Lindblad Expeditions Holdings Inc Stock

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Lindblad Expeditions Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results. [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand the conference over to Rick Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer. Rick, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. With me on today's call is Natalya Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer. Natalya will begin with some opening comments, and I will follow with details on our Q3 results and expectations for the full year 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. 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 those expectations.

The company guarantee the accuracy of any forecast 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 Natalya.

Thank you, Rick. Well, this has been a fun and exciting quarter for us. We welcomed 2 extraordinary brands White Desert and Echo Charlie to our global experiential travel platform, expanding our ability to take guests to some of the world's most remarkable places by sea, by land and now by air. At the same time, we continue to deliver strong business momentum. Combined with developments gave us the confidence to raise our guidance mid-quarter and again today.

We delivered another outstanding quarter with double-digit growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Total company revenue reached $269 million, up 12% from a year ago, while adjusted EBITDA increased 12% to $64 million, despite fuel prices rising approximately 50% year-over-year. We also generated approximately $27 million in net income available to stakeholders. Our year-to-date revenue, adjusted EBITDA and net income are all at record levels. These results are especially meaningful against a backdrop of a challenging geopolitical environment and significantly elevated fuel prices.

They demonstrate the strength and resilience of our business model, the effectiveness of our strategy and our team's ability to execute. I'm incredibly proud of what we continue to accomplish and very confident in the opportunities we have. Occupancy increased 310 basis points to 91% on a 4% increase in capacity. It was our third consecutive quarter with occupancy above 90%, consistent with our long-term stated goals. Net yields increased 6% year-over-year to $1,398 per gas night, the highest third quarter net yield in the company's history.

Lindblad segment revenue increased 12% to $153 million, and our Land Experiences segment revenue increased 13% to $116 million. Our disciplined commercial execution, revenue management and improved marketing strategies continue to drive strong bookings momentum. I'm pleased to share that our 2027 bookings continue to outpace the prior year, both our expedition and land seconds, and our 2027 booked position is at record high. Our 2028 bookings are also pacing ahead of 2027.

Given our continued momentum, we are raising our 2026 full year guidance again. Specifically, we're increasing our revenue guidance to a range of $870 million to $885 million from our previous guidance of $850 million to $880 million. We now expect net yields for the full year to increase in the range of 6% to 7%, and we are updating our full year adjusted EBIT guidance to a range of $142 million to $148 million.

Before I walk you through our 3 strategic pillars, I wanted to highlight the significant growth opportunity ahead of us and how are we increasingly diversified experiential travel platform positions us to capture it. We continue to benefit from powerful macro trends as affluent travelers increasingly seek authentic, immersive experiences in extraordinary places. Expedition cruising is one of the fastest-growing and most underpenetrated segments of leisure travel. While expedition capacity has more than doubled over the past decade, it still represents less than 1% of total cruise capacity with fewer than 0.5 million guests traveling on expedition cruises annually.

To put the broader opportunity in perspective, our approximately 60,000 annual guests across 8 brands represent less than 0.1% of global travelers with financial means to experience our journeys. This gives us an enormous runway for growth. And importantly, with the additional White Desert and Echo Charlie, we have further strengthened our position as a truly global experiential travel platform. Our 8 complementary brands now offer extraordinary experiences by sea, by land and by air, creating more opportunities for guests to explore the world with us across multiple brands and destinations, while further diversifying our portfolio and expanding our addressable market.

I believe this combination of strong market tailwinds and exceptionally large untapped opportunity and our expanded platform positions us extremely well for sustainable long-term value creation.

Now let me walk you through the progress we made across our 3 strategic pillars. First, maximizing revenue through higher occupancy, pricing and deployment optimization; second, optimizing financial performance through cost innovation and fixed asset utilization; and third, pursuing accretive growth opportunities. Beginning with our first pillar, maximizing revenue. We continue to execute against several revenue levers we have discussed previously. Dynamic pricing, improved marketing communication, maximizing sales channels and optimizing revenue management.

These initiatives continue to deliver on their objectives as evidenced by our results and forward booked position. We stated several times that one of our goals over the past 18 months was to expand booking curves, which drives better revenue predictability and stronger price elasticity. I'm happy to share that our average booking window increased from 9.5 months to 11.9 months. We also continue to see strong momentum in onboard and expansion revenues, delivering 27% growth year-to-date. And with a robust pipeline of initiatives ahead, I believe we have significant room to further unlock the full potential of this revenue stream.

Moving to our second pillar, cost innovation and fixed asset utilization. We have a culture of continuous improvement, and we continue executing several efficiency initiatives across the company. To give you a few examples, we outsourced our warehouse operations and completely overhauled our accounts payable processes. We are also building out our supply chain and inventory management capabilities and exploring AI to drive further efficiencies. Fuel costs remain a significant headwind, but I'm particularly proud of the partnership between our shoreside and shipboard teams that walk together to deliver year-over-year improvements in fuel consumption this quarter despite 4% capacity growth.

