Travel & Leisure Co. (TNL) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Travel + Leisure Second Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Jill Greer, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Jill.

Thanks, Kevin. Good morning to everyone, and thanks for dialing in. Joining us this morning are Michael Brown, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Mike Hug, our Chief Financial Officer. Michael will provide an overview of our financial results and our longer-term growth strategy, and Mike will then provide greater detail on the quarter, our balance sheet, and outlook for the rest of the year. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call up for questions. Before we begin, we’d like to remind you that our discussions today will include forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, and the forward-looking statements made today are effective only as of today. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements. The factors that could cause actual results to differ are discussed in our SEC filings and in our earnings press release. You can find a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures discussed in today's call in the earnings release available on our Investor Relations website. Finally, all comparisons today are to the same period of the prior year unless specifically stated. With that, I'm pleased to turn the call over to Michael Brown.

Good morning and thank you to everyone for joining us today. This morning we released our second quarter results, which showed top-line growth, healthy margins, and strong free cash flow. Revenues grew 4% to $985 million with adjusted EBITDA of $244 million at the high end of our guidance range. We have a resilient and value-driven business model, are executing well against our key priorities for the year, and demand for our product remains solid, all of which factored into our decision to increase our full year EBITDA guidance. We see good momentum in our vacation ownership business. Tours were up 13% with new owner tours up 22%. Our Blue Thread partnership with Wyndham Hotels is an important source of lead generation. In the quarter, Blue Thread produced about 10% of our new owner tours, which came with a volume per guest or VPG more than 20% higher than other new owner channels. In addition, our investments in new marketing locations and channels are yielding good results. With over 100,000 active packages, this pipeline is up over 140% this year, providing an incremental and fast-growing source of new owner tours. New owner sales are an important source of future revenue, as we've seen over time that new owners buy an incremental 2.6x their initial purchase. This is because owners love our product. On our most recent customer surveys, nine out of 10 guests staying at our resorts reported a great experience with high marks for flexibility, value, and consistent experience, a credit to our field operations teams. Through our points-based product and the breadth of our resort network, we offer tremendous flexibility for our owners to customize each and every vacation they take with us. From a weekend getaway for music in Austin, to four days in Moab to visit the Arches National Park, to a week on the beach in beautiful Fiji, our product offers tremendous value by allowing owners to buy future vacations with today's dollars. In addition, our resorts come with spacious living areas, fully equipped kitchens, and a range of amenities, giving owners a means to optimize their vacation spend on what matters most to them. We are also seeing length of stay increase in this work from anywhere environment as owners are seeing the added utility of our resorts with more space to work and play. The premium that owners place on consistency, value, and flexibility is evident in our VPG of $3,051, which is especially strong considering our 37% new owner mix. The VPG was above the high end of our expectations and we expect strong VPG performance to continue. As a result, we have increased our VPG guidance for the year by $50 at the mid-point. From our perspective, all indications are pointing to a strong second half, with owner nights up 6% for the remainder of the year and we continue to expect double-digit tour growth for the full year. The momentum with tour growth and VPG are signs that our product appeals in a value-focused market and our team is executing well on our growth initiatives. Similar to a number of other companies, we are seeing some pressures with our loan portfolio. Mike will give more details on our projection of elevated delinquencies for the remainder of the year. The fact that we are increasing our full year guidance shows the durability and resiliency of our business model. That business model provides a solid foundation for long-term growth. Our multigrain strategy is unique in the industry and is the path to driving consistent growth going forward in our vacation ownership business. The Accor and Sports Illustrated brands will augment the VOI sales platforms of Club Wyndham, WorldMark, Margaritaville, and Shell. With a broad geographic footprint and a variety of ownership options, we intend to expand our share by meeting the vacation travel needs in a broader range of consumers. We are making good progress with the Accor Vacation Club integration. Accor has delivered more than $1 million in adjusted EBITDA year-to-date and we are well on track to hit our full year goal. The Accor growth has been accretive to an international business that is already performing well. While it is still a relatively small part of our results, the growth in performance in international has been strong. Through the second quarter, adjusted EBITDA is up 33% with tour flow up over 50% and VPG up in the low-single digits. With regard to Sports Illustrated resorts, we are continuing to move toward the launch of our first project in Tuscaloosa. We are currently working to finalize the design and to obtain the necessary zoning and entitlements to break ground early next year, which will allow us to launch sales. And while our primary focus is on Tuscaloosa, we're also actively working to identify additional options for future locations. We're in the early stages, but excited for what Sports Illustrated resorts means for our growth in 2026 and beyond. Turning to our Travel and Membership business, this segment produces solid margins and cash flows. Our focus in this area has been on driving higher margin transactions, primarily with our existing vacation club customers. Our progress here is evidenced in the 4% increase in revenue per transaction that we saw in the quarter, which combined with cost discipline, produces higher returns. To wrap up, I want to extend my thanks to the entire Travel + Leisure team for their focus on providing a great experience for our owners. Their dedication and determination set us apart and positions us well for long-term success. And now, I'll turn the call over to Mike to walk through the quarter in more detail.

