Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Business
Speaker 1: Week with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: How about a trip to bamf Maybe do some skiing,
Speaker 2: or in the summer do some cycling time. Visit some
Speaker 2: fjords in Alaska, see some glaciers, will sea lions done, done,
Speaker 2: whitewater rafting Montana.
Speaker 3: I just sign me up for all of it.
Speaker 2: They're all experiences offered by Pursuit. It calls itself a
Speaker 2: quote pure play hospitality and attractions company. It's got a
Speaker 2: roughly one hundred and fifty million dollar market cap. The
Speaker 2: company recently completing a rebrand and ringing the bell today
Speaker 2: at the New York Stock Exchange. We got with us
Speaker 2: David Barry. He's president and CEO of Pursuit. He joins
Speaker 2: us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio.
Speaker 4: Welcome, so good to be here.
Speaker 5: I am a longtime fewer first time guests, so I'm excited.
Speaker 5: Thank you both for having me.
Speaker 2: Well hopefully the first of many, although after this question
Speaker 2: you might not want to come back, because this is
Speaker 2: where we got to start. We had a big press
Speaker 2: conference from the President elect Today, who said he wanted
Speaker 2: to absorb Canada and suggested using economic force to make
Speaker 2: Canada the fifty first US state. You have assets in Canada,
Speaker 2: you offer experiences in Canada. Do you take something like
Speaker 2: this seriously?
Speaker 5: You know, it's a little bit like when your family's
Speaker 5: visiting and everyone has a different point of view. There's
Speaker 5: three subjects and we all know what they are that
Speaker 5: you want to avoid at a family dinner during a
Speaker 5: holiday period, and thou shalt not talk about politics.
Speaker 4: But you might not the other one.
Speaker 2: But you have to plan for different different contingencies here,
Speaker 2: like is there a future where you're you know, you're
Speaker 2: not required to use a passport if you're an American
Speaker 2: to go to Canada, because it is indeed the fifty
Speaker 2: first state.
Speaker 5: It makes me think of what percentage of folks actually
Speaker 5: don't have passports. But what's exciting in our world is
Speaker 5: we have a broad appeal for guests around the world
Speaker 5: to come and visit. And you know what's unique about
Speaker 5: our business insightseeing and attractions and hospitality is everyone in
Speaker 5: the world loves a beautiful view. Doesn't matter where you're from,
Speaker 5: it doesn't matter what language you speak, doesn't matter whether
Speaker 5: you can ski or golf or you have any athletic
Speaker 5: ability at all.
Speaker 4: All you have to do is love a beautiful view.
Speaker 2: So it's not keeping up, it's not keeping you up
Speaker 2: at night, No, sir, okay.
Speaker 3: Not worried at all.
Speaker 4: We're still sitting. You haven't left us, Not worried at all.
Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting. Well okay, so what does worry you
Speaker 3: at this point? What does the environment the you know,
Speaker 3: for tourism, we've talked about coming off the pandemic, all
Speaker 3: people want to do is experience things and go out
Speaker 3: and do things. They want to get out of their
Speaker 3: house to do things. Is that continuing or give us
Speaker 3: some perspective versus what you've seen over the last couple
Speaker 3: of years.
Speaker 5: Well, what's everyone looking for? And then our opinion, they're
Speaker 5: looking for authenticity. So no one goes to Iceland to
Speaker 5: experience Alaska. They're going for very unique things around the world,
Speaker 5: and so buy less stuff, do more things. Life is precious.
Speaker 5: This is no dress rehearsal right, you might as well
Speaker 5: go and see and do the amazing things that you
Speaker 5: would like to do. And that's really what makes our
Speaker 5: business model work. And that you know, We're in a
Speaker 5: rather unique position. We have a ten year head start,
Speaker 5: a ten year track record of great investments that have
Speaker 5: driven shareholder value, and it's a way for us to
Speaker 5: position ourselves into the future, continue to grow and think
Speaker 5: of iconic, unforgettable and inspiring experiences.
Speaker 3: So, David, the demand though continues at the pace you've
Speaker 3: seen over the last year or two, like, give us
Speaker 3: an idea in terms of what consumers are up to.
Speaker 5: I think consumers are excited, and yes there are there
Speaker 5: are certain segments of the consumer base that are more
Speaker 5: pro sensitive. But in the markets that we're dealing with,
Speaker 5: folks are ready to go and spend money on great experiences,
Speaker 5: and you've just got to work hard to deliver to
Speaker 5: people's expectations.
Speaker 2: Fourteen attractions around the world, twenty eight lodges, fifty one
Speaker 2: restaurants and other dining experience. You've got fifty one retail stores.