We have a strong pipeline of process improvements and cost initiatives and we see more opportunities ahead to capture efficiencies and improve margins. That brings me to our third pillar, accretive growth, which I'm most excited to discuss today. On our last few calls, we talked about evaluating opportunities to add to our portfolio of brands. On September 15, we announced transition of a majority stake in White Desert and Echo Charlie. It is the largest transaction in the company's history and the beginning of an incredible new chapter in our 60-year legacy of exploration. If you aren't yet familiar with White Desert. You're in for something truly special.

[indiscernible] in 2005 by the record breaker Explorer Patrick Woodhead. White Desert life gets deep in the interior of Antartica on private aircraft to all the World camps in places very few people will ever see in 1 of the client bucket list itineraries range from majority to the geographic sales fall to visit with Ampere penguin colony of more than 20,000 ports. When I experienced White Desert, I immediately felt a shared period of curiosity and innovation and a mutual desire to keep pushing the boundaries of what travel can be. Why Desert as a distinctive new offering to our platform that we are actively working on growing, including the addition of a fourth cap.

I'm equally excited about what Echo Charlie brings to our portfolio. Echo Charlie is a new expedition travel brand we're launching together with Patrick. It combines why deters aviation expertise with our knowledge of extraordinary places to create churns into some of the world's most remote regions the kinds of adventures, many of us grew up reading about, dreaming about and never stopped hoping to experience ourselves. We see strong long-term value creation opportunity here. We just introduced 3 inaugural 2027 itineraries, each offering multiple departure dates exclusively to our past guests, and we are planning to launch publicly over the coming days.

Echo Charlie gives fast guess of wind blood and White Deserts new reason to travel with us. Our Chief Expedition Officer, our Head of Corporate Development and I just returned from Cape Town, where we spent time with white desert team brainstorming our future together. What an amazing group of people. They are incredibly innovative, talented. And let me tell you, really fun, I came away even more convinced that we create cultural feet, and even more excited what we can build together and the growth opportunities ahead. We are also very pleased that Patrick Woodhead will serve as a strategic innovation in vitro in blood. This acquisition reinforces our view that Lindblad experiential travel platform provides an exceptional opportunity to drive value creation by enabling affluent travelers to explore by Air, lands and sea.

As we talk about ROI and commitment to sustainability, I would like to highlight that white Desert shares the same commitment to our mission. White desert flies hundreds of scientists to resource stations across Antartica each season, and it has long been a trusted partner for the scientific community. Additionally, White Desert recently announced the first commercial agreement in Africa to supply sustainable aviation fuel in partnership with Sasol. This will help lower the carbon emissions of our flight and support our carbon offset program.

Before I turn the call over to Rick, let me leave you with 3 key takeaways. First, our revenue maximization efforts are working. Net yields increased 6%, occupancy rose to 91%, and our '27 and '28 bookings continue to pace ahead. Second, we have become a more efficient organization and that discipline is showing up in adjusted EBITDA margins and growth. But our accretive growth initiatives give us multiple ways to capture a large and still underpenetrated market. With White Deserts and Echo Charlie, we have added air to our cruise expeditions and land corners, making us a comprehensive experiential travel platform.

Lastly, this year has had its share of challenges from geopolitical risks to significantly higher fuel prices. I'm very proud of our operating results in the face of them, and I want to thank every member of our team for their focus, their resilience and their unwavering commitment to the gift experience, and to our new colleagues at White Desert and Echo Charlie, we're delighted to have you with us.

With that, I am turning it to you, Rick.

Thank you, Natalya. I'm pleased to report that the third quarter was another record-setting quarter for Lindblad Expeditions with our highest ever quarterly adjusted EBITDA and net income and our third consecutive quarter with occupancy above 90%. Reflecting the strong performance and continued booking momentum, we're raising our full year guidance for the second time in just 6 weeks. Before diving into the details, I'd also recognize the acquisition of White Desert and Echo Charlie, our largest acquisition to date and an important milestone in Lindblad's growth. I'm particularly proud of the team's work to bring this transaction to completion, reflecting the capabilities we've built to identify, evaluate and execute strategic acquisitions.

With that, let me walk through our third quarter results in more detail. Total company revenue for the third quarter was $269.2 million, an increase of $29 million or 12.1% compared to the prior year. Lindblad segment revenues were $153.4 million, an increase of $15.8 million or 11.5% compared to the prior year. Despite a 4.3% increase in available guest nights, Occupancy increased 3.1 percentage points from 88.1% to 91.2%, and net yield per available guest night increased 6.4% to $1,398, the highest Q3 net yield in company history. Land Experiences segment revenues were $115.8 million, an increase of $13.2 million or 12.8% compared to Q3 2025, primarily driven by a 12% growth in guests.

Turning now to the cost side of the business. Operating expenses before stock-based compensation, transaction and reorgination expenses and depreciation and amortization increased $22.1 million or 12.1% versus Q3 2025. Specifically, cost of tours increased $11.6 million or 9.3%, driven by additional voyages and trips as well as higher fuel costs. Despite higher fuel prices, revenue growth outpaced the increase in costs resulting in gross margin expansion of 130 basis points to 49.5%. We remain focused on reducing fuel consumption through technology and operational improvements, while preserving the flexibility for our captains and expedition leaders to [indiscernible] itineraries in real time to optimize the guest experience.

These efforts are delivering tangible results despite a 4.3% increase in capacity, we reduced total fuel consumption year-over-year. However, higher fuel prices resulted in a $1.3 million or 22% increase in fuel expense with fuel costs representing 4.9% of Lindblad segment revenue compared to 4.5% in the prior year quarter. Selling and marketing costs increased $7.7 million or [ 5.5% ] primarily due to the final royalty rate step-up under our National Geographic agreement. And general and administrative costs, excluding stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses and reorganization costs, increased $2.9 million or 10.2%. Approximately 2/3 of this increase or $1.8 million was attributable to a onetime employee retention tax credit benefit recognized in the third quarter of 2025.

Excluding this prior year benefit, G&A as a percentage of revenue declined approximately 1 percentage point year-over-year, reflecting disciplined cost management and improving operating leverage as we scale the business. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $64.1 million, an increase of $6.9 million or 12% compared to the third quarter of 2025. Lindblad segment adjusted EBITDA increased $4.3 million or 13.2% to $37.1 million, while Land Experiences segment adjusted EBITDA increased $2.5 million or 10.3% to $27 million.

And despite higher fuel costs and the final royalty rate step-up under our National Geographic agreement, we maintained adjusted EBITDA margins of 23.8%, consistent with the prior year quarter. Net income available to stockholders reached $24.2 million or $0.36 per diluted share compared to a loss in the prior year quarter. Importantly, this represents the highest quarterly net income in our company's history, a significant milestone that underscores the progress we're making in driving profitable growth. Through the first 9 months of the year, an income available to stockholders totaled $28.8 million or $0.44 per diluted share.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with total cash of $308.2 million, an increase of $18.4 million since year-end 2025. This reflects strong operating cash flow of $111.3 million, driven primarily by solid business performance and increased bookings for future travel. Cash used in investing activities totaled $73.4 million, including $18.8 million in capital expenditures, primarily from maintenance of our owned fleet and approximately $54.6 million for the acquisition of 60% controlling interest in White Desert and Echo Charlie. Net cash acquired and subject to customary post-closing accounting reconciliations. Year-to-date free cash flow reached $92.5 million, an increase of $32.1 million or 53% compared to the prior year quarter.

Following the acquisitions of White Desert and Echo Charlie, net leverage stood at 2.5x at quarter end compared to 2.2x at the end of the second quarter. Our balance sheet remains strong, and we believe we are well positioned to continue pursuing accretive growth opportunities, including fleet expansion through new builds, acquisitions and charters as well as additional land experience acquisitions.

Turning now to our full year outlook. When we announced the acquisition of White Desert on September 15, we raised our full year guidance to reflect both the addition of White Desert and the continued strength of our core business. Since then, our core business has continued to demonstrate strong momentum, and I'm pleased to share that we are once again raising our outlook. As Natalya mentioned, booking momentum remained strong with continued strength in bookings for travel during the remainder of 2026, and both 2027 and 2028 are pacing ahead of the prior year.

Reflecting this momentum, we now expect net yield per available guest night to increase 6% to 7% year-over-year, up from our previous guidance of 5.5% to 6.5%. We are also raising our full year revenue guidance to a range of $870 million to $885 million, compared to our prior range of $850 million to $880 million. While higher fuel prices continue to present a headwind, the strength of our underlying business is helping offset these pressures. Accordingly, we are raising the low end of our full year adjusted EBITDA guidance by $2 million, resulting in an updated range of $142 million to $148 million compared to our previous range of $140 million to $148 million.

In closing, we're proud of the progress we've made this year, levering record financial results while continuing to invest in the long-term growth of our business, with strong booking momentum, a healthy balance sheet and an expanded portfolio of differentiated travel experiences, we are more confident than ever and Lindblad's future.

Thank you for your interest in the company. With that, Natalya and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Steven Wieczynski.

So I want to ask about the '27, '28 booked position and demand -- and current demand patterns. So if we think about '27, '28 bookings, you guys noted they're running at record -- you guys are running at record booked levels or a booked position at this point. I guess my question is, as we think about that book position, can you maybe give us some color around how pricing is looking? What pricing is looking like in those out years. Just trying to understand what that pricing could look like at this point, given your occupancy is now running in that low 90s range. And to us, that should mean the you should be able to kind of push a little bit more on price given where demand is. But I'll stop there and let you answer that, if you can.

Yes. Steve, great question. I mean we had optimal occupancy level like we noticed. And the revenue booked position is all time high in '27 in the company history reached by mathematical definition means that our pricing is up. And I'm very pleased, it's, of course, pricing course and we are managing over 100 destinations, but on many, many occasions, our pricing is in double digits. Now it will label to about mid-single-digit yield that's what I would be forecasting, but we are very pleased with what we are doing with revenue management and demand generation, both in '27 and '28.

Okay. So just to be clear, there you're kind of saying as we think about next year, like the mid-single-digit yield would be pretty fair at this point?

Correct.

Okay. And then I want to ask about maritime capacity expansion, which Rick touched on just briefly in his prepared remarks thing from our seat, the next step here has to be, from a growth perspective, more capacity given demand, given where demand is for luxury and exploration. I mean, obviously, that continues to be extremely, extremely strong. So maybe, Rick or tell give us a little bit more color in terms of the options that are out there for you guys in terms of maybe how you're thinking about those options between building -- whether it's building, whether it's chartering, whether it's buying, but any more color around there, I think, would be super helpful.