Thanks, Michael. Overall, we had a solid second quarter with all results at the mid-point of guidance or higher. Revenues were up 4% with adjusted EBITDA of 3% to $244 million. Our 24.8% adjusted EBITDA margin shows our ability to maintain margins in the mid-20s while growing revenue. We had an adjusted net income of $108 million or $1.52 per share. Our adjusted EPS growth of 14% was driven by both net earnings growth and benefits of our share repurchases. And as a reminder, we had $8 million of year-over-year headwinds this quarter from higher interest rates and variable compensation. With regard to segment results, for the vacation ownership business, revenues increased 5% with gross VOI sales of $607 million at the high end of the guidance range and a significant driver of the 10% increase in this segment's adjusted EBITDA. As Michael mentioned, we're especially pleased with the true growth, new owner mix, and VPG that we're seeing, which we believe sets us up well for continued growth. We did see an increase in our loan loss provision in the second quarter, primarily due to delinquency levels associated with original FICOs below 700, which are down to 24% of our portfolio as of June 30. On the travel and membership side, we maintain flat adjusted EBITDA on a slight decline in revenue, as higher revenue per transaction in both exchange and clubs is offsetting the decline in transactions and driving higher margins. For the third quarter, we are forecasting adjusted EBITDA overall to be $235 million to $245 million and $55 million to $60 million for the Travel and Membership segment. This includes the higher provision in addition to $16 million in headwinds year-over-year for variable compensation and interest impact. We expect the variable compensation and interest impact will peak in the third quarter and diminish in the fourth quarter. For the full year, we're increasing our adjusted EBITDA guidance range to $915 million to $935 million, reflecting both the momentum we're building in the business and the incremental provision rate. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow, earlier this week, we closed our second ABS transaction of the year, securing $375 million at a rate of 5.6% and a 96% advance rate. The interest rate and advance rate are both improvements over our March securitization. We ended the quarter with 3.5x leverage. With our normal seasonality, we expect our leverage rate to slightly increase in the third quarter and decline to below 3.5x by year-end. We generated $90 million of adjusted free cash flow in the quarter and continue to expect our adjusted EBITDA to free cash flow conversion for the full year to be in the neighborhood of 50%. Under our shareholder-focused approach to capital allocation, we returned $105 million to our shareholders through dividends and share buybacks during the quarter. As I mentioned on our last call, our Board of Directors approved an additional $500 million in share repurchase authorization at their main meeting. After our $70 million in repurchases in the second quarter, we have $578 million remaining under our authorization. I'll close by echoing Michael's comments and thanking the entire Travel + Leisure team for a great first half of the year. There is no better team in the industry at delivering great results for shareholders and owners. With that, Kevin, can you please open up the call for questions?

