absolutely. We're putting very specific plans in place, like this workforce management tool, that will enable the decision makers that are decentralized out in the resorts, deciding how to allocate the labor, it will help them to be more efficient.
Brandt Montour (Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Okay, thanks for that. That's helpful. Just a follow-up back toward the beginning of the call. You know, you were pretty crystal clear about the outlook for pass sales growth potentially moderating throughout the rest of the selling season. I guess I'm just curious how we should think about the fact that, you know, you started selling a little bit earlier this year, you're comparing a period that had a little bit, I think, I guess, a couple weeks maybe, of extra time to sell versus last year. You know, you also, you know, also probably, you know, you might look to open mountains earlier this year, later, maybe that's just part of the longer term sort of incremental growth strategy.
How should we just think about that comparison, given, you know, we should expect some level of moderation?
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Yeah, I don't think I would think about that as a major driver one way or the other. It really is highly driven by deadlines and the calls to action. We have a deadline in the early part of the sales cycle that is about benefits to pass holders, and then we had the deadline over Memorial Day of the call to action around the price increase. You know, we're always looking for ways to use our data and our insights to influence behavior, to make a decision as early in the selling cycle as possible. This has been our approach for many, many years on pass sales, so a strong start with 6% on units and 11% on dollars.
I think the potential for that to moderate is because of our approach, because we're always trying to get that decision-making earlier. I would not view that the number of weeks on sale is a big driver of that.
Brandt Montour (Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Perfect. Thanks so much, everyone.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
This concludes the question and answer portion of today's call. I would now like to turn the call back over to Kirsten Lynch for closing remarks.
Kirsten Lynch (CEO)
Thank you, operator. This concludes our fiscal 2023 third quarter earnings call. Thanks to everyone who joined the call today. Please feel free to contact me or Angela directly, should you have further questions. Thank you for your time this afternoon. Bye-bye.
Operator (participant)
This concludes today's Vail Resorts fiscal 3rd quarter 2023 earnings call and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time. Have a wonderful day.