United Parks & Resorts - Q2 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the SeaWorld second quarter 2023 earnings conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. After today's pre-prepared remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad, and to withdraw your question, you may press star, then two. Please also note that today's call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to hand the floor over to Matthew Stroud, Investor Relations.

Matthew Stroud (VP of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SeaWorld's second quarter earnings conference call. Today's call is being webcast and recorded. A press release was issued this morning and is available on our investor relations website at www.seaworldinvestors.com. Replay information for this call can be found in the press release and will be available on our website following the call. Joining me this morning are Marc Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Forrester, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning, we will review our second quarter financial results, and then we will open the call to your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities laws.

These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those forward-looking statements, including those identified in the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risk factors may be updated from time to time and will be included in our filings with the SEC that are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, on the call, we may reference non-GAAP financial measures and other financial metrics such as Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. More information regarding our forward-looking statements and reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is included in our earnings release, available on our website, and can also be found in our filings with the SEC.

Now, I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Marc Swanson. Marc?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report another quarter of solid financial results, despite the impact of significantly adverse weather, in-park venue closures and related disruptions due to construction delays, and a shift in the timing of the opening of new rides during the quarter. Our results during the second quarter further underscore the resiliency of our business, the effectiveness of our strategy, and the tireless efforts of our outstanding team. Some combination of unusually hot and cold weather, rain, and/or the fallout from Canadian wildfires impacted most of our markets during the quarter. In-park spending was impacted by the adverse weather and delays in construction projects, resulting in prolonged closures of certain in-park facilities and other in-park disruptions during the quarter.

Despite the unusual headwinds in the quarter, attendance still grew at certain of our parks, and total per capita spending increased for the 17th consecutive quarter. During the quarter, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi opened, the first SeaWorld park outside of the United States. We are really proud of this park, happy to see attendance well ahead of expectations to date, and excited for what this park will deliver over time. I continue to be very encouraged by our group booking revenue trends, which are up significantly versus 2022 and 2018, and group bookings revenue today, through the first six months of the year, already exceeds 2019's booking, bookings revenue for the full year.

I'm also very excited about our remaining summer events over the next few weeks and our planned Halloween and Christmas events, which have grown bigger and bigger over the years, and based on what we have planned, we expect this year to be our best events yet. I want to thank all of our ambassadors for their efforts these past few months as we wrap up this summer season and head into our increasingly popular Halloween and Christmas events for the balance of the year. We're also thrilled to have recently received recognition from USA TODAY readers for having some of the best parks and attractions in the country. Aquatica Orlando was voted best outdoor water park in the United States. Our Mako Roller Coaster in SeaWorld Orlando was voted best roller coaster in the United States.

Tidal Surge in SeaWorld, San Antonio, was voted best non-roller coaster ride in the United States. Celtic Fyre at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, was voted best amusement park entertainment in the United States. Several of our other parks and attractions received top 10 rankings as well. We are proud to receive these awards and the recognition of our collection of parks across the country. We have made significant investments in our business this year and will continue to make investments to improve the guest experience, allow us to generate more revenue, and make us a more efficient and profitable business. We expect these investments to yield very attractive returns. We are currently planning new initiatives for the balance of this year and next year that will make us an even stronger, more profitable, and more resilient business.

We have high confidence in the plans we are executing on today and for the future, in our ability to deliver substantial operational and financial improvements that will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. Let me update you on the progress of some of our strategic initiatives. First, we are making good progress on our cost and efficiency-related work with our dedicated internal team and specialized outside consultants, continue to find additional cost reduction opportunities. We have revised up our target savings to $60 million from our previous target of $50 million. The team continues to find ways for us to source and organize more efficiently, better utilize capital and technology, along with scheduling improvements to drive labor efficiencies and eliminate unnecessary and/or redundant expenses.

We expect these cost savings initiatives, along with our revenue enhancement initiatives, will lead to increased margins over time. Second, on the digital transformation front, we continue to build out our CRM capabilities, which are still in their infancy, and roll out and improve our mobile app. On CRM, we see significant obvious upside opportunities for ultimately having more rich data about our past members and guests, and being able to more effectively engage, analyze behavior, and tailor and target messages and offerings. In regards to the mobile app, we are pleased it is being used by an increasing number of guests in our parks to improve their in-park experience. The app has now been downloaded more than 6.3 million times, up from 5 million times at the end of Q1.

Total revenue, total revenue generated on the app is up over 200% compared to prior year. We are now seeing a 20%+ increase in average transaction value for food and beverage purchases made through the app compared to point-of-sale orders. Mobile ordering has been expanded to additional restaurants and is now operating at approximately 75% of our target restaurants. We are excited about the potential of the app and its ability to improve the in-park guest experience, drive increases in revenue, and decreases in cost. We are continuing to refine current capabilities and develop additional capabilities to further increase engagement and optimize the experience.

