Hello, and thank you for standing by. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the Lippland Expeditions Holdings, Inc. Report's 2025 First Quarter Financial Results. All lands have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to redraw your question, press star 1 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to Rick Colbert, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad's 2025 First Quarter Earnings Call. With me on today's call is Natalia Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer. Natalia will begin with some opening comments and I'll follow with details on our financial results and 2025 expectations before we open the call for Q&A. As always, you can find our latest earnings release in the investor relations section of our website. But before we get to all of that, I'd like to remind everyone that the company's comments today may include forward-looking statements. Those expectations are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results and performance to be materially different from these expectations. The company cannot guarantee the accuracy of any forecasts or estimates, and we undertake no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. If you would like more information on the risks involved in forward-looking statements, please see the company's SEC filings. In addition, our comments may reference non-GAAP financial measures, a reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and other associated disclosures are contained in the company's earnings release. With that out of the way, I'll turn the call over to Natalia.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us on this earnings call. Today, I'm pleased to share what I believe are excellent quarter one results. I could not be prouder of our team because our efforts focused on revenue management and operational excellence resulted in continued momentum in our business. For the quarter, revenues increased 17%, with lean blood expeditions segment generating 11% growth. Revenues in our land segment increased 38%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 39%, with margins improving to 260 basis points. I'm very happy to report that occupancy increased 13 points to 89%, compared to 76% in the prior year. The efforts and initiatives that we have put in place to drive occupancy perform in line with our expectations. and I am confident that we are on the path to return to pre-pandemic occupancy levels in 2026. We completed the 2025 wave season on a high note with record bookings, and bookings for 2025 and 2026 are tracking ahead of prior year in both segments. Net yields increased 25% to $1,521, the highest quarterly net yield in the company's history. Growth was driven by increases in occupancy and pricing due to dynamic revenue management and demand generation initiatives. These historical yield results are particularly impressive given that Lindblad increased capacity in the expedition segment by 49% since 2019. With these results, we have set a powerful tone for the year. As we navigate the complex macroeconomic environment, we remain optimistic that our guests will continue to prioritize meaningful experiences. While we are not immune to economic volatility, we believe our company is well positioned because we offer experiential travel that appeals to a demographic with high disposable income. Our focus will stay on the elements within our control, delivering exceptional adventure experiences, optimizing revenue, and innovating around cost efficiencies while investing in long-term growth talking about long-term growth on our last earnings call i shared with you three strategic pillars that will drive value creation for our shareholders number one maximizing revenue generation through higher occupancy pricing and deployment profitability both in the lean blood and land segments number two optimizing financial performance through smart cost innovations and better fixed assets utilization number three exploring and capitalizing on accretive cross opportunities including fleet expansion charters as well as potential additions to our brand portfolio I'm encouraged by our progress across all these areas let me share more detail on how we're continuing to execute against these strategic pillars first as a continued focus on optimizing occupancy we successfully piloted an on-board cruise sales program while our guests are on board our expeditions and having a wonderful experience our dedicated on-board expedition experts, help them to explore our various destinations, and plan and book their next adventure. During this pilot, we were able to drive early bookings, increase occupancy, and improve repeat rate and loyalty, generating a high return on investments for us. This