Speaker 2: How do they all come together to offer sort of
Speaker 2: a package. Because when I see some of these experiences,
Speaker 2: I say, Okay, this is a good one off here,
Speaker 2: But how do you get to control the entire experience
Speaker 2: with these assets?
Speaker 5: So think of Pursuit as a house of brands, not
Speaker 5: a branded house.
Speaker 4: So think of human behavior.
Speaker 5: And you had mentioned Baff and you might you know,
Speaker 5: you're planning a cycling trip to Baff with your buddies.
Speaker 4: Sound good, You're planning the common sounds like he knows
Speaker 4: Tim a little bit.
Speaker 5: Do some searching and upcoms and you search bamp as
Speaker 5: a destination, and then the next thing you enter in
Speaker 5: the search bar is great things to do in Bamp.
Speaker 5: Damn Up it comes Lake Milwauka, boat tours or the
Speaker 5: BAMF gondola or any of our different experiences.
Speaker 4: So we're lucky.
Speaker 5: We get to surf behind the power of the destination,
Speaker 5: which drives search results and drive.
Speaker 2: But all those things are your assets that you mentioned, correct, Okay,
Speaker 2: So I want to bring in Elizabeth Sedrin's comment from
Speaker 2: a little earlier today.
Speaker 3: She was one of our producers.
Speaker 2: There's one of our producers. She said, are they trying
Speaker 2: to compete with a company like Veil Resorts? And I
Speaker 2: said to myself, Oh, I said to Elizabeth, I don't
Speaker 2: think they are. But now, after hearing you say that,
Speaker 2: you remind me of what happened over the last twenty years.
Speaker 2: And I think Elizabeth was right when Vale Resorts bought
Speaker 2: Colorado Mountain Express and now rebranded it Epic Express, or
Speaker 2: especially Sports Ventures, the chain of rental shops where you
Speaker 2: rent skis and stuff, so then they control every different
Speaker 2: aspect of a tourist dollar that comes out.
Speaker 5: So I spent three decades in skiing in a former life,
Speaker 5: and I can tell you the one thing that's very
Speaker 5: different in our world is we're not getting involved in skiing.
Speaker 5: So I don't need snow and I don't need anyone
Speaker 5: with an ability to ski. So all you have to
Speaker 5: do to enjoy our experiences is enjoy a beautiful view.
Speaker 5: And so we have a simple strategy refresh, build, buy,
Speaker 5: So refresh existing experiences, build things that are unique and
Speaker 5: connected for guests to visit and enjoy, and then buy
Speaker 5: things that we think fit our platform.
Speaker 3: But the idea is you want a customer to go
Speaker 3: to one of your locations or one of your experiences
Speaker 3: and hopefully continue to do other experience.
Speaker 4: It's correct.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you want a guest to really think about when
Speaker 5: they're visiting a destination, how do they connect with what
Speaker 5: is authentic in that destination and what is unique and
Speaker 5: different because so much of the world is the same
Speaker 5: when you travel. So if you can create uniqueness, a
Speaker 5: guest then enjoys going from one experience to another.
Speaker 3: Okay, not apples to apples. Our Charlie Pellett is a
Speaker 3: big cruiser, a lot of cruise ships. We talked to
Speaker 3: the Carnival CEO. I'm like, I'm saying, not apples to apples.
Speaker 3: But there are often repeat customers and I've done piece
Speaker 3: Is where I'm on a cruise ship and they're like, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is my thirteenth cruise and my twentieth cruise. If
Speaker 3: you will, how many of the people who do some
Speaker 3: one of your experiences come back and do others.
Speaker 5: I do think we have less frequency than the cruise
Speaker 5: industry in terms of that really devoted, participative type visitor.
Speaker 5: But what we do have is folks that really enjoy
Speaker 5: an experience, say in the Canadian Rockies, and the next
Speaker 5: year they're looking to go to Alaska and experience that,
Speaker 5: or they've somehow gotten into the Pursuit website through a
Speaker 5: variety of different things and they realize we have an
Speaker 5: amazing attraction in Iceland called sky Lagoon, and so they
Speaker 5: weren't really planning to go to Iceland through US, but
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, they're going to Iceland and have
Speaker 5: an experience that they know. Wow, the BAF Gondola is
Speaker 5: so much fun. I'm pretty sure sky Lagoon's going to
Speaker 5: be fun.
Speaker 2: Do people know that the Jasper Skytram or the BAMF
Speaker 2: Gondola is owned by Pursuit?
Speaker 4: Some do, some don't.
