Exploring the Outdoors

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.

How about a trip to bamf Maybe do some skiing, or in the summer do some cycling time. Visit some fjords in Alaska, see some glaciers, will sea lions done, done, whitewater rafting Montana.

I just sign me up for all of it.

They're all experiences offered by Pursuit. It calls itself a quote pure play hospitality and attractions company. It's got a roughly one hundred and fifty million dollar market cap. The company recently completing a rebrand and ringing the bell today at the New York Stock Exchange. We got with us David Barry. He's president and CEO of Pursuit. He joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio.

Welcome, so good to be here.

I am a longtime fewer first time guests, so I'm excited. Thank you both for having me.

Well hopefully the first of many, although after this question you might not want to come back, because this is where we got to start. We had a big press conference from the President elect Today, who said he wanted to absorb Canada and suggested using economic force to make Canada the fifty first US state. You have assets in Canada, you offer experiences in Canada. Do you take something like this seriously?

You know, it's a little bit like when your family's visiting and everyone has a different point of view. There's three subjects and we all know what they are that you want to avoid at a family dinner during a holiday period, and thou shalt not talk about politics.

But you might not the other one.

But you have to plan for different different contingencies here, like is there a future where you're you know, you're not required to use a passport if you're an American to go to Canada, because it is indeed the fifty first state.

It makes me think of what percentage of folks actually don't have passports. But what's exciting in our world is we have a broad appeal for guests around the world to come and visit. And you know what's unique about our business insightseeing and attractions and hospitality is everyone in the world loves a beautiful view. Doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter what language you speak, doesn't matter whether you can ski or golf or you have any athletic ability at all.

All you have to do is love a beautiful view.

So it's not keeping up, it's not keeping you up at night, No, sir, okay.

Not worried at all.

We're still sitting. You haven't left us, Not worried at all.

Well, it's interesting. Well okay, so what does worry you at this point? What does the environment the you know, for tourism, we've talked about coming off the pandemic, all people want to do is experience things and go out and do things. They want to get out of their house to do things. Is that continuing or give us some perspective versus what you've seen over the last couple of years.

Well, what's everyone looking for? And then our opinion, they're looking for authenticity. So no one goes to Iceland to experience Alaska. They're going for very unique things around the world, and so buy less stuff, do more things. Life is precious. This is no dress rehearsal right, you might as well go and see and do the amazing things that you would like to do. And that's really what makes our business model work. And that you know, We're in a

So, David, the demand though continues at the pace you've seen over the last year or two, like, give us an idea in terms of what consumers are up to.

I think consumers are excited, and yes there are there are certain segments of the consumer base that are more pro sensitive. But in the markets that we're dealing with, folks are ready to go and spend money on great experiences, and you've just got to work hard to deliver to people's expectations.

Fourteen attractions around the world, twenty eight lodges, fifty one restaurants and other dining experience. You've got fifty one retail stores. How do they all come together to offer sort of a package. Because when I see some of these experiences, I say, Okay, this is a good one off here, But how do you get to control the entire experience with these assets?

So think of Pursuit as a house of brands, not a branded house.

So think of human behavior.

And you had mentioned Baff and you might you know, you're planning a cycling trip to Baff with your buddies.

Sound good, You're planning the common sounds like he knows Tim a little bit.

Do some searching and upcoms and you search bamp as a destination, and then the next thing you enter in the search bar is great things to do in Bamp. Damn Up it comes Lake Milwauka, boat tours or the BAMF gondola or any of our different experiences.

So we're lucky.

We get to surf behind the power of the destination, which drives search results and drive.

But all those things are your assets that you mentioned, correct, Okay, So I want to bring in Elizabeth Sedrin's comment from a little earlier today.

She was one of our producers.

There's one of our producers. She said, are they trying to compete with a company like Veil Resorts? And I said to myself, Oh, I said to Elizabeth, I don't think they are. But now, after hearing you say that, you remind me of what happened over the last twenty years.

So I spent three decades in skiing in a former life, and I can tell you the one thing that's very different in our world is we're not getting involved in skiing. So I don't need snow and I don't need anyone with an ability to ski. So all you have to do to enjoy our experiences is enjoy a beautiful view.

But the idea is you want a customer to go to one of your locations or one of your experiences and hopefully continue to do other experience.

It's correct.

Yeah, you want a guest to really think about when they're visiting a destination, how do they connect with what is authentic in that destination and what is unique and different because so much of the world is the same when you travel. So if you can create uniqueness, a guest then enjoys going from one experience to another.

Okay, not apples to apples. Our Charlie Pellett is a big cruiser, a lot of cruise ships. We talked to the Carnival CEO. I'm like, I'm saying, not apples to apples. But there are often repeat customers and I've done piece Is where I'm on a cruise ship and they're like, yeah, this is my thirteenth cruise and my twentieth cruise. If you will, how many of the people who do some one of your experiences come back and do others.

I do think we have less frequency than the cruise industry in terms of that really devoted, participative type visitor.

Do people know that the Jasper Skytram or the BAMF Gondola is owned by Pursuit?

Some do, some don't.

We brand everything sort of an experience by Pursuit, but we want the experience in Jasper to be very unique and connected to Jasper.

Jasper is a very unique place.

If you told a citizen Jasper that we want you to be like Bamp, you know they would come for you with the pike and the muskets. Right, It's not what they want. They want their experience in Jasper to be truly unique. So uniqueness and authenticity is the order of the day.