program will be fully rolled out by the end of this year. Moving on to our Disney partnership, We continue to build on the momentum of our Disney activations. We are driving targeted direct mail and marketing campaigns. Recently, I, along with our sales team, spent a day with the 15 largest travel partners for Disney to discuss our brand and our strategic initiatives. Of these travel partners, only two have previously worked with us, creating a significant opportunity to expand our reach with these highly productive producers. We are only beginning to capitalize on the many opportunities that we have in front of us with this partnership, which will increase our exposure to a new audience. international expansion continues to be a focus for us and i just returned from the uk where we hosted a brand introduction event on board the national geographic endurance one of the most advanced and luxurious purpose-built expedition ships in the world the uk represents a very attractive market for us given its fast-growing adventure travel segment and large addressable market over 50 prominent travel and media partners including representatives from the daily mail sunday times the telegraph and others joined our event where we gave a comprehensive overview of our brand and the commercial strategy event attendees also had a chance to get experience and taste of our onboard culture and ship amenities the event was very well received and we are confident that combined with our focused efforts and disciplined investments will ignite growth in this market moving on to productivity improvements we continue to make progress on cost innovation and fixed assets utilization initiatives which drove operating expense leverage in the quarter additionally by optimizing our dry dock planning cycle we are pleased to announce the addition of three new voyages in 2026. next we continue to focus on accretive growth initiatives i am delighted that we just announced that national geographic expeditions will introduce European river experience through a long-term partnership with Transcend Cruises, who will provide a brand new ship for our debut in European rivers in April of 2026. This experience is something that our guests have long desired and will deeply enjoy by exploring Europe's storage rivers in a truly meaningful way. We know that how you see it matters, and that is why we have curated this river voyage with the same depth of care and expertise that defines all our expeditions. We will have National Geographic historians, naturalists, coupled with exclusive events that will go into each journey. as we continue to build progress around our strategic pillars we are also enhancing our financial transparency practices for our investors we're introducing net yield expectations for 2025 we expect net yield growth of 7 to 10 percent for the full year and rick will be providing more details on our yield expectations in his comments. Before I conclude, I want to reiterate our long-standing commitment to sustainability, which is the heart of our Lindblad mission. I will continue to share updates in this area because it showcases not only our commitment to responsible exploration, but also highlights our unique experiential propositions this commitment often translates into an incredible special and differentiated lean blood experience for our guests let me share just a couple of many amazing initiatives we recently completed our latest artisan training program collaborating with Indian wildlife artist, Niharika Rajput, who is also National Geographic Explorer. She hosted a week long artisan workshop in the Galapagos community to produce wildlife inspired art from recycled material. Giving artisans with supported for many years, new skills and techniques. We are proud that our program positively impacts communities by supporting local artisans and is funded through contributions from our onboard retail sales we also welcomed our 17th cohort of grovener teacher fellows where 35 educators will embark on expeditions to some of the most unique places in the world where they will learn from immersive field-based experiences and then share their knowledge back with their students in schools. In conclusion, we are pleased with our quarterly performance and the progress we are making against our strategic priorities to create value for shareholders. I repeat, we will remain focused on what we can control. Delivering exceptional adventure experiences, optimizing revenue, innovating around cost efficiency, and investing in long-term growth. With this approach, we are confident that we will delight our guests and shareholders alike. Thank you for your time today, and I will hand it over to Rick to provide details on our first quarter financial performance.