Speaker 5: We brand everything sort of an experience by Pursuit, but
Speaker 5: we want the experience in Jasper to be very unique
Speaker 5: and connected to Jasper.
Speaker 4: Jasper is a very unique place.
Speaker 5: If you told a citizen Jasper that we want you
Speaker 5: to be like Bamp, you know they would come for
Speaker 5: you with the pike and the muskets. Right, It's not
Speaker 5: what they want. They want their experience in Jasper to
Speaker 5: be truly unique. So uniqueness and authenticity is the order
Speaker 5: of the day.
Speaker 3: Is expansion of where you offer up new locations? David,
Speaker 3: are you thinking very carefully about you want to make
Speaker 3: sure that while it's a different experience, the level is
Speaker 3: the same, so that people understand the Pursuit brand stands
Speaker 3: for something.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I can cover our criteria for acquisition and growth
Speaker 5: really quickly. So one is it iconic? Is it unforgettable?
Speaker 5: Is it inspiring, does it have perennial demand? Are there
Speaker 5: big barriers to entry? Is it an ebitdal margin that's attractive?
Speaker 5: So we run at thirty percent ebadal margin before a
Speaker 5: public company costs, which a great margin.
Speaker 4: Do we want to go down to fourteen? Well? No,
Speaker 4: it's got to be something that.
Speaker 5: We think is going to be able to be improved.
Speaker 5: And then finally we look for good neighborhoods. What I
Speaker 5: mean by that is goodrula law, good property protection, good
Speaker 5: places to do business in that our investments will be
Speaker 5: well protected.
Speaker 2: Where are you thinking about expanding to or buying assets in?
Speaker 5: So firstly, I mean we're very lucky and that we've
Speaker 5: identified a couple of growth leavers. One is internally within
Speaker 5: the business where we can invest and make things better,
Speaker 5: and we've put about two hundred million dollars aside for
Speaker 5: that growth over between now and twenty twenty nine. But
Speaker 5: on the acquisition side, what are we looking for. It's
Speaker 5: got to be iconic, it's got to be unforgettable, got
Speaker 5: to be inspiring. Sdona's pretty iconic place a good example.
Speaker 2: Well, what could you acquire in a place like that
Speaker 2: that would add to your portfolio?
Speaker 5: You know, I'm not sure I would say even if
Speaker 5: I knew, but I think the opportunities we have are
Speaker 5: really global in nature. We're very concentrated North America Q
Speaker 5: two Q three, So the benefit of being doing something
Speaker 5: counter seasonal if we could you know, we're very weighted
Speaker 5: to the calendar of Q three in North America, so
Speaker 5: we've got opportunity counter seasonally and that leads you to
Speaker 5: different locations around the world. So yeah, if we could
Speaker 5: be busy December to April, that'd be even better.
Speaker 3: So global acquisitions at some point absolutely.
Speaker 5: Now, I mean the benefit of this transformation of the
Speaker 5: sale of GS and the repositioning of Pursuit and our
Speaker 5: new clean, strong balance sheet is guess what, We've got
Speaker 5: a great pipeline, we've got a great plan, we've got
Speaker 5: a great strategy, and now we've got great drive powder
Speaker 5: to go do somethings.
Speaker 4: So we're excited.
Speaker 3: So I'm going to say, yes, global acquisitions, man, So
Speaker 3: talk to us about pricing. David, I'm just curious, and
Speaker 3: I know we talked a little bit in the break
Speaker 3: before we got back here live on air, but I'm
Speaker 3: just curious, like, what is give us an idea of
Speaker 3: range kind of things. So we have an idea.
Speaker 5: It really depends on the experience. So we have some
Speaker 5: attraction products that are very accessible for people, and you
Speaker 5: can do that based on time of day, tim how
Speaker 5: old are.
Speaker 2: The kids, uh, two and six?
Speaker 5: Let's say, all right, so you travel from the East
Speaker 5: coast to Banff and at eight o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 5: your kids are wide away because it's ten o'clock New
Speaker 5: York time, and they're bouncing around the hotel room looking
Speaker 5: for something to do. You, my friend, are a prime
Speaker 5: character to take a breakfast program and a gondola ride.
Speaker 4: With little kids.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sounds about it.
Speaker 5: It's like Carol maybe a little more relaxed ye in
Speaker 5: the after Yeah. So there's the sleeping crowd, and there's
Speaker 5: the early morning crowd, my friend, and you're part of
Speaker 5: the early morning crowd. So there's a good example of
Speaker 5: your pricing and providing an experience that's well suited to
Speaker 5: someone at that particular time of day is.
Speaker 3: Part of the business strategy to make sure that you've
Speaker 3: got different price points.
