Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE:RHP) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And we’re now seeing that longer-range booking window really start to fill back up from a funnel perspective. And so we’re really pleased with the bookings that we had and the rate and the mix of business, but we’re even more excited by the fact that the funnel is really filling back up for that long-term business, and it just gives us more confidence that as we talk about these CapEx investments, we’re getting more visibility and greater opportunities to really fill up the book of business for the future.

Dori Kesten: Okay. And then I guess one more thing on ICE, and I apologize if I missed this. Historically, have you found that your ICE guest is a repeat guest from the summer?

Patrick Chaffin: From a summertime perspective, the local traveler, I would say, yes, because you have a great example is a lot of the guests that are coming to Opryland to go to sound waves are then returning to come back and do the holiday programming in ICE around Christmas time. The regional traveler, it’s more of a onetime a year type tradition for them because there’s just not a whole lot of options for them at the holidays. So I would say the local traveler is a repeat customer. The regional traveler is more of a once a time come in, bring the whole family. This is where they all gather for the holidays.

Dori Kesten: Okay. Thank you.

Patrick Chaffin: All right, Travis. One more question please.

Operator: Yes, sir.. Our final question comes from Shaun Kelley, Bank of America

Shaun Kelley: Hi. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for putting on me here. So Colin, Patrick, just maybe first off, as we think about the development plans or the CapEx side and the $1 billion that you laid out, Colin. Do we have any more precision around kind of ground breaks, particularly the Rockies? Just trying to think through the timing here and the cadence because I know those have been on the radar screen for a while, is now the right time to start to get there given where the portfolio is at in its recovery. And that something we’re going to get more explicit color on it at some point in the near or medium term?

Colin Reed: Yeah. Good question. The answer is we’re going through that process with our Board first, which Mark and I, as I said, he and I will be starting that process on next Thursday morning with our Board of Directors. Patrick and his team have been working their tails off over the last six months, literally looking at, as I said, somewhere between 15 and 20 projects. And by the way, this does not include the regular scheduled room refurbs. The $1 billion basically is raffle of magnitude are really new projects that we’re looking at. But the process is the way we want to go through this is over the next two, three months to refine that plan with our Board, get confident with each of the markets that we’re going to deploy capital in build the cadence of that.

And then Mark and Jen have been figuring out a time for us to do a really high-quality IR Investor Day in Nashville, and we’re thinking we were trying to get it done before the holidays, but with everything that we’ve got scheduled, that’s going to be impossible. But I think Jen and Mark, you’re thinking now sort of late January, early February type time frame. And what we would be doing then, I think, Shaun, is laying out these are the projects that we really like. These are the markets that we will be deploying capital in, and this will be the order of play. And I suspect, though, between now and that Investor Relations Day, IR Day, we may pull the trigger on one or two of these, Patrick, that are really high priority for us.