Thank you, Natalia. Lindblad's first quarter performance has the company well positioned to deliver another year of record financial results as we continue to expand our fleet, drive occupancy and net yield growth, and grow our portfolio of land experience businesses. In January, we closed our previously announced purchase of two expedition vessels, the National Geographic Gemini, and the National Geographic Delfina, which are both now sailing in the Galapagos. Now, I would like to review our first quarter results. Total company revenue for Q1 2025 was $180 million, an increase of $26 million, or 17%, versus Q1 2024. Lindblad segment revenues were 131 million, an increase of 13 million, or 11 percent, compared to prior year. As mentioned during our last call, available guest nights were down 12 percent, driven by the timing of dry docks and repositionings. However, occupancy increased 13 percentage points from 76 percent to 89 percent and net yield per an available guest night increased 25 percent to 1521 the highest in company history land experiences revenues were 49 million an increase of 13 million or 38 percent compared to q1 2024 driven by increased trips higher revenue per a guest and the inclusion of Wineland Thompson Adventures, an adventure travel group that primarily operates African safaris, which was acquired in July 2024. Q1 2025 adjusted EBITDA was 30 million, an increase of 8.4 million or 39% versus the prior year. This was driven by a 5.8 million or 29% increase at the Lindblad segment and a 2.5 million or 223% increase at the land experiences segment. looking closer at the cost side of our business i'm pleased to report that we delivered margin improvement this quarter operating expenses before depreciation and amortization interest in taxes increased 17.7 million or 13.4 percent versus q1 2024 cost of tours increased 8.4 million or 9.9 percent driven by operating additional land trips and the inclusion of thompson group Fuel costs were 5.6% of Lindblad's segment revenue, which is down 180 basis points versus a year ago. Sales and marketing costs increased 5.5 million, or 24.1%, primarily due to investments in demand generation efforts, including building our sales team and expanding into key international markets, as well as higher royalties associated with our new agreement with National Geographic. General and administrative costs, excluding stock-based compensation transaction related expenses and legal settlements increased 3.8 million or 15.5 percent versus a year ago driven by higher personnel costs one of our key strategic pillars is cost innovation our goal is to expand margins while maintaining the guest experience and our commitment to safety we've recently kicked off a number of efforts including supply chain and procurement crew planning and travel and dry dock optimization designed to increase margins over the long term while early we are realizing some benefits from our efforts already as natalia noted we're adding three additional voyages in 2026 due to our dry dock optimization efforts total company net income improved 5.2 million to 1 million dollars And income available to stockholders was roughly break-even, or zero cents per diluted share. This reflects a significant improvement in operations. As part of our efforts to better align our financial reporting with the underlying economics of the business, we have reclassified credit card processing fees from general and administrative expenses to cost of tours. Since these fees are directly tied to guest bookings, we believe this change more accurately reflects the true cost of delivering our services and improves the comparability of our gross margin to industry peers. This reclassification has no impact on operating income, EBITDA, or net income, but it will result in slightly higher reported cost of tours and lower general administrative expenses going forward. For comparability, we have also adjusted prior periods to reflect this change. turning to the balance sheet we ended the quarter with total cash of 235.2 million an increase of 19.1 million versus the end of 2024. the increase reflects 48.4 million in cash from operations due primarily to the results of the business and increased bookings for future travel we use 29 million of cash for investing activities which reflects 15.6 million using the addition of the new galapagos vessels and the increase in dry dock days despite an increase in capex in the quarter we generated healthy free cash flow as natalia shared earlier the company will continue to explore accretive growth opportunities including expanding our fleet and further diversifying our portfolio of land experience brands to capitalize on continued growth in the demand for adventure travel turning to full year guidance despite the recent macro economic turbulence we remain cautiously optimistic as booking curves remain ahead of prior year for 2025 and 2026 for both our linblad and land experience segments therefore we are reaffirming total company tour revenue between 700 million and 750 million and adjusted ebitda between 100 million and 112 million we are introducing net yield expectations for the first time this quarter by offering this guidance we aim to help investors better understand how we are managing occupancy pricing and onboard revenue growth for 2025 we expect net yield per available guest night to increase seven percent to ten percent versus the prior year to provide further context at the midpoint of that range, estimated 2025 net yields are expected to increase 21 percent compared to 2019 levels, despite a 49 percent increase in capacity, which is one of the highest capacity growth rates among cruise lines over this period. This combination of yield improvement with significant capacity growth demonstrates the strength of our business model and the robust demand for our offerings. With that, we thank you for your interest in Lindblad Expeditions. Natalia and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. And our first question comes from Steve Muschinski from Stupro, please go ahead.