Yes. Steve, let me start and we can jump in it. First of all, as we talked about, we continue to expand our charter capacity. We have seen mid-single-digit capacity growth this year, mainly from our optimization of deployment, but also from significant expansion of our charters, and we will continue to see mid-single-digit capacity growth on our charter expanded business going forward. As we talked about in the last couple of calls, we also work on adding ships to our fleet. We're not ready to share yet, but we are very close to finalizing our plans on that regard. And I just ask us all to be a little patient with that. Rick, anything to add?

No, I think you covered it Natalya.

Your next question comes from the line of Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.

Glad to see demand is so strong here. Question would be just on -- for and maybe EBITDA guide. Can you help us understand the bridge there. Is this kind of mostly related to fuel? I'm just looking at the year-over-year comp and is that on fuel -- anything else going on there? Anything else you could do to mitigate that?

Yes. Thanks so much, Ian. What I'd say with Q4 is, as we shared previously, we expect capacity to be down mid-single digits in Q4 due to the timing of dry docks and repositionings. We're continuing to expect full year capacity to be up 4.5% to 5%, but there always is some fluctuations between quarters in terms of dry docks and repositioning. And so you're seeing that in Q4. And in addition, we have price which remains a headwind for the business. And despite that, we're continuing to see strong in-year bookings, which is helping to offset and mitigate those factors.

Okay. And just maybe sticking on fuel for a second longer. And I know you kind of mentioned a few things to mitigate fuel costs, but any thinking on surcharges or pursuing hedges or anything like that or any other kind of mitigating steps that you think that you could take to offset some of that. And maybe even the dynamic pricing, I don't know if that factors into any of that at all and, if you could give us some color there.

Ian, let me cover your surcharges on dynamic pricing question, and we can comment on hedging. The pricing, and I firmly believe in that has to be driven by consumer, and so our job is to drive demand there and develop capabilities, first of all, develop an outstanding product and guest experience and that will be supported by our marketing tools to generate pricing capabilities. And we are doing that in a very, very strong way, which obviously helps to offset any kind of cost fluctuation, including fuel or investments in our user and guest experience.

I don't believe you can just add the surcharge for fuel. And I think it needs to be supported by guest experience and natural organic demand. I'll let Rick comment on hedging.

So the company has never hedged fuel consistent with some other public peers. And our focus is really on looking at ways that we can control fuel prices. We talked about a little bit on the call, the steps that we're taking to reduce consumption. We're also looking at how and where we purchase fuel in order to help us limit the impact of these price increases that we're seeing in the fuel markets.

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Woronka with Deutsche Bank.

So I know that you've always talked about kind of the importance of availability of airfare, particularly adequate or first class seats from some key U.S. markets. So if you kind of look out to 2027, just given airlines keep kind of playing around their schedules in response to fuel. Is there anything on the good side or bad side that you see schedule wise in terms of -- do you think there's enough going to be enough first-class capacity in the major airlines and the major feeder markets to your markets internationally?

Thanks so much, Chris. We're not seeing anything in terms of air routes that we expect to impact demand for our 2027 or 2028 itineraries at this time.

And again, I think, Chris, remember, we have with all the growth that we have for our company, but we only have 60,000 guests traveling with us annually across all of our brands.

Yes, that's a great point. And the follow-up question is kind of a [indiscernible] seen in the last quarter, we've seen 1 of the major cruise companies kind of do this newer land-based strategy with the joint venture. I know that's not something you guys have necessarily look at in that kind of size or scope. But is there any thought to hotel operations in certain markets, if there's the right opportunity that kind of fits your demographic?

Chris, I think this is like very much related to our main topic of this call is we are and have been building a truly experiential travel platform. We are not pursuing a quartile business. We are in experiential travel business. Our goal is to grow our portfolio by delivering very high to replicate exceptional experiential guest experience and most unique destinations. And we had portfolio of land companies that take people by feet, by bicycles to most exceptional destinations and close to the nature and culture. Now we added White Desert, we are launching Echo Charlie and all of these brands play in this experiential travel segment. allowing our guests to transition from brand to brand as they experience this world?

Your next comes from the line of Anthony Berni with Jefferies.

[Operator Instructions]

Anthony, if you're speaking, we can't hear you.

We'll go to the next question. And if Anthony comes back on, we can bring him back into the queue.

Okay. Your next question is from Eric Des Lauriers with Craig Hallum Capital Group.

Congrats on another very impressive quarter here. both my questions focused on the land expedition growth opportunities. So we saw some increased ownership stakes this quarter. Just wondering what capacity remains for increased ownership stakes across some of your various land expedition brands or companies here? And then sort of ownership stakes aside, how should we think about the organic growth opportunities within your existing land expedition portfolio?

So I'll start with the second half of that question, Eric, which is we still continue to see tremendous opportunities to grow our land portfolio businesses organically. And you can see the results over the last year of those businesses, and we remain very bullish on them. In terms of the increased stakes, we did, earlier in the year, purchase a little bit of the outstanding stakes for Natural Habitat indentures as well as classic journeys. However, over the last year, all the founders of our Land Experience businesses, have signed extensions to continue to lead those companies into the future, and we remain very excited and enthusiastic about those partnerships.

And again, we have Anthony Berni with Jefferies.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can, Anthony.

Sorry about that before. Congrats on a great quarter. Apologies if this was asked before, but just following up on the capacity question, I think I heard charters will increase cruise capacity by mid-single digits next year. One, is that correct? And are there any other factors to consider? And then also on the land side, I appreciate that you can flex your capacity up and down with demand pretty easily. But can you give us any color on how much volume you expect next year in that segment as well?

Well, I think, Anthony, we are going to provide next year guidance in upcoming calls. So I'm not going to share an exact numbers. But you are hearing correctly the fact that we will continue to grow our charter business in some of the most unique destinations we expanded our Amazon offerings. We have Greg Mortimore expanding our Alaska business and growing, and we continue to develop this long-term partnership. You heard about European [indiscernible], et cetera. So yes, that will continue to be our moderate capacity growth lever. And yes, our Land Businesses are growing both in geographies that they are offering, but also in adding additional departures or various different products within their current destinations. Last time we talked about [indiscernible] past launching a new grant product in Alaska that's sold out within PACE. So we continue to innovate in places where we already are strong.

Perfect. And then last 1 from me. In the past, you've called out some of cost innovation initiatives that you have available. Can you quantify how much you intend to save with those and which cost buckets you think you see the biggest benefits?

So Rick will answer a more detailed question. What I want to stress here, we continue to see those on cost innovation initiatives. And what I would say, while we have seen significant results translate into margin this year, we're still in pretty early innings on that work, given some of the investments in technology we are making and a couple of duties, I mentioned today inventory management. That's 1 of the areas that I think we're going to really see some results coming in upcoming years, given our investments in technology and people and capabilities in that space.

Rick, anything to add?

Yes, I'd just say that of the initiatives that we have launched here in 2026, we won't see the full benefit of those hit the P&L until 2027, just given the long lead time that many of them have. And if you think about what lines on the P&L are most impacted, it's cost of tours, it's G&A and it's CapEx.

Your last question comes from the line of Stephen Grambling with Morgan Stanley.

Maybe a good segue from that last question on technology. It's actually just thinking about the potential impact of genetic bookings that you're mainly direct in terms of your business. But curious how you make sure that as more people use agents and/or LLM and how they're researching their vacations, how do you ensure that you'll be kind of in the top of the heap or even maybe see opportunity to improve the awareness and pricing capabilities?

Yes. Thank you, Stephen. It's great to hear from you. We talked a little bit last time and I talked about that. I think we are all learning here. What I would say in terms of yes, people use AI to get an information. and say for, we think about our storytelling and demand generation. What really we are what plays a bigger role than ever is areas like public relationships or organic generated opinion on things like radio, et cetera, where what we can do there is 1 is we are investing in our public relationships and store talent capabilities. We just welcomed a new PR leader into our organization last quarter. We also will have to continue to deliver exceptional guest experience to generate organic comments that are feeding AI agents as providing recommendations. So Hopefully, it helps.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Rick Goldberg for closing remarks.

Thanks so much. Really appreciate everyone taking the time to join today's call and your continued interest in Lindblad Expeditions. Thanks so much, everyone. Bye now.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. Reports 2026 Second Quarter Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Rick Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer. Rick, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. With me on today's call is Natalya Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer. Natalya will begin with some opening comments, and I will follow with details on our Q2 results and expectations for the full year 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 forecast 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 Natalya.

Thank you, Rick, and good morning to everyone, and welcome to our second quarter earnings call. I'm excited to share our results with you today as this quarter once again demonstrates the strength of our strategic approach and execution. We delivered double-digit revenue growth in the second quarter with total company revenue growth of 19% to $199 million compared to $168 million in the second quarter of last year.

Our Lindblad segment revenue increased 16% to $129 million, and our Land Experiences segment grew 23% to $70 million. Adjusted EBITDA increased 31% to $32.5 million compared to $24.8 million a year ago and adjusted EBITDA margins improved 150 basis points to 16.3% despite continued significant challenges from fuel prices. We delivered both occupancy and yield improvement despite a 12% increase in capacity.

As you recall, we've consistently said we expect to achieve 90% occupancy this year, and I'm very pleased to report that this is the second consecutive quarter we've hit the 90-plus target. Occupancy increased to 91%, up from 86% in the second quarter of 2025, our highest second quarter occupancy rate in 10 years and slightly ahead of our expectations. Net yield increased 4% to $1,294 per guest night compared with $1,241 in the prior year period, a record for the second quarter. This marks the sixth consecutive quarter of delivering record net yields.

Our 2026 bookings, both for our Land and Expedition segments remained above the prior year and even last minute availability is booking at a healthy pace. Our adjusted demand generation strategy helped us minimize risk and preserve bookings momentum in 2026. And because of our strong booking trends, we are raising our 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $830 million to $860 million, up from our previous guidance of $800 million to $850 million. We are also increasing our net yield guidance by 50 basis points from a range of 4% to 5% to a range of 4.5% to 5.5%. We are reaffirming our full year EBITDA guidance.