Certainly. We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. Our first question today is from Chris Woronka from Deutsche Bank. Your line is now live.

Hey, good morning, guys, and appreciate the details. So I guess maybe we can start with that discussion of the provision, right? And appreciate what you mentioned about the lower, the older vintage lower FICO score. So the question on that is, is that something that, as we look forward and take into account your guidance, is that something that moves a little higher than the original? I think you were talking about 19% last quarter. And are there offsets elsewhere in the business or do you expect that to kind of normalize in the range we saw in Q2?

Good morning, Chris, and thanks for the question. This is Mike Hug. As it relates to the provision for the full year, we do expect it to be about 100 basis points higher than our original expectation. As you noted, there are other things in the business that are offsetting that which allowed us to take up our guidance. Basically, the upper performance we had in the first half of the year compared to our guidance in the first half is what we pushed through. So yes, when you look at VPG, when you look at the other things, the higher margin transactions on the Travel and Membership side of business, in the quarter, we still generated 25% margin despite that higher provision. So the provision is moving up a little bit, but the other parts of the business continue to perform very well. And as it relates to that sub-700 original FICO, it's down 235 basis points from where it was a year ago. So as we move the standards for marketing up to that 640 FICO, we continue to see that average FICO for new originations coming in at 740. So very pleased with that change we made. Are feeling some pressure on lower FICO bands, but I think we've been able to manage it well when you look at the overall business.

Thanks, Mike. Following up with Michael, it's been about three years since you established the post-COVID business plan. I'm interested in your marketing channels, as you've made numerous changes there. Are you satisfied with the current channel mix? How are the recently added or removed partners contributing to your outlook for the rest of the year and beyond? Thank you.

I think the tour story, especially for the first half of this year, is clearly one of the highlights of the underlying business performance, the strong underlying business performance. And I credit a lot of that to our channel mix and our marketing teams. More specifically, I've spoken over the years about a diversified three-pronged marketing approach: owners, a partnership with Wyndham Hotels via the Blue Thread, and our non-affinity marketing approach in the field, which I felt was the strongest and the most unique in the space. As we've grown in a post-COVID environment, our regional teams have continued to add a number of marketing relationships. Not a silver bullet, but a lot of little wins a lot of successful partnerships that have really grown on those three marketing channels in each of our markets. We've added a fourth channel to our marketing channels, which is the package pipeline. We spoke about that in 2023 and started to invest and commit to that being a fourth leg to our marketing channels. And as we mentioned here, those packages are up 140%. And like the Blue Thread was in 2018, 2019, where we committed to it and we saw a lot of potential, I would position that package work that we're doing, which is seeding the pipeline of future tours to be in a similar state to how we were with Blue Thread back in 2018, 2019 as a great growth opportunity for our business.

Okay. Very helpful. Thanks, guys.

Thank you, Chris.

Thank you. Next question today is coming from Patrick Scholes from Truist Securities. Your line is now live.

Great. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, Patrick.

Michael, you've been one of the more, should we say, positive or bullish of the three casein ownership companies. I'd like to hear your latest thoughts on sort of the state of the consumer or at least your consumer. And now, we sort of throw in the mix a little bit with a little bit of weakness on, I guess, we'd say, the middle or lower end there. And just like to hear your latest thoughts on the lay of the landscape. Thank you.

My last public comments were made midway through the quarter, where I expressed a positive outlook on the consumer and our business trajectory in relation to the leisure travel sector. Fundamentally, I stand by those mid-quarter statements that suggest the second half of the year will see a consumer eager for memorable leisure vacations. I consistently highlight our forward bookings, which show year-on-year increases in owner room nights, translating into a positive impact on owner arrivals, beneficial for our marketing initiatives. This is our outlook on consumer demand. On a daily basis, we interact with numerous consumers and gather their feedback through guest volume. The fact that we achieved a 37% new owner mix in the second quarter, which is 400 basis points higher than in 2023, indicates a significant change. Additionally, our VPG being below $100, or just around $100 less than last year, reflects the strong sales performance and consumer interest in ownership. These two factors—forward bookings and VPG—are crucial. Regarding delinquencies, yes, they are worse than three or six months ago. However, this is a situation prevalent across the broader macro environment, not just our business. I view this as a positive sign, putting us in a better position than my mid-quarter comments suggested, as we could meet the high end of our guidance, increase our full-year resort guidance, and accommodate, as Mike noted, about 100 basis points higher provision, reinforcing the underlying strength of our business. This summarizes my updated perspective on the consumer as we proceed through the year.