Hey, guys. So, Natalia or Rick, I guess I'm surprised to see how strong occupancy was in the quarter. Natalia gave some commentary on her prepared remarks in terms of what drove that. But, you know, we thought the occupancy lift would be more of a 2026 story. And so I guess I'm a little bit surprised it moved so quickly. And it doesn't seem like there was discounting going on to drive occupancy, given how strong yields were. So, you know, was that was the move there somewhat related to the Disney partnership? You know, or is it just something else that we're not really thinking about? And then maybe, you know, how we should think about occupancy for the, you know, the remainder of the year.

Hey, good to hear from you. Thanks for lining up to ask your question first. I think that's a combination of multiple factors. One is our expanded audience, and that is directly related to Disney relationships, but as well as related to the fact that we're driving our charter businesses, group businesses, and a stronger revenue management strategy and a dynamic pricing. That all will remain true for the rest of the year and will continue to invest in those areas as we build towards 2026. We also did see the fluctuation in our dry docks, as you've seen our quarter one had a little bit less capacity than a year ago that contributed to the occupancy factor in Q1.

Okay, gotcha. And then I want to ask about the current booking environment, given all the macro noise that it's out in the marketplace at this point. Wondering what your, maybe give us a little bit more color in terms of what your bookings have looked like over the, whether it's the last month, over the last couple of weeks, have there's been any softness, any change in demand patterns? And then maybe also kind of help us understand where you're booked for 2026 versus the same point in time last year. And then, Rick, I don't know if you can help us think about cadence for the rest of the year in terms of yields, because your implied yield growth after the first quarter does show a little bit of deceleration over the last three quarters. So just trying to get a little bit more color there as well. Thanks.

Thank you, Steve. Well, let me start, and Rick will add a little more color on kind of yield between the quarters. So So, first of all, I've stressed in my remarks, and I'll just repeat, our 25 and 26 bookings remain ahead of prior year across both segments. And I am pleased to see that we built quite a bit of a buffer in both years based on our efforts. We are, like everyone else, very much watching and navigating through this complex macroeconomics environment. April bookings have been less consistent than bookings prior to that, and so we are watching that. Also, we are seeing positive momentum in the last couple of weeks. Our guidance does incorporate changes in our dry docks and occupancy as well as anticipation of macroeconomic challenges, but I'll let Rick comment a little bit more on that.

Yeah, in terms of the net yield guidance, we feel really good about 7% to 10% growth for the year. And looking at that, that's a combination of the success of our demand generation activities along with our capacity growth as we've guided to 1.5% growth in our available guest nights for the year. And as Natalia mentioned earlier, we were down 12% in terms of capacity in Q1, which was one of the factors that helped drive the net yield growth and the occupancy growth in the quarter.

Our next question comes from David from Barclays. Please go ahead.

First of all, great quarter. Following up on that question, how did the adjustments in capacity impact the yields? Was it that you had some lower capacity out of commission? Or I'm just trying to think in terms of mix, what was the impact there?

So in quarter one, just given the fluctuations and the timing of dry docks and repositionings, we had a little bit lower capacity for the quarter versus for the full year, where we are going to have an increase in capacity year over year of one and a half percent. And as we had fewer available guest nights, that was one of the factors that allowed us to drive the occupancy growth. Although our demand generation activities and our partnership with National Geographic and And Disney was another strong factor that helped us drive that occupancy growth inside of the quarter.

So where are you right now in terms of what inning are you at in implementing dynamic pricing and continuing to integrate the land segment business?

Yeah, that's a great question. So we have started our dynamic pricing strategy, which also was enabled, I talked about it in the last quarter, by implementation of our new system for bookings management that allows significantly more flexibility to fluctuate pricing based on demand. And I think there is a lot more to come, but I'm pleased to see what we are doing. You have seen our promotional cycle. We have developed new programs for onboard sales for group incentive programs for charters, and we made significant progress in that. So I'm very encouraged by the progress in those areas. And then, of course, we are working with new channels and audiences like Disney Channel, and we just had launch of our brand in the UK. So we're counting on significant growth in that market, particularly as we are coming towards 2026.

Okay, and you had given us some updates on flights to Antarctica. I guess we're going into off-season now. I haven't been yet.

But could you give us any updates on if you're going to continue to increase that program and where you stand in terms of sales? well we if you want to go you should be now booking for 2027 because we are practically sold out for 2026 as well and the program is going extremely well uh we finished antarctica season for those of you who are not aware on on seasonality of that trade we finished antarctica season we had a huge crop both in our yields in fly program which we launched last december and it continues to be uh in very very high demand as well as our regular antarctica product that is operated by two one of the most advanced ships uh in in the industry frankly for polar environments so we're doing really really well for both uh and we are practically sold out for 2026 on both trends as we are seeing um demand on fly cruise increases we have increased capacity both in 26 and then subsequently in 27 for fly cruises as well recognizing high demand Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one.

There are no further questions at this time. Rick Goldberg, I turn the call back over to you.

Just want to thank everyone for your interest in Lindblad Expeditions and hope you enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you so much.

This concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect.