A New Pursuit: A Travel-Focused Future with CEO David Barry

Ann Berry (00:00):
The great outdoors. One of the biggest trends in travel, whether it's glamping or Gen Z, interest in RV road trips, adventure and immersive experience-based vacations are on the rise. That's where companies like pursuit, attractions and hospitality come in. Pursuit traces its history back to the Greyhound Corporation. Yes, the bus lines business founded in 1926 after diversifying into consumer products later while named by ad making a series of acquisitions from cruise lines to payment services. Streamlining operations was finalized last year with the sale of a trade show subsidiary giving birth to the Pure Play Pursuit with a market cap of around a billion dollars and 2024 revenue of over $360 million. Pursuit operates 15 point of interest attractions, many in areas outstanding natural beauty. An example is the Bounce gondola together with the integrated restaurants, retail and entertainment experience at its summit. The company also has 28 lodges in Alaska, glacier National Park and the Canadian Rockies. 

(00:52)
And at sightseeing services and experiences include flyover in Las Vegas and the Sky Lagoon Iceland. Like many hospitality stocks, pursuit and its predecessor, companies has seen a strong five-year share price run up in the post Covid era. But since its big rebrand on the very last day of 2024, the stock has declined a little earnings, did report strong ticket sales driving 5% total revenue growth, but wildfires and Jasper hurt room revenues and total profits. We sat down with CEO David Barry to break down pursuits, renewed growth strategy if consumers will keep spending on travel and his background in heli skiing. Let's get into it. So David, let's start because you are in prime position to tell us whether something that has been top of mind is real and that is the white Lotus Effect as tons of chatter right now about how TV tourism is peaking interest in new destinations and particularly ones in the great outdoors. Is this real and are you guys seeing it over at Pursuit? 

David Barry (01:45):
Well, I think if the world thinks in aspirational ways. So before you had a white Lotus, you might've had a generation ago Life magazine or Travel and Leisure or something that you saw an image and you imagined yourself in the image. You imagined yourself actually stepping into the experience. So when you see it on television, and it could be Anthony Bourdain, parts unknown, it could be anything, but it lures you into this sense of I want to go on an adventure. And I think that's really the emotive connection with guests. 

Ann Berry (02:20):
That's so well put, David, and talk to us in particular about why we think areas of natural beauty are having a moment. It used to be great city breaks or it used to be these very chic resorts, but we are really seeing a growth in consumer appetite as well towards hiking towards physical activity. What do you think is driving this? What are you seeing? 

David Barry (02:42):
I think everyone in the world loves a beautiful view. And so it doesn't matter what country you're from, what your ethnicity is, what your religious affiliation might be, sightseeing, an iconic point of interest, attractions, they require no athletic ability. You could be three years old, you could be a hundred years old. And so the experience in being able to do things together is what creates memories. And I think that there's sort of a thought which is buy less stuff, do more 

Ann Berry (03:07):
Things. You talked in your earnings report, David, about wellness tourism in particular. That's including outdoor and adventure travel that is projected to reach a $1.4 trillion market size by 2027. It is though a broad landscape within that, what are the spots that pursuit is most aggressively looking at? Growing into 

David Barry (03:27):
Our whole thesis is that if you can find places that match these three words, iconic, unforgettable, and inspiring, and if you start there, then it's the connection to an experience that everyone, again, I repeat myself, but everyone in the world loves that beautiful view. So the opportunity for them to come and to see it and to experience it and to do it together with other human beings, lifting your head from your phone, putting your phone away in your bag and go looking at nature, nature is your content and seeing it in real time in ways that connect with your soul, be outside 

Ann Berry (04:02):
M and a has been a part of your growth strategy. David Pursuit went out and made a number of acquisitions last year. There was the Jasper Sky Tram, the Apco Lookout retreat. There were others. Tell us a bit about those acquisitions and why those particular assets were of interest to you and why you thought that they would deliver returns to your shareholders. 

David Barry (04:21):
So starting with the Jasper Sky trend, a very unique and beautiful jewel box of an attraction has been around for 60 years. It's at a point in reinvestment where it needs some reinvestment as the equipment is nearing the end of its cycle and there's a tremendous opportunity to totally refresh that experience. If you go back to the Banff Gondola in 2014, if I'd said to the team, we're going to be in the top 100 restaurants in Canada, they would've looked at me like I had three heads. How in the world could we do that? But if you look now TripAdvisor, top 100 restaurants in Canada, BF Gondola and Sky Bistro at the top of the BF Gondola is right there. So for Jasper back to the Sky trend, the opportunity is to reinvest, refresh that experience. We have a great team led by Todd Noble and Jordan Bell and that geography are our two team leaders and their focus will be on how do you refresh that experience in Jasper? 