Third, as you know, we have strategically increased our park-specific ROI investments this year in an effort to drive incremental revenue and/or decrease costs through expanding, enhancing, and improving our food and beverage and retail offering, park infrastructure and aesthetics, and generally improving the guest experience and journey around our parks and facilities. As noted, some of these refurbishments and upgrades have taken longer than planned, which negatively affected in-park per caps in the second quarter. While we are disappointed with the delays and disruption these capital projects caused, we are excited to realize the full benefit of these investments as they come online over the remainder of the year. We are well on our way, planning for additional projects in 2024 that will further enhance the guest experience and are expected to yield attractive ROI.

Fourth, on the international front, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi opened in late May, and attendance has been meaningfully above expectations. We are pleased to see how strong this park is open and look forward to growing to its growing contributions over time. Continue to make progress on discussions related to other international opportunities and expect to have more to share in coming quarters. Fifth, on the hotel front, we also continue to make progress on our plans. We are currently refining our design planning on our first hotels, and we expect to begin opening in 2026. We continue to work on site selection for additional hotels across our park portfolio. We hope to share more specifics in future quarters on what we expect to be really exciting and value-creating projects.

Overall, I'm very excited about the significant investments we are making and the many initiatives we have underway across our business, that we expect will improve the guest experience, allow us to generate more revenue, and make us a more efficient and more profitable enterprise. We are building an even stronger and more resilient business that we are confident will deliver substantially improved operational and financial results, and meaningful increases in shareholder value. Let me briefly comment on our balance sheet, which continues to be strong. Our June 30, 2023 net total leverage ratio is 2.61x, and we had approximately $518 million of total available liquidity, including over $146 million of cash on the balance sheet.

This strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business, and to opportunistically allocate capital with the goal to maximize, maximize long-term value for shareholders. Let me also comment on our debt repricing activity last week. Last week, we launched an opportunistic debt repricing on the back of strong credit markets and tightening credit spreads. As you know, right after we launched our repricing activity, Fitch downgraded the U.S. government credit rating, which, among other factors, negatively impacted credit markets. While we had the ability to reprice our loan to a lower interest cost, it was not at the level where we and our board expect our pricing to be, and as such, we have canceled the opportunistic repricing and plan to wait for better time and market conditions to reprice our debt.

Looking ahead, we are excited about our events planned for the remainder of the summer over the next few weeks. Our incredibly popular Halloween and holiday events, which, as I said, have grown bigger and bigger over the years. Based on what we have planned, we expect this year to be our best events yet. We have also already launched 2024 passes in one park, and plan to launch 2024 passes, including Fun Card, across the remainder of our parks over the coming weeks. Our 2024 passes will continue to provide great value to our pass holders, with exciting benefits and reasons to visit.

We are also in the middle of planning for 2024 and are extremely excited about the new investments and initiatives we have in store for next year, that we expect will improve guest experience, increase revenue, and drive further efficiencies and margin expansion. We are also excited about our lineup of 2024 rides, attractions, events, and/or other experiences, where we have something new planned for every park. We will have more to say about 2024 in the coming weeks as we begin to announce more specifics for each park. With that, Jim will discuss our financial results in more detail. Jim?

Jim Forrester (Interim CFO and Treasurer)

Thank you, Marc, good morning, everyone. It's good to be back with you for another quarter. During the second quarter, we generated total revenue of $496.0 million, a decrease of $8.8 million, or 1.7%, when compared to the second quarter of 2022. The decrease in revenue is due to a decrease in attendance of 2.0%, partially offset by an increase in total revenue per capita of 0.3%. The decrease in attendance was primarily due to significantly adverse weather, including some combination of unusually hot and cold weather, rain, and/or the fallout from Canadian wildfires across most of our markets, including during peak visitation periods. Attendance was also impacted unfavorably by the timing of new ride openings in 2023, compared with 2022.

As a reminder, in 2022, most of our rides opened in the first quarter, whereas in 2023, many of the rides opened later in the second quarter. Our pricing and product strategies continued to drive higher realized pricing, resulting in record total revenue per capita in the quarter of $80.80, compared to $80.59 in the second quarter of 2022. Admission per capita was essentially flat at $43.96, while in-park per capita spending increased by 0.6% to a record $36.84 in the second quarter of 2023, compared to the second quarter of 2022.