Is expansion of where you offer up new locations? David, are you thinking very carefully about you want to make sure that while it's a different experience, the level is the same, so that people understand the Pursuit brand stands for something.

Yeah, I can cover our criteria for acquisition and growth really quickly. So one is it iconic? Is it unforgettable? Is it inspiring, does it have perennial demand? Are there big barriers to entry? Is it an ebitdal margin that's attractive? So we run at thirty percent ebadal margin before a public company costs, which a great margin.

Do we want to go down to fourteen? Well? No, it's got to be something that.

We think is going to be able to be improved. And then finally we look for good neighborhoods. What I mean by that is goodrula law, good property protection, good places to do business in that our investments will be well protected.

Where are you thinking about expanding to or buying assets in?

So firstly, I mean we're very lucky and that we've identified a couple of growth leavers. One is internally within the business where we can invest and make things better, and we've put about two hundred million dollars aside for that growth over between now and twenty twenty nine. But on the acquisition side, what are we looking for. It's got to be iconic, it's got to be unforgettable, got to be inspiring. Sdona's pretty iconic place a good example.

Well, what could you acquire in a place like that that would add to your portfolio?

You know, I'm not sure I would say even if I knew, but I think the opportunities we have are really global in nature. We're very concentrated North America Q two Q three, So the benefit of being doing something counter seasonal if we could you know, we're very weighted to the calendar of Q three in North America, so we've got opportunity counter seasonally and that leads you to different locations around the world. So yeah, if we could be busy December to April, that'd be even better.

So global acquisitions at some point absolutely.

Now, I mean the benefit of this transformation of the sale of GS and the repositioning of Pursuit and our new clean, strong balance sheet is guess what, We've got a great pipeline, we've got a great plan, we've got a great strategy, and now we've got great drive powder to go do somethings.

So we're excited.

So I'm going to say, yes, global acquisitions, man, So talk to us about pricing. David, I'm just curious, and I know we talked a little bit in the break before we got back here live on air, but I'm just curious, like, what is give us an idea of range kind of things. So we have an idea.

It really depends on the experience. So we have some attraction products that are very accessible for people, and you can do that based on time of day, tim how old are.

The kids, uh, two and six?

Let's say, all right, so you travel from the East coast to Banff and at eight o'clock in the morning, your kids are wide away because it's ten o'clock New York time, and they're bouncing around the hotel room looking for something to do. You, my friend, are a prime character to take a breakfast program and a gondola ride.

With little kids.

Yeah, that sounds about it.

It's like Carol maybe a little more relaxed ye in the after Yeah. So there's the sleeping crowd, and there's the early morning crowd, my friend, and you're part of the early morning crowd. So there's a good example of your pricing and providing an experience that's well suited to someone at that particular time of day is.

Part of the business strategy to make sure that you've got different price points.

You bet and your price dynamically, and you also work hard to provide value. So we get asked all the time. You're going to continue to take price. Real question is are you going to continue to improve experiences? Because when you improve experiences, you have pricing power. It's not just taking price and making everybody answer to.

Work something on sale or offering a discount or something like that.

You're always going to have channels a distribution where you're potentially, if you have a time of day that you want to move more folks into, you're going to price that advantageously. But can you create an amazing product that people are going to feel comfortable paying a fair price for.

I I you said earlier that the a big difference between you and the ski industry and the big conglomerates out there now is that you're not focused at all on skiing. Does that make you less concerned about climate change?

Well, I think the benefit for us is where we're not focused on any particular athletic skill that you need to enjoy a product. All you need to do is enjoy a beautiful view. So in our summer destinations, climate change is less of a factor. But we're very sensitive to We have one planet and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to protect this planet and be mindful and if you go to our website, you'll see a thing called Promise to Place where we

So I am curious in terms of running a business labor like hospitality. We talk about it a lot and access to enough workers? Do you guys have all the workers that you need?

We do.

And what makes that happen is people want to voice. They want to work in a place where their opinion is respected and heard. They want to understand what is the greater purpose of this organization. We do multiple team member surveys in a year. The amount of comments we get are incredible. I do a live town hall broadcast every month where people can ask questions anonymously, and they do. And so it's all those things that work to create culture.

Okay, what's an experiential trend that you're seeing happen right now that you haven't tapped into yet, Like, what what do you see out there? Like I want to go do that because that looks really cool. I've never done it before. We don't offer it.

I think that there are things that involve winter product in exotic destinations that people are experimenting with, and so that might be any gloo in the Northern Lights, and you know in Iceland at sky Lagoon, we will get complaints every once in a while, like I.

Came for the Northern lights and they did not appear. Can you make that happen? Then, mother Nature?

You just smile and you know, I'm only God's assistant. I can only do so much. But the benefit of looking at how do you continue to innovate? And we're lucky we work in a vibrant, relentless, restless culture that always wants to innovate, and so we have teams. Every day they're waking up with a great idea. So there's not one thing, specifically, tim that I would say. I would just say there's a thousand things the team's working on right now that are exciting.

Starting out as a scheme instructor. It worked out pretty well. You're pretty happy, right.

I'm pretty like somehow I made it here, I don't know on your show, so I'm could cross my fingers and try not to say anything dumb.

Well really fun. Let us know has the year progresses, and let us know how things are going.

You bet, Thank you so much.

Love to hear back from you. David Barry, he's president and CEO of Pursuit, joining us right here in studio. Ticker is PRSU. And you guys were at the New York's docus Change rang the opening about pretty cool stuff