(05:15)
You have some very iconic attractions. There's the park itself, there's the Columbia ice fields, there's incredible hiking and mountain biking. There's our good colleagues at Fairmont that run the Jasper Park Lodge, which is a terrific property. And then you have the Jasper Sky Tramp. And so for the next a hundred years at least, I think it's going to be an amazing attraction for folks to come and visit Apgar Lookout retreat. So today or previous to these two acquisitions, we owned a very magical cabin property. So think of small cabins on a peninsula with a creek on one side and a lake just down the pathway within a national park that had been there since 1946. And it sits in a grove of mature trees. So big cedars, really beautiful big trees. So the cabins interspace with all of that adjacent to our property was two opportunities. 

(06:11)
One being Montana House, longtime local with a great connection to community and the other being Eddie's and the Apgar lookout retreat. So these pieces of land are contiguous and so quietly in discussions with each of the owners, they wanted to sell to someone who would care for their legacy, someone who would respect the things that they have done over their career and lifetime. And our energy and effort really have been deployed to do that. So we're excited because it now gives us a blank canvas in three pieces, in a unique inholding within a national park, which is quite unique. 

Ann Berry (06:46):
Talk to us about the composition of your client base of your visitor base during Covid when it was difficult to travel internationally, it feels like the US had a real moment when it came to domestic travel. Talk to us about how much of that you saw in 20 20, 21 and how much of your visitor base today is international versus US based? 

David Barry (07:05):
Yeah, there's some funny quarantine stories, but I won't share them. It'll take 

Ann Berry (07:08):
Too long. Please share them. You'll have share your favorite one at the end. 

David Barry (07:11):
I'll answer the first part first. So from a team member perspective, what's interesting is obviously there's changes and covid was a particular time that was challenging for everyone. What we learned was that different markets will access different things depending on borders being open and so on. But as soon as the border restrictions eased, we returned very quickly to our normal mix of guests. So on a global scale across three countries and 15 attractions, 28 hotels and so on, we have about 50%, 50 to 58% of our guests are international and they come from 80 countries around the world working through a tour and travel partner. And you see what are the growing markets. And right now for us, what's growing is the uk, what's growing is Japan. What's growing is destination. Visitors coming out of Singapore, South Korea, India has a burgeoning affluent class that's growing at a dramatic rate. 

(08:10)
And then what happens when the Canadian dollar lowers a little bit? Well, visitors come to Canada because Canada basically is on sale to the world. Look at Japan, the increase in tourism to Japan is primarily being driven now by great currency exchange rates. And people are deciding, wow, I could go here or I could go there. Therefore, Japan's have great interest. The balance of our guests come from all over. Iceland is very international as you would well know. And then you have guests coming our drive destinations. So Montana is more of our drive traffic destination, Alaska, it's either flying, driving or planes, mainly planes and cruise ships are visitors in Alaska. And then the Canadian Rockies is a mix of both guests and international guests and folks from the US and Canada. 

Ann Berry (08:59):
You've touched on currency moves and the exchange rate is unfortunately not immune to what's going off, what's going on when it comes to tariffs. Talk to us about what's going on right now in terms of the new administration, the tariffs that are coming in particularly with respect to the relationship with Canada. And from your seat, how do you plan for what could be coming next with the impact on currencies? How do you look in your seat as a CEO and say, okay, tariffs are coming. It could mean this for the exchange rate. This is how I'm going to plan in advance for my business. 

David Barry (09:35):
What did we learn during covid? We learned that re-forecasting, adjusting, being supple, moving all the time, reevaluating what the latest data is and how to adjust with something that became second nature. So what I find fascinating is our team, certainly in Western Canada is dusting off some of those reflexes and they're organized in terms of if a particular supply chain may be challenged by a tariff that's imposed, then they're able to adapt quickly and adjust. And so if avocados all of a sudden are harder to find, well you're going to adjust recipes across restaurants and have something that you can deliver that's going to create a great guest experience. I stay out of politics because first it's too bewildering, it's happening so fast with all kinds of things. So all I would say would be Canada and the United States have been trading partners for a long time. They've been partners together through thick and thin. And I believe that this is a period of time that will settle out as emotions ease, and people get focused on what's best to grow an economy on a global basis. 

Ann Berry (10:38):
So there's a bit of a wait and see then. So I guess it is going to take a little bit of time for all of these changes to percolate. I'll be very curious to see in your forthcoming earnings, David, whether we do see a little bit of shift in terms of growth in some of your locations versus others. Let's reflect a little on the earnings report that you had very recently. It was a strong report, but there was one area that caused a bit of a dent and that was in Jasper and that was an impact from wildfires. Tell us a little bit more about what happened there. 

David Barry (11:08):
So about the third week of July of 24, a wildfire which was lit by lightning, moved very quickly, much faster than anyone imagined. So firstly, imagine just an evacuation of an entire town and guests going in every direction. So our incredible call center team, our incredible team members on the ground, evacuating guests safely. And then when the fire crossed the river, it moved through the southwest corner of town and it's very neighborhood specific. So imagine your flower baskets in the summer are hanging perfectly fine in front of your home. Your neighbor across the street, their home is gone. So limited damage, more surgical than you might imagine if you look at pictures from Laina. And so the best part, if there's a silver lining in all of this was that municipal infrastructure was intact. So water, sewer power, government services, schools, hospitals, et cetera, all of those were unscathed. 

(12:05)
You had about 20% of the lodging inventory of commercial lodging was affected and damaged by fire and then very selective in neighborhoods. But Jasper has a very unique spirit and I would just describe it as a resolute spirit and determined spirit to turn around very quickly and rebuild. So already efforts are underway in the community for folks that are rebuilding, where housing still a lot of citizens that have lost their homes in our hotels and providing support for them. And then we've gotten together with Rocky Mountaineer and Fairmont and other leading companies that Jasper Distilling and Jasper Brewing to come together and provide a pretty significant charitable donation to Jasper. The short-term impacts though were felt in 24, what we see for 25 is an immediate return to demand, which is remarkable. And part of it is driven by where Jasper sits on the map and you pull out the map, look it up on Google, but you can see Jasper's at the top of this journey in the Canadian Rockies. 

(13:04)
And if you're coming from Vancouver and you're traveling through the Canadian Rockies on the way to Calgary or somewhere east Jasper is the most natural stopping overnight point you could ever imagine. If you don't stop in Jasper, you've got to continue to Edmonton three and a half hours away or you've got to backtrack to Camloops three and a half hours the other way. So Jasper's it, and so demand is there. We see increasing demand and we see a quick return to what we would describe as normal. So still lots of work to do to help our citizens and our neighbors and our colleagues, but we're on the right track and we see a return to normal. 

Ann Berry (13:38):
You made a reference David to Lahaina Hawaii, I believe as a market you're not yet in at Puruse, is that correct? You do now though have a lot of dry powder as a company, if you want to go out and diversify, move into new markets, you sold your trade show business at the end of the year. You've used that cash, you've got a strong balance sheet. You paid down some of your debt, you've got cash in the balance sheet, which would be on the wishlist for you to go and buy or build into new geographies. But would Hawaii be on that list? 

David Barry (14:08):
I'll give you the criteria and I'll avoid a country specific mention, but I'll give you the criteria because it'll help shape the outcome. Iconic, unforgettable, and inspiring perennial demand somewhere that if you were to acquire something, are there barriers to entry that prevent a replication of that by other people? Because the location itself is so unique, is that a country that's a good neighborhood, a good place to do business, good rule of law, good property protection, a functioning legal system, et cetera. That's always helpful when you're looking at an acquisition, especially as a listed company 

(14:45)
And then you're looking at a business that from a margin perspective, is it a contributor to pursuit? So we look at lots of things. We get lots of phone calls, there's lots of great businesses, but they're very low margin. So we want something that fits our overall margin. We have very healthy margins, and so that's something that we focus on in what we might add and then experiences that are authentic and that will create memories into the future. And so the last I would add would be counter seasonal and you might question why counter seasonal? 

(15:18)
Yeah, talk about that. If you think about it, we're so heavy from March, may through October, may through October is the bulk of our revenue and profit is delivered in that timeframe. So balancing and finding a particular geography that is productive from December through April helps balance out our cash flows, helps balance out how the company performs and gives us some interesting opportunities to communicate to guests that it maybe loves something in the Canadian Rockies or they love something in Alaska and now they'd be interested and they've seen the quality of the experiences that we provide. And so they're intrigued to say, oh, you're now in this country. That sounds amazing. We loved what happened in Alaska when we were traveling with you. Let's go look at this next experience. 

Ann Berry (16:06):
I'm inferring from that some southern hemisphere trips and due diligence might be on the future for you, David. We will watch and wait and see. I do want to touch on the US business though and the opportunity to do more in the us. You are operating in national parks now since the election there has been news that National Parks Staffing may be looking at that up to 30% reductions in headcount and payroll. Does that pose risk to you? How do you think about the ability to operate in these national parks or grow into them in the United States when there is a question around how exactly these parks are going to be maintained? 

David Barry (16:48):
So the first point I would raise would be that the National Park cost, that's somewhere around $3 billion, which sounds like a big amount of money in terms of what does it cost to operate the national parks. But when you consider the revenue that national parks generate, the revenue just admission into national parks for citizens across, whether they be from the US or visitors that are coming internationally is somewhere in the 50 billion range. So you don't have to go to Wharton to figure out that that is a good example of something that generates more than it costs. I think that things will temper over time and we see no change to access or demand or participation in national parks for this season. There's a lot of very sensationalistic headlines, but in our view, the parks themselves will be open and there's some very dedicated and amazing team members that work for the National Park system. So we're hopeful that they're able to return to work and continue to do the great work that they've been doing, and we expect that that will temper itself out. On our business side, we operate at the entry and exit in Glacier National Park, so we actually have our own in holdings, which are within the national park, but we're not subject to any sort of national park constraint and we work well in partnership with them and very similar in Alaska. 