Speaker 5: You bet and your price dynamically, and you also work
Speaker 5: hard to provide value. So we get asked all the time.
Speaker 5: You're going to continue to take price. Real question is
Speaker 5: are you going to continue to improve experiences? Because when
Speaker 5: you improve experiences, you have pricing power. It's not just
Speaker 5: taking price and making everybody answer to.
Speaker 3: Work something on sale or offering a discount or something
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 5: You're always going to have channels a distribution where you're potentially,
Speaker 5: if you have a time of day that you want
Speaker 5: to move more folks into, you're going to price that advantageously.
Speaker 5: But can you create an amazing product that people are
Speaker 5: going to feel comfortable paying a fair price for.
Speaker 2: I I you said earlier that the a big difference
Speaker 2: between you and the ski industry and the big conglomerates
Speaker 2: out there now is that you're not focused at all
Speaker 2: on skiing. Does that make you less concerned about climate change?
Speaker 5: Well, I think the benefit for us is where we're
Speaker 5: not focused on any particular athletic skill that you need
Speaker 5: to enjoy a product. All you need to do is
Speaker 5: enjoy a beautiful view. So in our summer destinations, climate
Speaker 5: change is less of a factor. But we're very sensitive
Speaker 5: to We have one planet and we want to make
Speaker 5: sure that we do everything we can to protect this
Speaker 5: planet and be mindful and if you go to our website,
Speaker 5: you'll see a thing called Promise to Place where we
Speaker 5: talk about sustainability, respect and community. Those are the three
Speaker 5: things we spend a lot of time on. We report
Speaker 5: very candidly. Sometimes it makes us uncomfortable, but we tell
Speaker 5: the truth about what we're doing and what's working and
Speaker 5: what's not working, and what we're going to do to
Speaker 5: make it better.
Speaker 3: So I am curious in terms of running a business
Speaker 3: labor like hospitality. We talk about it a lot and
Speaker 3: access to enough workers? Do you guys have all the
Speaker 3: workers that you need?
Speaker 4: We do.
Speaker 5: And what makes that happen is people want to voice.
Speaker 5: They want to work in a place where their opinion
Speaker 5: is respected and heard. They want to understand what is
Speaker 5: the greater purpose of this organization. We do multiple team
Speaker 5: member surveys in a year. The amount of comments we
Speaker 5: get are incredible. I do a live town hall broadcast
Speaker 5: every month where people can ask questions anonymously, and they do.
Speaker 5: And so it's all those things that work to create culture.
Speaker 5: So a culture of respect, a culture of innovation, a
Speaker 5: culture of great leadership and genuine interest in others will
Speaker 5: drive great hospitality experiences.
Speaker 2: Okay, what's an experiential trend that you're seeing happen right
Speaker 2: now that you haven't tapped into yet, Like, what what
Speaker 2: do you see out there? Like I want to go
Speaker 2: do that because that looks really cool. I've never done
Speaker 2: it before. We don't offer it.
Speaker 5: I think that there are things that involve winter product
Speaker 5: in exotic destinations that people are experimenting with, and so
Speaker 5: that might be any gloo in the Northern Lights, and
Speaker 5: you know in Iceland at sky Lagoon, we will get
Speaker 5: complaints every once in a while, like I.
Speaker 4: Came for the Northern lights and they did not appear.
Speaker 4: Can you make that happen? Then, mother Nature?
Speaker 5: You just smile and you know, I'm only God's assistant.
Speaker 5: I can only do so much. But the benefit of
Speaker 5: looking at how do you continue to innovate? And we're
Speaker 5: lucky we work in a vibrant, relentless, restless culture that
Speaker 5: always wants to innovate, and so we have teams. Every
Speaker 5: day they're waking up with a great idea. So there's
Speaker 5: not one thing, specifically, tim that I would say. I
Speaker 5: would just say there's a thousand things the team's working
Speaker 5: on right now that are exciting.
Speaker 3: Starting out as a scheme instructor. It worked out pretty well.
Speaker 3: You're pretty happy, right.
Speaker 5: I'm pretty like somehow I made it here, I don't
Speaker 5: know on your show, so I'm could cross my fingers
Speaker 5: and try not to say anything dumb.
Speaker 3: Well really fun. Let us know has the year progresses,
Speaker 3: and let us know how things are going.
Speaker 4: You bet, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Love to hear back from you. David Barry, he's president
Speaker 3: and CEO of Pursuit, joining us right here in studio.
Speaker 3: Ticker is PRSU. And you guys were at the New
Speaker 3: York's docus Change rang the opening about pretty cool stuff