The decrease in admission per capita was primarily due to the net impact of the admissions product mix, partially offset by the realization of higher prices in our admissions products, resulting from our strategic pricing efforts when compared to the prior year quarter. In-park per capita spending improved primarily due to pricing initiatives when compared to the second quarter of 2022. In-park per capita spending was impacted negatively by factors including weather, closures, and disruption related to construction delays at certain in-park locations. Operating expenses increased $5.2 million, or 2.7%, when compared to the second quarter of 2022.

The increase in operating expenses is primarily due to non-cash increases in self-insurance reserve adjustments and an increase in non-recurring contractual liabilities and legal costs, resulting from the previously disclosed temporary COVID-19 park closures, partially offset by the impact of implemented structural cost savings initiatives when compared to the second quarter of 2022. Selling, general administrative expenses increased $12.0 million or 21.4% compared to the second quarter of 2022. The increase in selling, general, and administrative expenses is primarily due to a $7.1 million increase in non-recurring third-party consulting costs for strategic initiatives, along with an increase in marketing costs, partially offset by the impact of implemented cost savings and efficiency initiatives when compared to the second quarter of 2022.

We generated net income of $87.1 million for the second quarter, compared to net income of $116.6 million in the second quarter of 2022. The decline in net income is primarily related to the increase in interest expense when compared to prior year. We generated Adjusted EBITDA of $224.2 million, a decrease of $10.2 million when compared to the second quarter of 2022. The decline in Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2023 was primarily driven by a decrease in revenue when compared to the second quarter of 2022.

Looking at our results for the first half of 2023 compared to 2022, total record revenue was $789.4 million, an increase of $13.9 million, or 1.8%. Total attendance was 9.5 million guests, a decrease of 149,000 guests, or 1.5%. Net income for the period was $70.6 million, a decline of $37.0 million, Adjusted EBITDA was $296.7 million, a decrease of $3.7 million, or 1.2%. Turning to our balance sheet. Our current deferred revenue balance as of the end of the second quarter was $222.7 million, a decrease of approximately 5.5% when compared to June of 2022.

At the end of June 2023, our pass base, including all pass products, was at a record level for this time of year and up approximately 1% compared to June 30, 2022. We're also quite pleased that we continue to realize double-digit price increases on our pass products compared to prior year. As Marc mentioned, we have a very strong balance sheet position. As of June 30, 2023, our total available liquidity was $518.3 million, including $146.7 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet, and $371.6 million available on our revolving credit facility.

We spent $75.8 million on CapEx in the second quarter of 2023, of which approximately $49.2 million was on core CapEx and approximately $26.6 million was on expansion and/or ROI projects. For 2023, we expect to spend approximately $160 million-$180 million on core CapEx, and we plan to spend approximately $100 million on CapEx on high conviction growth and ROI projects. In total, we expect to spend approximately $260 million-$280 million in CapEx for 2023. We're excited about our ability to make these high-confidence ROI investments and sincerely look forward to the benefits and returns from these investments flowing through to our financial results.

Now, let me turn the call back to Marc, who will share some final thoughts. Marc?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Thank you, Jim. Before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the second quarter of 2023, we came to the aid of 96 animals in need. Over our history, we have helped over 40,000 animals, including bottlenose dolphins, manatees, sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, birds, and more. I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts. I want to thank them and all our ambassadors for all that they do to operate our parks. We are excited about the remainder of 2023 as we finish out the summer and head into our fall and winter events. Our increasingly popular Halloween events are starting next month at our SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and Sesame Place parks.

You may recall that in 2022, SeaWorld's Howl-O-Scream was voted one of the 10 best theme park Halloween events by USA TODAY's 10BEST Readers' Choice Awards. The Halloween events will be followed by our Christmas events that start in November. As a reminder, SeaWorld Orlando's Christmas celebration was voted number one best theme park holiday event by USA TODAY's 10BEST Readers' Choice Awards. We are proud of these events and the recognition we have received from our guests, we expect this year to be our most exciting events yet. We continue to strongly believe there are significant additional opportunities to improve our execution, take advantage of clear growth opportunities, and continue to drive meaningful long-term growth in both revenue and Adjusted EBITDA.

We continue to have high confidence in our long-term strategy and our ability to deliver significantly improved operating and financial results that we expect to lead to meaningfully increased value for stakeholders. Now, let's take your questions.