Okay. Thank you. And then, Mike, a question for you related to the most recent securitization and the comments about some weakness on some of the lower end customers. One thing I thought was interesting on the securitization we saw the D coupon rate. Maybe you can help me just get a little more color. Why the D coupon rate on the D went down, which implies sort of your lower end consumer that went down, whereas your A coupon actually went up a little bit. How do I understand that in light of talking about the loan loss provision? Am I thinking about that the right way? Thank you.

Well, I think overall, when you look at the execution on that transaction, as I mentioned in my comments, right, better performance, what we got in March, which we were very happy with, but our advance rate moving up to 96, the interest rate moving down to 5.6 from 5.7, so great execution. As far as the individual rates based on each of the tranches, a lot is going to be driven by the demand for that tranche. So when we go to market, we'll go out with target rates and put the rate out there. And then if one tranche is oversubscribed by a higher level than another tranche, we have the ability to tighten pricing. So I think it's just you look at the rate that the purchaser of the notes is going to get on each one. You look at demand out there, and then when you're out there marketing a transaction, it gives you the flexibility to be able to tighten rates in certain tranches based on the level of oversubscription.

Okay. Thank you. I'll get back in the queue for some more questions. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next question today is coming from David Katz from Jefferies. Your line is now live.

Hi, good morning. I want to dispense with the provision discussion and just make sure I'm clear. I think the prior guidance was somewhere around 19, and now we should be thinking more about 20. And that's a question, is that correct? And I think in your commentary, Mike, you talked about those sub-700s being about 24% of the portfolio. Does that lead us to conclude that the arc of its impact is something that sort of ramps down as we get into next year? Is that a fair way to think about it?

Well, a couple of things. First of all, you're right. As far as that 100 basis points kind of resulting in the provision settling in at around 20%, it will be a little bit higher in the third quarter, a little bit lower in the fourth quarter, which is not an unusual trend when you go through the year based on new owner mix and things like that. As it relates to 2025, obviously, I would say what impacts the portfolio more than anything is really the economy, right? And how the consumers feel and the income they have in their pockets, so when we think about next year and what the provision looks like, I think it's really going to depend on what happens over the next several months as it relates to the consumer and the economy. But our continued focus on those new originations coming at 740, in my opinion, shouldn't do anything but continue to make the portfolio better as the lower FICOs roll off and get replaced by a new origination, once again averaging 740. So we'll see what happens. But I think overall, what we're talking about as far as the higher level of delinquencies is about 1%, so about $30 million on a $3 billion portfolio. So while it gets measured in terms of the provision as percent of revenues, when you think about it like that, it's not a massive deterioration in the portfolio or anything like that. It's a slight 1% increase. And obviously, we'll do what we can to manage it. And I think, as I mentioned in my earlier response, I think we are managing it well when you look at our ability to take up the guidance while still absorbing that 100 basis points increase in the provision.

Absolutely true. I just wanted to follow-up quickly and just talk about some of the more growth elements, right? And Accor is, and the size of that opportunity is something we probably could benefit from a little depth of commentary on. How do you sort of see or envision Accor turning into a growth engine over time?