I'm also pleased that our 2027 bookings continue to pace ahead of 2026 in both segments. Before I walk you through our progress against our 3 strategic pillars, I would like to take a step back and talk about the opportunity in front of us. Expedition travel sits in the intersection of 3 powerful trends. Consumers increasingly value experiences over material possessions. Affluent travelers are looking for authentic immersive experiences rather than traditional luxury, and people are seeking learning purpose and human connection in how they travel.

Expedition travel is one of the fastest-growing segments in leisure travel, yet it still represents less than 1% of the global cruise market. Our addressable market remains very large. There are over 20 million U.S. households with more than 1 million in net worth, while major expedition-focused cruise lines serve less than 1 million travelers annually. We believe we are still in the early stages of a long growth trajectory. We, as a company, are uniquely able to capitalize on this opportunity. Every voyage we operate today is built on 6 decades of learning, relationships and operational expertise. And our partnership with National Geographic continues to be a unique competitive advantage, both in enhancing the guest experience and in introducing Lindblad to new audiences around the world.

Now let me walk you through the progress we made across our 3 strategic pillars: first, maximizing revenue generation through higher occupancy, pricing and deployment optimization; second, optimizing financial performance through cost innovation and fixed asset optimization; and third, exploring and capitalizing on accretive growth opportunities, including additions to our brand portfolio.

Beginning with our first pillar, maximizing revenue. A few weeks ago, we launched our 2028 deployment, and I'm excited about the early results. For this launch, we took our demand generation efforts up a notch through an integrated approach, proactively engaging past guests and working with our travel partners and onboard sales teams to maximize visibility for the launch. Our guests have clearly responded. The first few weeks of our 2028 launch generated twice the revenue of the same period last year.

Our 2028 lineup also includes an exceptional set of experiences, including our return to French Polynesia, where 1- and 2-week journeys combine iconic destinations, such as Bora Bora and [ Murreagh ] with Makatea, a rarely visited island offering unique cultural and exploration experiences beyond traditional itineraries. We are also expanding into destinations where we are seeing strong demand, including European River Cruises and the Amazon.

We also continue to expand our international presence. I joined our sales team on a major market engagement trip to Australia and New Zealand a couple of months ago, meeting with more than 60 travel partners and engaging with journalists and media. Early data suggests bookings from the region have accelerated meaningfully since the trip with bookings up 44% in the 6 weeks post our visit compared to the same period prior to our trip. This builds on the momentum we are seeing in the U.K. market, which we launched last year. Our outbound sales program continues to gain traction, increasing 44% versus the second quarter of last year, supported by strong lead generation.

We are also seeing strong growth in onboard and expansion revenue, up 28%, driven by continued expansion of our product and service offerings as well as pre-voyage initiatives. Our National Geographic partnership continues to deepen and enrich the guest experience. In May, Sven and I had the privilege of attending the opening of the new National Geographic Explorers Museum and hosting a group of National Geographic Explorers who regularly sail with us. It was very inspiring to discuss new ways to create even more meaningful guest experiences through exclusive access to world-class explorers, immersive storytelling and opportunities for guests to engage with the important research and conservation work taking place in the destinations we visit.

Moving to our second strategic pillar, which focuses on operational excellence and productivity improvements. As we have previously mentioned, we continue to build a deep pipeline of cost innovation initiatives that are driving efficiencies and generating healthy returns. In addition, our execution against our dry dock and deployment optimization strategies has generated 92 fewer nonrevenue days for our 2028 deployment compared to 2026. In response to higher fuel prices, we reduced fuel consumption year-over-year despite increasing capacity through a combination of ship label cost innovation initiatives.

We also completed several contract renegotiations that are delivering meaningful run rate savings by leveraging the scale of our entire brand portfolio. As we become a more scientific and data-driven organization, we believe we will continue to unlock additional opportunities going forward.

Turning to our third pillar, accretive growth. This time, I would like to highlight a few land initiatives that allow us to capitalize on consumer trends and build on our core competencies. Our new Off the Beaten Path, Alaska Grandslam itinerary, which covers all 8 Alaska national parks, sold out both its initial deployment and added departures within weeks. This is a great example of our guests' willingness to engage with us for truly differentiated premium once-in-a-lifetime experiences. DuVine's expanded offering of hiking plus cycling itineraries have been very well received with very promising sales trends.

We also launched women-only walks, WOW, across 20 destinations on classic journeys, which dovetails with the success of our Natural Habitat's women's-only journeys. We also continue to evaluate fleet expansion and other opportunities to add to our portfolio of brands, as I mentioned during the last couple of calls. As we talk about our why and our commitment to sustainability, I am very proud of our entire food and beverage team for delivering programs centered on sustainable local sourcing, food waste reduction and unique educational guest experiences. We are honored to have been recognized with the most sustainable F&B program award at the 2026 Seatrade Cruise Awards.

Before I turn the call to Rick, let me leave you with 3 key takeaways. First, our revenue maximization efforts are working. Strong second quarter occupancy, record net yields and accelerating booking momentum across '26, '27 and '28 shows that guests continue to choose Lindblad for differentiated premium experiences.