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw from the question queue, please press star, then two. In the interest of taking as many questions as possible, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you have additional questions, you may reenter the queue. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Today's first question comes from Steve Wieczynski with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Steve Wieczynski (Managing Director)

Yeah. Hey, guys, good morning. You know, obviously, weather was, seems like it was super impactful during the quarter, and, you know, we've heard similar comments from some of your peers and, you know, actually including Disney. You know, guess the question is, do you have, you know, do you have a ballpark idea of what the weather impact actually was on your attendance in the quarter? You know, maybe can you help us think about, you know, what the parks have looked like on days where weather, you know, wasn't impactful? You know, just trying to understand how the, you know, how the underlying demand for the parks, and spend levels look like at this point. Thanks.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Yeah. Hey, Steve, I, I can, I can take that question. Look, there's obviously a lot, a lot of factors that, that we look at on, on attendance. I would say one- in addition to weather, one of the other things that we isolated this quarter was the timing of, of the ride openings. Again, why that's important is, if you remember last year, we had things opening earlier in the year, and, and this year they, they opened later in the year. We did not have as many rides open in April and May, primarily as we did last year.

When you look at the, the kind of the combination of, of weather and the, the delay in the, or the timing of those ride openings, if you, if you adjust for those, and look, it's an estimate, obviously, but if, if you adjust for those, you know, our attendance would have been up a little bit in the, in the quarter. On your, on your second question on, on like for like days, I think what I would say there, when we looked at, like, the month of June, you know, that is, when, when we had, you know, the rides open, things like that, you know, we did see a, a small increase in attendance there on, on like for like days.

Steve Wieczynski (Managing Director)

Okay, gotcha. Then second question is that, you know, in the, in the previous couple of, of earnings releases, you've talked about 2023, you know, potentially being, you know, a record for, for revenues and EBITDA, and that language was, at least I missed it, you know, was, was kind of removed this time around. You know, I assume a lot of that is because of the weather impact you encountered during the second quarter. You know, is there anything else that is kind of making you take that language out? I'm not sure if you'll comment on this, but any color around, you know, how July trends were, and it looked like weather might have been, you know, somewhat of a headwind in July as well. Thanks, Marc.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Sure. I, I can try to help, help you out there. On, on your question about July, obviously, you, you, you kind of nailed it. The, the weather continues to be a significant impact. We, we saw a significant increase in the number of what we call weather-impacted days. You know, having said that, revenue was down about 3.4%. You know, we, we, we did as well as we could give- given kind of the weather impacts in the month of July. I will tell you also that, you know, per caps were up in July. You know, that's a little color on July.

As far as how we think about the rest of the year, there's, you know, I think, you know, the, we've not called it out and simply that just being a little cautious, this year has been a lot of weather impacts, as we've noted here, and then some of the other factors we called out. You know, I guess what gives me some optimism as I think about the rest of the year is we're coming into popular events. We know our Halloween and Christmas events are popular with a lot of our guests.

Then, if you remember last year in Q3 and Q4, we, we did have pretty meaningful weather impacts from combination of the hurricane/tropical storms, and then also the poor weather around some of the holiday periods, especially in November and December. You know, who knows if that'll repeat? You know, hopefully, that doesn't repeat. I think if that doesn't repeat, that, that would be a, a good thing. You know, our events and our lineup, I think, are strong. We're gonna get some of these things that have been delayed in our parks opened, which, which should be good for us. You know, the in-park venues that we talked about that have been delayed, and we expect to get some of them open as well.

There are some, I think some tailwinds, but we'll just have to see, where, where that shakes out.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Michael Swartz with Truist. Please go ahead.

Michael Swartz (Director of Equity Research)

Hey, good morning, guys. Marc, maybe I think you laid out commentary that you're now expecting $75 million in cost savings, which is up, I think, $25 million or so versus your prior commentary. Could you just give us a little sense of where those incremental cost savings are coming from and the timing in which you expect to achieve them?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Yeah. Hey, hey, Mike, just to reiterate, I think what I said was $60 million, up from $50 million. Just, just, if, if you go back to my prepared remarks.

Michael Swartz (Director of Equity Research)

Yeah.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Just clarifying that. Look, what I'll say is, look, we have a continual focus on, on driving efficiencies in the business. We've, you know, have, have a lot of work going on that. You know, a couple of months ago, you know, we, we, promoted, two of our most senior leaders to help oversee our park operations, and I think, I think they're doing a great job of, finding labor efficiencies in our parks and other efficiencies in how we operate. Those are, those are the type of things that we're gonna continue to find, in the business. I can tell you, we work on it on a, on a regular basis.

You know, based on, you know, what I saw in July, you know, I saw, I saw some of that, that come through. You know, we'll see the exact timing going forward. I don't know that I'm gonna comment on that, but obviously, you know, we, we feel good about the plans and feel good about the, you know, the work we're doing there.

