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| Statement |
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| Much like Andermatt-Sedrun, the company believes Crans-Montana has a unique opportunity for future growth |
| Having a base of so many guests that are pre-committed into a pass, certainly, helped us enable us to deliver the strong EBITDA up |
| Q2 was 42% less snowfall and visitation impacted by that seems the spend visit looking healthy and strong on ski school, dining and rental, I think, is also a very strong indicator |
| We remain confident in the strong free cash flow generation and stability of the underlying business model |
| Resort EBITDA margin also improved 3.3 points in the second quarter compared to the prior year driven by disciplined cost management |
| "While visitation declined, our ancillary businesses performed well, in particular our ski and ride school, dining and rental businesses experienced strong growth in spending per visit compared to the prior year |
| On average, pass prices have increased 8% over the prior season's launch price and continue to represent tremendous value to our guests, further supporting our compelling network of mountain resorts, our strong guest experience created at each mountain resort, and our commitment to invest in the guest experience |
| So you heard that in our comments about ski school, about dining, about the rental business, and we're really pleased to see that behavior |
| Despite the decline in season-to-date visitation relative to the prior year period, we are pleased with lift revenue growth driven by the stability created from our season pass program, the strength in our ancillary spending per skier visit across our ski school, dining, and rental businesses, and the improving trends as the season progresses |
| At Park City, we are in the planning process to support the approved replacement of the Sunrise lift with a new 10-person gondola, in partnership with the Canyons Village Management Association in calendar year 2025, which will provide improved access and enhanced guest experience for existing and future developments within the Canyons Village |
| As we noted, we did achieved growth in our rental yields, which we're very pleased about season-to-date |
| And then you saw on ski school, right, up 5.5% on revenue growth, which was obviously much higher than the visitation trend, which shows that we continue to have success driving both volume and capture across that line business as well |
| The 2023/2024 My Epic Gear pilot at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone is delivering a strong guest experience to pilot participants and valuable learnings for the business launch |
| But I think the spending on ancillary is certainly, I think, a positive indicator for the business as is even with the challenging snow conditions and lower visitation that our overall EBITDA was up for the quarter |
| And I'd say similar for Crans-Montana, which is a very well-known brand, and we believe with investment has a unique growth potential |
| And so we do see opportunities here for both resource efficiency and for right what we've talked about in terms of ways that we can expand our margins over time |
| And we believe that Andermatt-Sedrun has unique growth potential because of the nature of the resort and the investments that have been made there and that we will make there |
| It is also that we are very fortunate that we have an enormous amount of loyalty among our guest base and our pass holder base, and it is really incumbent on us to keep reinvesting into the guest experience in dining My Epic Gear innovation like the app that keep – retain that loyalty and also retain that spend that you asked about |
| Given the unfavorable conditions across our North American resorts, we are pleased that our results for the quarter demonstrate the resiliency of our strategic business model and our network of resorts and loyal guests |
| We remain dedicated to delivering an exceptional guest experience, and we will continue to prioritize reinvesting in the experience at our resorts, including consistently increasing capacity through lift, terrain, and food and beverage expansion projects, along with investments in technology to further elevate the guest and employee experience at our resorts |
| We do see our broadly the ability to move this over time, right? We do have a high cost structure, which gives us operating leverage tied to the revenue growth of the company |
| For the remainder of the season, we are expecting improved performance compared to the season-to-date period, including an expected shift in visitation patterns into March and April |
| We greatly appreciate the loyalty of our guests visiting across our entire network of resorts this season and the continued loyalty of our pass holders that have already committed to next season |
| We took a 20% price reset in FY2022 based on price elasticity data and the goal to move a much greater percentage of our visits committed in advance for this exact reason that trying to create stability because of the weather variability that impacts the ski industry, and we were quite successful in doing that |
| "Despite the impacts of conditions, Resort reported EBITDA for the second quarter increased approximately 8% compared to the prior year, primarily driven by the stability created by our season pass results |
| We did, however, see were President's weekend the trends improve, not all the way to our expectations, but the trends did improve over that President's Day holiday |
| I think for the guests that did come, we did see, as we noted, the strong spend per guest |
| Our balance sheet remains strong, including total cash and revolver availability as of January 31, 2024, of approximately $1.4 billion with $812 million of cash on hand and $630 million of combined revolver availability across our credit agreements |
| In the prepared remarks, it's mentioned that you're rolling out enhanced snowmaking systems at Park City and Hunter Mountain to improve the guest experience |
| This lift is expected to provide a meaningful increase to uphill capacity and better distribute guests at a central part of the resort |
| Statement |
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| As Kirsten mentioned, the results for the second quarter were negatively impacted by unfavorable conditions across our North American resorts |
| Due to the season-to-date underperformance, we are lowering our guidance for fiscal 2024 |
| The results for the second quarter were negatively impacted by challenging conditions at all of our North American resorts through January with approximately 42% lower snowfall across our western North American resorts compared to the same period in the prior year and limited natural snow and variable temperatures at our Eastern U.S |
| Across our North American resorts, unfavorable conditions negatively impacted season-to-date visitation, which was below both prior year levels and our expectations based on the number of guests visiting and their frequency |
| If you look at Q2, I would say, incredibly challenging conditions, as we noted, 42% lower snowfall than the prior year, which definitely had an impact on visitation |
| And there are also some headwinds in retail that I think are not dissimilar from what's happening in the outdoor retail industry overall right now |
| Unfavorable conditions negatively impacted season-to-date visitation, which was down 9.7% compared to the fiscal year 2023 season-to-date period |
| So fair to say that the rough expectations were for both of those were, I guess, equally disappointing? Or was one any less bad than or less worse than you expected? Kirsten Lynch I would say both segments were impacted due to the snow conditions and the in terms of the year-over-year and versus our expectations, both were impacted |
| holiday weekend, challenging conditions persisted until early March at Whistler Blackcomb and our Tahoe resorts, and while conditions improved at our Rockies and Eastern resorts, visitation did not improve as quickly as expected |
| We continue to see some challenging conditions at Whistler Blackcomb and Tahoe while conditions improved at the Rockies – in the Rockies and the East |
| We expect a portion of the lower visitation is related to the challenging conditions in the first half of the season as well as a shift in visitation patterns |
| And we, of course, being in the ski business have had many years where we've had weather challenges and disruptions so that we can see that |
| Visits, however, did not improve as we had expected |
| But I'd say overall, visitation was impacted across the board by having snowfall down so substantially across the network |
| You called out those challenging conditions |
| I mean, last year, we had you had poor weather and you had great pass sales the next year |
| It declined 15% in the quarter |
| So as we think about this year, this year and their utilization is greatly impacted by I don't think I can emphasize enough, snowfall being down 42% is a significant impact on the ski industry |
| For our [inflow] business results, season-to-date ski school revenue was up 5.5%, dining revenue was down 0.5% and combined retail and rental revenue for North American resort and ski area locations was down 9.3% compared to the prior year period |
| And so can you look back at times when you had two years in a row of poor weather or even one year |
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