Second, we are becoming a more efficient data-driven organization, and that discipline is showing up in our margins even as we invest in growth. Third, our accretive growth initiatives across both Land Experience and Expeditions give us multiple paths to capture a large and still underpenetrated market. We are well positioned for growth and actively pursuing new avenues through existing product expansions and acquisitions. We recently spent a few days with our executive leadership team, reflecting on how proud we are of every member of our team for driving significant operational changes across so many areas of our business.

I want to thank our teams for their humility, growth mindset, focus and resilience and above all, for their unwavering commitment to the guest experience. Now back to you, Rick.

Thank you, Natalya. Last quarter, we discussed our decision to pull forward a portion of our demand generation spend. That strategy has contributed to strong near-end bookings while accelerating our 2027 booking pace. As Natalya noted, even with 12% capacity growth in the second quarter, we delivered 4.3% net yield growth, underscoring the strength of demand for our differentiated expedition experience. Total company revenue for the second quarter was $199.2 million, an increase of $31.3 million or 18.6% compared to the prior year.

In the Lindblad segment, we successfully absorbed 11.9% additional capacity while continuing to drive both occupancy and pricing. Revenue increased 16.4% to $129.2 million. Occupancy improved 5 percentage points to 91%, our highest second quarter occupancy in 10 years, and net yield per available guest night increased 4.3% to $1,294, the highest second quarter net yield in company history. Land Experiences segment revenues were $70 million, an increase of $13.1 million or 23% compared to Q2 2025, driven by 13% growth in guests and an 8% increase in revenue per guest.

Turning now to the cost side of the business. Operating expenses before stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest and taxes increased $23.7 million or 16.5% versus Q2 2025, specifically, cost of tours increased $11.2 million or 12.3%, driven by operating additional voyages and trips as well as higher fuel costs. As a result, gross margin increased to 48.5%, an improvement of 290 basis points compared to the prior year. Through our cost innovation initiatives, we reduced fuel consumption by more than 3% during the quarter despite a 12% increase in capacity.

Nonetheless, fuel prices remained elevated amid heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, increasing $2.7 million or 64% year-over-year. Fuel costs represented 5.3% of Lindblad segment revenue in the quarter compared to 4.8% in the prior year. Sales and marketing costs increased $5.6 million or 21.3%, primarily due to the final royalty rate step-up under our National Geographic agreement. And general and administrative costs, excluding stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses and reorganization costs increased $6.8 million or 27%. Half of that increase, $3.4 million, reflects the onetime benefit from employee retention tax credits recognized in the second quarter of 2025.

Excluding that item, G&A as a percentage of revenue declined 100 basis points year-over-year. Higher personnel costs and strategic growth investments were more than offset by our continued focus on cost discipline and operating efficiencies as we scale the business. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $32.5 million, an increase of $7.6 million or 30.7% compared to the second quarter of 2025. Lindblad segment adjusted EBITDA increased $6.1 million or 37.5%, while Land Experiences segment adjusted EBITDA increased $1.5 million or 17.5%. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the quarter was 16.3%, an improvement of 150 basis points compared to the second quarter of 2025.

Net loss available to stockholders for the second quarter was $1.4 million, an improvement of $8.3 million compared to the prior year. This equated to a loss of $0.02 per share compared to a loss of $0.18 per share in Q2 2025. Importantly, excluding the accelerated depreciation associated with the planned fourth quarter retirement of the National Geographic Sea Bird and National Geographic Sea Lion, we would have reported positive GAAP net income for the quarter.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with total cash of $364.9 million, an increase of $75.2 million versus the end of 2025. The increase reflects $108.5 million in cash from operations due primarily to the strong results of the business and increased bookings for future travel. We used $14.9 million of cash for investing activities, primarily related to maintenance for our owned ships. Year-to-date, free cash flow increased 93% to $93.6 million. Our net leverage declined from 2.7x at the end of the first quarter to 2.2x, further strengthening our balance sheet.

As we've discussed on recent earnings calls, we continue to actively evaluate accretive growth opportunities, including expanding our fleet and further diversifying our portfolio of land experience brands to capitalize on the continued growth in demand for adventure travel. Turning now to our full year outlook. I'm pleased to share our updated guidance for 2026. We continue to expect available guest nights to be approximately flat year-over-year in the second half of 2026.

As Natalya mentioned, our demand generation efforts continue to drive strong booking momentum across 2026 and 2027 as well as for our recently launched 2028 itineraries. Reflecting this strength, we now expect net yield per available guest night to increase 4.5% to 5.5% year-over-year compared to our prior guidance of 4% to 5%. Consistent with this improved outlook, we are raising our full year revenue guidance to a range of $830 million to $860 million, up from our previous range of $800 million to $850 million. At the same time, fuel prices remained elevated. Given this continued headwind, we are maintaining our adjusted EBITDA guidance of $130 million to $140 million.

In closing, Natalya and I are proud of our team's execution in a dynamic operating environment. With strong demand, a healthy balance sheet and a disciplined approach to growth, we believe the company is well positioned for the remainder of 2026 and beyond.

With that, we thank you for your interest in Lindblad Expeditions. Natalya and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.