Michael Swartz (Director of Equity Research)

Okay, great. Then just to follow up-

Jim Forrester (Interim CFO and Treasurer)

I might just add, you know, Mike, you're, you're starting to see some of the results of our strategic initiatives, including, our sourcing one that we referenced in the, in the call. When you look at our cost of sales, for example, for food, that's, that's down significantly, for the, the three months, and, and we're seeing the, the benefit of those types of investments, materializing in cost reductions throughout the company.

Michael Swartz (Director of Equity Research)

Gotcha. just, just to follow up on SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, maybe a little more color on what you've seen to date. I know it's very early. if I'm not mistaken, you see the benefit from the licensing fees, I think, in the in-park per caps. What, what did that add to the quarter?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Sure. Look, we're, we're, you know, as I said in the prepared remarks, we're, we're pleased with the, the opening of the, of the SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. You know, if, if, if you get a chance, I'd highly rec- I know it's a long way away, but highly recommend you take a visit to it. It's, it's really a one-of-a-kind park and just really exciting place to visit. You know, the, the attendance there is obviously above expectations, and it's just an, an exciting product. Still very early on, like, like you noted. I mean, it, it didn't even open until, until May. The, the, the impact for the quarter, you know, is, is probably around $700,000. It's, it's not a, a super huge amount. We'll see, you know, where that ends up over time.

It is a licensing deal, and we share in, you know, royalty and whatnot. We're excited. You know, I think what it does for the brand, you know, kind of the art of what's possible with our brand. You know, as people see that park and understand the know-how and the experience we can bring to helping construct a park, helping set up a park, helping operate it, whatever it may be, we bring that experience. I can tell you, you know, folks that have gone over and seen it, I think that is, is certainly will help us as we think about other international opportunities, and people see what, what is actually opened.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from James Hardiman of Citi. Please go ahead.

James Hardiman (Director of Leisure and Travel Analyst)

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Marc, just, just wanted to clarify a couple of things you said. It sounded like as some of the delayed rides opened up, June was maybe a better month in terms of visitation. I think you said that July revenues were down 3.4% with per caps up. Presumably, attendance was down something more than that 3.4%. Are we just looking at weather or are there any other... I guess, A, is that sort of right, that maybe things got better and then a little bit worse from an attendance perspective? If so, anything else outside of weather worth calling out here?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Hey, James. I would say that the weather was, was, you know, a meaningful, significant factor in July. I mean, I think that's been pretty well, kind of all over the news, right? You know, when we look at the, what we call kind of the number of weather-impacted days, it was up meaningfully to last year. If you look kind of over kind of the last kind of 13 years, 14 years, it's, it's among the highest, if not the highest. It's definitely a big driver in July for that.

James Hardiman (Director of Leisure and Travel Analyst)

Okay, that's helpful. Then maybe how do we think about season passes? You know, you said season pass base is at record levels. I think you said pricing is up, but deferred revenues are down 5%. Maybe, maybe help us bridge the gap there. Then it sounds like your, your pass, I think you mentioned one park is already selling 2024s. Help us understand how that timing compares to normal, and how we should think about season pass timing for the, for the 2024s. I'm sorry, season pass pricing for the 2024s.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Sure. Look on the, on the timing of the, of the season passes, you know, we launched the season pass at our, our Sesame park in Langhorne, outside of Philadelphia. You know, that, that park is, you know, probably a little bit more traditional in the sense that it, you know, it, it, it kind of, you know, largely opens in the spring and kind of shuts down around Christmas. It makes sense that you would launch that pass, you know, kind of about now. That's pretty consistent with, with prior years, and I think in general, you're gonna see most of our launches are very much, you know, largely in line or pretty close to what, what we've done in prior years.

We typically would look to start launching, you know, around this time over the, in, into the next few weeks, into September and things like that. That's not atypical. Look on the, on the, on the deferred revenue, there's, there's obviously multiple things besides pass that are, that are in our deferred revenue. We know, you know, when you, when you have some weather impacts, you know, harder to estimate, but I'm sure we lost, you know, pass sales, you know, when, when, when, when the weather wasn't good. That, that, that can have an impact as well on, on that number. Then you just have, you know, single-day tickets and, and things like that, that people buy in advance, that, that sit in our deferred. There's a lot of different factors in there.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Thomas Yeh with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Thomas Yeh (Equity Research and Executive Director)

Thanks so much. Yeah, just following up on your point related to the construction timing delays. It sounds like not all of that has fully normalized either in July. Is that right? When do you think everything kind of comes back online, and when does that ease?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Yeah. Hey, Morgan, you- you're right. Unfortunately, we still have, you know, a couple things still, still closed. In particular, one of our, our, probably our biggest restaurant out in our SeaWorld Park in California, remains closed. We expect it to open, hopefully anytime now. You know, some of the others, again, I expect that they'll, they'll open this year. I don't, I don't know the exact timing. There's been, you know, obviously delays here that we're not real proud of, and, and, but, you know, I can tell you we're working as quickly as we can to get those open. Certainly, unfortunately, not open, still a number of things not open in July.