Well, keep in mind that you first have to look at the nature of the hospitality companies and where they're geographically based. And our opportunity, as we see in the near-term, is in that Asia-Pacific region, which represents less than 10% of our total EBITDA. The way we're looking at our growth is to first transition the business over the next 12 months, restart a business that had been dormant, and then look to expand it in the Asia-Pacific region and capitalize on their international presence and opportunity more than anything. So I think it follows ultimately the arc of how the rest of the branding has gone. But you do have to recognize that geographically their business is primarily international, whereas the brands that are in this space today are primarily North America. And North America is really the best timeshare market, the most regulated, and where the branded companies have been able to really establish their presence and growth. So I guess said more simply, Accor we look at international opportunity, which is a smaller opportunity than what you're going to get in North America with the branded hospitality companies.

Got it. Okay. Thank you.

Sure. Thank you, David.

Thank you. Next question is coming from Brandt Montour from Barclays. Your line is now live.

Good morning, everyone. I appreciate you taking my question. Regarding loan loss provisions, I would like to understand the long-term perspective compared to 2019. By the end of 2020, the provisions returned to 2019 levels, but now we have a higher quality mix due to the significant shift towards better quality loans over the last five years. This change suggests we should expect lower provisions. Additionally, in 2019, there may have been some lingering third-party issues from that time, but I'm not certain. Could you clarify this for me? Specifically, I’d like to know how you account for the current situation. Is the lower band significantly worse, or is there another explanation?

Yes, so the lower band is definitely one that's seeing the most pressure. Keep in mind, too, we, I think it was in April 2022, we basically started asking for lower down payments at table because we wanted the portfolio to start growing quicker. And so if you finance more naturally, you're going to have a higher provision that's probably 100 to 150 basis points as well. So I think when you look at the provision at percent revenues, there's a lot of different things that can impact it besides just the performance of the portfolio. And I think that's probably one of the big dynamics is lower down payments today because we do want to get that portfolio growing at a quicker rate. The other thing I would point out, and you guys have heard me talk about before, is unlike a lot of other asset classes, we've got a great asset supporting this loan, right? It's basically the resorts that we manage every day. We get the HOA maintenance fees, which include reserves. And our goal is for every five years to six years for every unit to be refurbished. So even though I would love to have no defaults and no provision, in those cases where someone, their ability to pay ceases and they do defaults, we go in and we take an asset back that's in great shape because we're there managing it every day and we're going to sell it for more today than we did three years ago because of the price increases we put in place. So it is elevated slightly compared to our expectations. But also I think we've demonstrated over time that we can still have margins in the 20%-plus and run a very healthy business with provisions at 20%. So for me, as I mentioned, it's $30 million on a $3 billion portfolio. We manage the overall business and if I go back and get a great asset back, it works out pretty well just in terms of the cash flow and to be honest, less inventory purchases need in the future because I'm just taking a great asset back and reselling it.

Thank you for that explanation, Mike. My second question on the same topic is about the timeline, as I'm a bit confused. You seemed consistent with the provision throughout the quarter, but it appears to have declined significantly towards the end. I am curious if there was a macro factor that influenced this deterioration and if you could provide some insight into the exit rate, that would be helpful.

Yes, I think what we're seeing is historically we start the year at a rate and that delinquency rate moves down in Q1 and then again usually in Q2. And in both cases we did see the delinquency go down in Q1 compared to year-end and again in Q2. Just not as much as we have historically seen, obviously, which results in the higher provision that we need. So I think when you look sequentially throughout the quarter, the rate didn't move down as much as we expected. And I think you just once again, as I mentioned earlier gets back to the lower income consumers feeling, I think, a little more pressure than those that are at the higher end. That's in essence what we're seeing when we see the higher level delinquencies primarily being in the sub-700 FICO. So it was a slight deterioration throughout the quarter. Obviously, the way the provision works is once you see that deterioration, you have to provide for the expected level of future defaults and that's in essence what our calculation does.

Perfect. Thanks so much.

Sure. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is coming from Dany Asad from Bank of America. Your line is now live.

Thank you, and good morning, guys. Mike, I'll take the flip side of that. So when you add your newer, the incremental higher quality owners, let's call them the ones that are the 740 originations that are coming in, what kind of loan loss provisions are we marking up for those owners?