Ann Berry (18:18):
I'm going to switch gears, David, and talk about something that was, I think a big change maybe for the company, and that's your rebranding. Oftentimes you talk to CEOs and you talk to leaders of big companies and there are lots of good reasons why they want to rebrand. We should dig into why you wanted to. I think there's a perception unless you live through one, that's a pretty easy thing to do. You kind of flip the switch and people's email changes and you've got a fancy new logo often there's more to it than that. Talk to us a bit about your process of going through it. 

David Barry (18:48):
Well, the transformation of V has been an interesting one. So one, I think that the board made some very good decisions in terms of looking at what are the valuations for each of these businesses, what was the valuation looking at pursuit, and we operated over the last 10 years as a business within a larger conglomerate, as did GS and a company called Spiro. It became apparent though that the valuations were quite different and that pursuit as a standalone would be an accelerator. So the transformation from us was actually quite easy and probably not typical to how other companies view it. The corporate team at the holding company level is quite small, and they have joined onto the pursuit journey and they're excited because there's a young man who he's single in the office and he's going on his first couple of dates and he's a bright, smart, good looking young man, and he looked at me in the middle of this transformation. 

(19:45)
He said, db, you made my life so much better. I said, how? Because I don't have to explain the conglomerate if she asks what I do for a living. And so that was the interesting thing is as we laughed about it, so for us, it's been a well-planned, well-executed transition. We've been in existence really since 2016 with a rebranding going from what was called V Travel and Recreation into Pursuit. Pursuit is a brand that resonates strongly with our team. Our values are strong, our mission is strong, that the drive and energy around the company is strong. So it's been pretty smooth in terms of moving forward. 

Ann Berry (20:22):
That's a great segue into our final segment, David, which is five rapid fire questions. And the first one to come your way is the following. Every month I know that you have an all hands 4,000 plus team member Live Town hall, and you invite your associates to ask you anything. At the end of this, what's been the hardest question anyone's asked you? 

David Barry (20:50):
It's a really interesting thing to think about. I'm going to have to go quickly. I won't overthink it in the beginning on town halls, because people can ask questions anonymously. One of the questions that came up was, my boss is a jerk. What are you going to do about it? And when it's live, you're there as the CEO and you're answering the question. And I had to say, well, Mr. Or Miss Anonymous, I can help you, but I don't know who your boss is. So there's multiple ways that you can reach out. There's multiple ways you can contact and we're happy to chat and talk to you about what needs to be improved. And I think what it did is it set a tempo of all of a sudden everyone's questions started to get better. And we have a team member who worked for another large attractions company and he joined us and he said, wow, this is interesting because we used to do town halls, but we were never allowed to ask a question. And you'll get all kinds of things. But the benefit of the dialogue and listening and learning, I think a CEO's job is talk less, listen more, and you'll figure stuff out. And everyone's opinion matters and real ideas, no, no. Rank, 

Ann Berry (22:02):
Democratizing communication of ideas is what I'm hearing in there. David, which company do you admire the most? That is not pursuit. You can't pick your own company. That's cheating. 

David Barry (22:12):
There's two I will pick. First Canadian Mountain Holidays, which is the largest he ski operator in the world. An incredible company, incredible culture. I was lucky to spend time but a decade in that business, and it is a tremendous group of hospital and amazing mountain guides. The other is I would pick the Four Seasons pre 2006, and that's no criticism of the Four Seasons today, but I think Mr. Sharp and his view of how to build culture and a vision for what had not been created at that point, truly 

Ann Berry (22:46):
Inspiring. If you could return to only one vacation spot every year for the rest of your life, which one would it be? 

David Barry (22:53):
I think New Zealand is a place of incredible beauty, amazing people, incredible culture, and a place that deserves to be explored. 

Ann Berry (23:04):
We'll leave it there. David Barry, CEO of Pursuit. Thank you very much for joining. Come back. There's going to be a lot going on through the course of this year as you pursue your growth strategy in this macro environment. We'd love to hear how it's going. 

David Barry (23:16):
Thank you so much. 

Ann Berry (23:17):
I'm Ann Berry. Thanks for tuning into After earnings, the show that brings you up close and personal with the executives behind the world's most interesting publicly traded companies. If you learn something today, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share with your friends. Upcoming episodes will feature CEOs and CFOs from companies like Adobe and Roadblocks. So do come back and we'll see you soon.