You know, as I mentioned, per caps were up in July, even with that. You know, so that, you know, hopefully is gonna be, you know, a tailwind when these things open. You know, we, you know, we target, you know, pretty attractive returns when we, when we do these refreshes and new venues in our parks. We're excited once they get open, and we just got to get there, so.

Thomas Yeh (Equity Research and Executive Director)

Okay, makes sense. Then on group booking trends already being above 2019, is that a pacing number for revenues yet to be recognized, or are we talking about the six months revenues that have already been booked? Maybe just provide some more additional visibility into kind of the second half and what you're seeing in terms of the demand there. That would be really helpful. Thank you.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Yeah, the way I think about it is kind of, you know, sales that are on the books, not all of those people have shown up. Like, we have a bookings, you know, for, for, for the full year, and those are, those are more than what we saw in 2018. Some of those people have come, and obviously some, some still to come.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Chris Woronka (Senior Analyst in Hotel, Lodging REITs, and Leisure)

Hey, good morning, guys. I know you're not ready to share all the details of the, of the hotel plans yet, but, is there any way for us to think about balance sheet commitment and kind of structure those deals in terms of, is it going to be all on balance sheet, or are you going to consider joint ventures or things like that with, you know, with potential brand partners?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Hey, hey, Chris, I can tell you that, you know, I don't have anything specific to, to share with you. I think that is, you know, we've, we've looked at a number of different options. I think we feel, you know, really good about operating the hotel. As far as how we, how we finance that and how that looks, we'll, we'll, we'll come back to you. There's, there's obviously multiple ways we could do that, we want to make sure we do the one that's, you know, best for shareholders and most opportunistic.

Jim Forrester (Interim CFO and Treasurer)

Okay, fair enough. Then just a, just a quick follow-up on, on some of the, the delays on the, on the rides, on attractions that you mentioned in, in Q2. Were those also all weather-related issues, or, or was there, you know, was, was there some kind of a supply chain issue or labor or, yeah, anything like that besides weather?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Look, I mean, depending what, what you're, what you're talking about, I would say there's multiple factors. We, we've obviously got to do a better job, but also there's, you know, things with vendors and supply chains and, you know, you, you get, you know, even, like, permitting and inspections, some of these things come down to just moving around a little bit. You know, one thing we, we, we hear from some of the places we operate is that, you know, the folks in, in the municipalities are, are working really hard, but, but they have a lot going on. So, you know, we, you know, I think there's, at times, some delays in, in processing permits and, and things like that. But it's a myriad of factors. You know, weather, you know, weather never helps.

I would say weather probably has less, you know, certainly a lot less to do with in-park things, because those are typically more indoors, but certainly on, on an outdoor ride or something, weather, weather can have an impact, so.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Eric Wold with B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.

Eric Wold (Senior Analyst)

Thank you. Good morning. You mentioned that, that weather, you know, obviously, also likely impacted season pass sales, even though the, the pass base was, was up in the quarter. I know it's difficult to always know, why someone doesn't purchase or renew, but anything you can glean from renewal rates, kind of in the face of either higher pass prices, any, any pushback, anything surprising you, positive, negatively around those trends?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

I, what I'd say is, we, you know, we offer a really attractive pass product, and, you know, it gives you a number of benefits, gives you the ability to visit, you know, throughout the year. I think when you couple that with the investments we're making in the parks, whether it's rides or, or new venues, events, things like that, that is a compelling reason to buy and a compelling reason to visit. I think as long as we continue to do that, you know, that's going to be attractive to, to people, and it's certainly a, a very good relative value, you know, especially compared to things like going to a concert or something like that.

You know, buying a season pass to a park, like ours, is a tremendous value, you know, when you consider the, the, the amount of times you can visit and how long you can stay in the park and things like that. We'll continue to emphasize those things. I think it's a, a great product. You know, obviously, when, when rides and things or, or refurbishments get delayed, you know, I- you know, again, hard to, to estimate exactly what the impact is. Like you mentioned, the weather, hard to estimate that, but I, you know, I think I'd like to think that, you know, if things go better in those areas, you'd like to think you'd have more, more sales.

You know, regardless of that, what we can control is offering a good product and continuing to invest in our parks and giving people a reason to visit.

Eric Wold (Senior Analyst)

Got it. Kind of follow up, just updates on what you're seeing with hourly wage rates, kind of around the system. Any pockets of more difficulty in terms of wage pressures or anything you're seeing, regions where it's still maybe difficult to getting everyone you want to have in the parks?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Yeah, let me just comment, kind of qual- kind of overall, and then I think Jim can give you the, kind of the specific labor number. I mean, look, there, there's, there's still pockets of, of labor that are challenging. I think year-over-year, it's, it's in a better spot, as, as I'm sure others have noted. You still have pockets of, you know, especially trade positions, lifeguards, things like that, that are, that are challenging. Certainly, I think we feel better this year than last year. Then, you know, as far as the, the rates and Jim?

Jim Forrester (Interim CFO and Treasurer)

Yeah. Marc, you know, I think in the wake of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, talk about leisure and hospitality up 5.4% year-over-year. I think we're very pleased that our wage rates are, are very moderate. In fact, they're actually down year-over-year overall for hourly labor. I think we're in a, in a very good position with our labor management on this topic.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Phil Cusick with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Phil Cusick (Managing Director)

Hi, guys. A little bit of follow-up on the, on the spending side. You ticked up CapEx again. Is this due to the delays, or can you dig into the incremental projects, either maintenance or new projects that you're doing? How quickly can that extra capital impact the business? Second of all, can you discuss competition in the theme park market, especially in Orlando? What are you seeing from a pricing and promotion standpoint among your peers? Thank you.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Hey, Phil, let me start with your second one, I think, on the competition in Orlando. Look, you know, we've, we've been in Orlando since 1973 with SeaWorld. A lot of parks have obviously opened since that time. We have, great competitors in the area. Obviously, Disney, Universal have, have very good product. Look, I'm- I, I like our product. It's differentiated. It's different. We offer, I think, a, a very tremendous value at, at our parks as well, and, and, maybe a little bit of a less hurried experience than, than you might find at some of the other, parks in the area. You know, we added a, a waterpark in Aquatica back in 2008, and we've added Discovery Cove back, I believe, in 2000.

You know, we, we like our ability to be here and compete here, and we know our competitors are here, but I think they're also, you know, rational competitors and, you know, we're, we're all gonna. You know, I think we all benefit from more, more people coming to the area. I think certainly that's something that we'll continue to differentiate our product and hopefully take advantage of growing trends, you know, in Orlando over time. I know that ebbs and flows a little bit, but I think over the long term, Orlando remains a, you know, a desired destination.

Jim Forrester (Interim CFO and Treasurer)

On the capital front, I think over the time, we continue to try to focus on spending on average about $150 million in that core CapEx over a period of years. I think what we're seeing is a refinement of our plans for 2024, 2025, and 2026 as we refine our attractions menu. We also, as mentioned, had some delays in our ROI projects, and I think what we've learned is a need to start to do some design and prep work much earlier. We're making some allowance for that, so that we can get those projects for 2024 ready to go much sooner next year.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Yep.

Phil Cusick (Managing Director)

Thanks, guys.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Lizzie Dove with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Lizzie Dove (VP and Equity Research Analyst)

Hi there. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to start by asking on capital allocation. I know there's not much more you can say on the hotel side of things, but it does seem like you're also reaching kind of critical mass in terms of your buybacks from an ownership perspective, but still a lot of cash flow generation. I'm curious how you're thinking about capital allocation priorities going forward, whether that be, you know, paying down debt or potentially a dividend or anything else?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Hey, Lizzie, it's Marc. I can help you with that question. Look, we put it into a couple different buckets. Obviously, you know, one of our main priorities is to invest in the business, new things in our parks every year. And I think we've demonstrated that over the last several years here, and we have a plan to continue to do that. That'll continue to be a kind of a hallmark of our capital allocation. We'll be investing in our business. We've talked today a little bit already about kind of the high-growth ROI initiatives that we continue to invest in, in our parks.

You know, again, I think as long as those opportunities remain, I think our, our board is supportive of, of making those, those type of investments on those ROI initiatives as well. Then you kind of come to, to kind of your next set of things you can do, and that's, you know, whether it's paying down debt or buying back shares or, or paying a dividend or, you know, whatever, you know, strategic alternatives, whatever it may be. What I would just tell you is, you know, we, we continue to work with our board on that. Certainly our, our board is focused on maximizing value for shareholders, and that's something that, you know, we'll continue to work with them on, on what is kind of the best use of the, of the cash going forward.

Lizzie Dove (VP and Equity Research Analyst)

That makes sense. Thank you. Just wanted to follow up on Phil's question on Orlando, but slightly different focus. You know, there's been a lot of headlines this quarter, like Disney attendance, you know, Universal, it sounds like reading between the lines, they were down maybe mid-single digit percent year-on-year on attendance in Orlando, and they kind of called out that there's some impact of kind of an international trade up actually happening. I'm curious if that's something that you think you've been seeing, and whether that might be an impact that might continue into 3Q, if, you know, travel kind of continues to ramp up in that quarter?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Yeah, I mean, I don't know that I'm gonna comment specifically, on our, on our kind of Orlando parks other than, than what I've already said. I mean, certainly, I, I think it's been, you know, in the news that, that, you know, people are, are. You know, at least people in the United States are traveling more internationally, it seems like. You know, that is what it is. Again, I think we'll continue to invest in our parks, continue to have reasons to, to visit our parks, specifically in Orlando. You know, I mentioned, in my prepared remarks that the Christmas event here in Orlando is, is really well done, and I think, you know, that's, that's something that, you know, people can come out and, and see.

you know, we'll continue to be here and, and, be in the market and, and, you know, be a, be a good, a good, place for people to visit in this area.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Robert Aurand with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Robert Aurand (Equity Research Associate)

Hi, thanks for taking my question. As we look at attendance in the second quarter, is there any way you can kind of break it out between group versus international versus domestic non-group attendance trends?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Well, let me, let me just, Robert, let me give you just a comment or two on that. I mean, you know, international, you know, when relative to 2019, continues to be down. Look, it's down in kind of that 50% range. When you look at a kind of a run rate basis on an annual basis, that's, you know, over, you know, 1 million people. I think you've heard, you know, at least one of our competitors here in Orlando talk about, you know, international being down for them as well. I'm not, you know, that's international. The group business, you know, we talked about the bookings, the revenue bookings there are strong, you know, hopefully that continues.

You know, you have a little bit of a mixed bag there with, with those two. As far as just like domestic, you know, what I'll call tourism, if you will, or domestic kind of visitation into the markets, you know, when we look, when we look across, you know, all our parks, our domestic attendance is up a little bit. Then, you know, for the quarter, what, you know, what's down is more in your kind of people that are closer in your local same day. That kind of makes sense when you think about it, because those are the folks that have the ability to react to weather the quickest and things like that, and can delay their visit if need be.

Robert Aurand (Equity Research Associate)

Understood. Then just a quick follow-up on Abu Dhabi. I, I think you mentioned $700,000 in the quarter. I think last call, you were talking about a low to mid single-digit million-dollar EBITDA impact for the year. Are there any updates there, given attendance is trending better than you expected?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Hey, Robert, I would still use that low to, low to, mid single digit millions. You know, we'll just have to see. The park, park just, you know, is still really, really new. We're excited about it, obviously, but I think you can stick with the, the, the kind of the guidance or modeling we, we gave you last time, last quarter.

Operator (participant)

The next question comes from Barton Crockett with Rosenblatt. Please go ahead.

Barton Crockett (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Hey, thanks for taking the question. I was interested in hearing if you are detecting any impact on the attitude of your customer base from all of the experience that we've had and all of the media reporting around climate change. You know, consumers being asked to, you know, buy a season pass, which is a financial commitment that exposes them to weather. Weather was, you know, pretty bad this year. A lot of media reporting about, you know, this being kind of a new normal. Is this impacting people's desire to buy a season pass in what you see from your customer base?

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Hey, Barton, I can try to give you an answer on that. I'll, I'll do the best I can. Look, I think as I, as I said, weather certainly impacted the quarter. It, it impacted July. We know there's obviously, because of weather, there's people who, who likely did not buy a pass or obviously buy a ticket or, or come to visit. You know, I don't know what, what that means over the long term. I would like to think that weather eventually normalizes over some longer period of time. We'll, we'll have to see. I think we just have to be cognizant of, of, of years where we have difficult weather like this year. We have to try to give people still reasons to come visit.

We can try to make the park, more, more comfortable on a hot day or, or, you know, try to do other things. We can heat our pools if we had to, in our water parks in some cases. So we may just have to think about things, differently, a little bit, but I think we're still very early to, to say if, if, if there's some seismic shift here in how people think about it. I think hopefully these things will normalize out over time.

Barton Crockett (Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst)

Okay, that's it. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the floor back to Marc Swanson for closing remarks.

Marc Swanson (CEO)

Thank you, MJ. On behalf of Jim and the rest of the management team at SeaWorld Entertainment, I want to thank you for joining us this morning. As you heard today, we are confident in our long-term strategy, which we believe will drive improved operating and financial results and long-term value for stakeholders. Thank you. We look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

Operator (participant)

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your line.