Yes, it's a great question. Unfortunately, I don't have an easy answer and the reason for that is it gets back to the down payment. If you have somebody that walks in and they make a $25,000 transaction, they put $10,000 down. Your provision on that is going to be a lot lower than someone that only puts $5,000 down. So I think when you look at the provision we were running, and that we were projecting kind of in that below 19 range, I think that's what we expected for our new originations to come in, on average, once again, each particular loan is different as far as whether it's an upgrade or whether it's a new purchase, whether they put 5% down or 10% down. So I think on average, we were expecting to be kind of under 19%. It's moved up a little bit. And so once longer-term, I would expect that assuming we keep down payments at where they're at today, that provision would move back down at some point in the future to below 19.

Got it. And then you gave really good color on kind of like the moving pieces of the guide. But if you could just help us a little bit more with that. So we understand that you flowed through the beat in Q2, and since now we're assuming higher loan loss preference for Q3 and Q4, can you maybe help us bucket like in Q3 and Q4, what's running better to offset that? Is it in terms of like tours pricing, travel and membership? Where is that coming from?

Dany, good morning, it's Michael. Really, it's on our core timeshare business. We moved up our VPG guidance by $50. And at the beginning of the year, we said our tour flow growth would be around 10%. And we're a lot more confident that it's at least going to be 10%, if not more. So when you look at fundamentally where we think the increased provision gets offset, oddly enough, it's straight back to the consumer because the consumer loves the product and is using it and combined with a really good team out there, is delivering results on the tours and the VPG, and the combination of those two not only help us overcome the increased provision, but just as a reminder to everyone is we're also overcoming this year approximately $30 million headwind on interest income as well as the variable comp. So I think the performance that we're laying out with the increased guidance highlights our core business continues to show as we said over the last five years. This is a resilient business that will perform well when the economy's booming and in an inflationary environment where there's value-driven purchases. So core businesses overcoming the issues that are coming up in a slightly higher provision.

All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is coming from Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Your line is now live.

Hi, great. Thank you. Would you guys be able to give us the new owner tour mix or the tour mix versus new owners versus existing? Or maybe just the existing owner tour growth rate? And then you gave us the new owner tour growth rate. Thanks.

So Ian, just let me give you some stats, and you can tell me if this is answering the question. Our new owner tour mix is roughly 50% of our total tour mix and our new owner sales mix is 37%. The reason the differential was obviously VPG, that with the lower VPGs on new owners, you're going to get a lower mix than you do tours. Overall, our new owner tour mix is about 50% of our total tours both for the first half and for the full year.

Okay. Thank you. And then on T&M EBITDA, I guess we were kind of thinking maybe of making the year flat, but I guess we're looking at down year-over-year into the third quarter. Are there cost out? Is there anything else you can do on that side to maybe keep EBITDA flat or, there's nothing really left to do on that side. Thanks.

Let's start that, whether it's the VO business or the Travel and Membership business, we're always looking to improve our results. When you look at the second quarter, we were at the mid-point of our guidance range. And we were just off of it in Q1. So with our efforts, especially on the travel clubs, we're looking to grow our transactions the second half of this year, and we feel quite confident in our ability to do that. On the exchange business, although propensity still continues to be a headwind, we're encouraged by the increase in the RPT. So like the VO business, there's multiple variables on the top-line as well as on the bottom line through cost, and we'll look at all of them to get back to a flat, if not modest growth for 2024. Keeping in mind that flat to 2% in 2024 is the difference between $0 million and $5 million of EBITDA growth. So every percentage point is $2.5 million. Our effort this year is to get back to that flat, if not get some modest growth this year.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next question today is coming from Patrick Scholes from Truist Securities. Your line is now live.

Thank you. I have a few follow-up questions. Mike, last year we saw a competitor take a charge related to loan loss provision. Considering the increase you've observed in the past couple of months, do you believe these trends pose a heightened risk that you might need to take a special charge? I would like to discuss that. Thank you.

Yes, no, thanks for the question, Patrick. And there's not any belief on our part that we're going to have a special charge come through as it relates to the elevated level of delinquencies. Normally, when we have a special charge come through, it's due to a specific event, for example, COVID in March of 2020. So basically, the way we're seeing the portfolio on the provision is what's reflected in our guidance and would expect a large one-time charge absent some highly unusual event.

Okay. Good to hear. Next question, this year, and I think also last year, roughly a $30 million headwind due to the tightening on the spreads on the securitizations, given where your last two securitizations price and the details within, would you say, next year, if sort of these trend interest rates continue, you might actually see a small tailwind? Or would it be sort of tracking neutral at this point as opposed to a headwind the last two years?

Yes, I think what we would expect next year is maybe in the first half of the year, just a very, very slight headwind flattening out kind of as we get towards the end of the year and then becoming a tailwind in 2026 based on current interest rate projections. So I would say for the full year, next year, not a significant impact, maybe a few million dollars headwind. And then once again, assuming rates continue to move like the curves and forecast would indicate, becoming a tailwind in 2026.

Okay. Let's discuss VPGs and your guidance. You performed better on VPG and increased the guidance. Can you elaborate on that? Is it due to improved close rates, higher sales prices, or a combination of both? Which customer segments are you experiencing more success with - are they new buyers or existing ones? Thank you.

Well, just again, to put some data points out there, for the first half of the year, 37% new order mix, and we've been able to maintain, which is 400 basis points higher than it was last year for the first half. So with that, you would expect a much stronger decline in the VPG. And the fact that it's still at $3,050 is a great data point for the strength of our consumer, primarily that's holding up on close rates. We've seen continued strength in our owner VPGs. We've seen continued strength in our Blue Thread VPGs, and we've been able to hold the line on non-affinity VPGs, which is very important because when you talk about plus 20% growth on new owner tours, you expect degradation in your VPG. So holding the line on new owner non-affinity VPGs while getting strength out of your owner and Blue Thread is a very positive sign. Almost all of that is close rate. You get some on price, but really it comes down to our ability to continue to perform, our team's ability to continue to perform on close rates.

Okay. Great. And then just my last two questions for you, Michael. You talked about, I think last quarter being able to announce some additional Sports Illustrated locations by, I think, in the second half of this year. Is that still on track that you expect to announce some additional locations? And then, lastly, if you could give us some color on what you're seeing as far as demand trends in Hawaii, and that's it for me. Thank you.

Yes, that's correct for the first question. Regarding the second, we haven't observed any unusual demand trends in Hawaii from our perspective. Most of our presence is on the Big Island, with some on Oahu and Kauai. We have a small resort in Maui, which is near Kihei. Therefore, we may not be the best indicator of Hawaii traffic. However, I can say that we are not experiencing anything out of the ordinary in relation to the overall market. We have seen an increase in owner room nights year-on-year, but again, since we operate across all the islands, including Maui—assuming that's what your question pertains to—we may not be the best gauge for that specific market.

Okay. Well, thank you for taking all my questions. I'm all set.

Thanks, Patrick. We appreciate it.

Thank you. We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.

Thank you, and thanks again to everyone for dialing in today. Our performance year-to-date shows our ability to deliver top-line growth, healthy margins, and strong free cash generations. The increase to our full year guidance demonstrates that we have a resilient and value-driven business model are executing well against our key priorities for the year and consumer demand for our product remains strong. Most importantly, we have the best team in the industry, which is focused on delivering top-tier results for our owners and our shareholders. We definitely look forward to speaking to you again on our October call. And before we hang-up, I'd also like to briefly just recognize one of our team members who celebrated 25 years with the company in the last quarter and thank our Chief Financial Officer, Mike Hug, for all his great work and service over the last 25 years. With that, thank you, everyone, and see you on the next call.

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.