Really good quarter. I wanted to ask on the occupancy side because it seems like you're really outperforming here. How much more runway do we have here? And how do we think about where that could ultimately go? Do you think it could go higher than you initially thought it could go? I know there's a new kind of calendar coming on '27 and also in '28. So just kind of looking forward, where can this actually go to?

Ian, let me take this question. It's a great question. I think what you're really asking is what's the potential of future yield growth. And I think occupancy levels, as we always said that since last year, about 90%, slightly higher maybe the norm for this business, given small sizes of our ships and our ultra-premium product offerings. I do think we have a potential to grow -- continue to grow yields at a very healthy rate, which is what current booking trends are showing. And that's both from our improved deployment and mix of the product, our significant improved demand generation efforts and our additional revenue streams such as onboard revenue and extension revenues.

Okay. And then for Rick, maybe 2 questions here. Can you maybe just give us a little more color on the fuel? Maybe what was the headwind and kind of what you're assuming going forward? And then also as far as use of cash, I know you bought back stock and encouraged by that, but also I know you have kind of other aspirations on the M&A side. So how are you kind of balancing that and how are you thinking about that?

Yes. So I'll hit that second question first just in terms of capital allocation. I would say is our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. First, we'll continue to invest in organic growth opportunities that strengthen our business and enhance the guest experience. Second, we'll pursue disciplined accretive investments across both our Expedition, Cruising and Land Experience businesses. And finally, to the extent that we generate capital beyond those needs, we'll evaluate returning it to shareholders through our debt reduction or opportunistic share repurchases.

And then in terms of fuel, we continue to see fuel prices remain elevated, where they were at the end of Q1 remained pretty consistent throughout the second quarter. And so we are modeling a range of scenarios, including having fuel prices remain at this elevated level where it was at the end of Q1, at the end of Q2, close to $100 a barrel for the remainder of the fiscal year. And if that is the case, we will remain within our guidance range of $130 million to $140 million of EBITDA.

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Congrats on yet another very impressive quarter here. My first question, so noticing the increased ownership stake on some of the land experiences here. Could you just provide some color around your updated thinking here on potentially increasing ownership stake to 100%. Is that sort of in the plan or in the cards? And any additional color that you can provide on sort of timing or priority ranking there would be helpful.

Well, thank you, Eric. Another great question. I'll start, and I'll let Rick contribute. We have a very unique model on land companies where our founders are part of the ownership model, and they continue to run the businesses. We believe that provides us a unique competitive advantage and brings the passion, the talent and exceptional knowledge of the product into the place. So for that reason, we really trust, hope and have a high confidence that our founders will stay with us for much longer time. So that's -- the ownership stake might change, but we hope that the model of co-ownership will continue.

I very much agree with everything that Natalya said. I mean this is a real differentiator for us and allows us to closely align incentives between ourselves as well as the founders and entrepreneurs in these businesses. Over the course of the last year, we actually extended the agreements with all 4 of our land company founders and owners who are still with the business. As part of that, some of them wanted to take a little bit of cash off the table and get some monetization, and it was a win-win situation for both sides.

That's great color. I appreciate that. My next question, so in the prepared remarks, you mentioned that as the company becomes more data-driven, you'll look to identify even more opportunities of cost improvement, which have already been quite impactful here. I just wanted to kind of get a high-level sort of assessment of where you guys are in that sort of data-driven evolution of the company.

I guess, however you guys want to take this, whether you kind of want to identify like what sort of inning we're in, in this overall data-driven transformation or just kind of help provide some more color around sort of where we are in that transformation and what we may be able to look forward to as that progresses.

Yes. I think, Eric, first of all, every cost initiative, there is a time line when it starts and the results usually follow later. You would recall that Rick was mentioning last year, we had over 20 cost innovation initiatives in the pipeline. You are really seeing the results of them mainly coming this year. This year, we have another 30-plus cost innovation initiatives that will start delivering results later this year and in the next 3 years. So hopefully, it gives you a little bit of color on the pipeline.

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Albanese with Benchmark StoneX.

Yes. Really nice quarter. Just a couple of quick ones for me. I think this is the first time we heard you talk about 2028 booking curves, obviously, with new itineraries and more capacity. Could you just give us some insight into what you're seeing there? Is there still accelerating momentum, I guess, versus 2027 booking curves? Is it too early to read into that? Just if you could elaborate on that, that would be helpful.

Yes. Yes. I'm smiling here because it's the first time because we just launched '28, and I'm very, very proud of the team for an incredible support and demand generation efforts here. So as I mentioned, not only it's been doing great, we literally have seen double of bookings in '28 versus '27. Now I don't expect that it will always continue with the booking curve, right? And it will level off as it goes on. But it is a very strong launch, and it's pulling demand forward, enabling price elasticity later on. So early days, but exceptional launch support. We launched with new demand generation and marketing support strategy, and it seems to be paying off.

Awesome. That's helpful. And then could you just provide some context maybe on price and how much price you're taking and maybe just bifurcate between price and traffic as we think about kind of the latter half of '27 and then into that newer '28 booking curve?

So what we've always shared is that we expected this year as well as last year to really be about driving occupancy and that being the primary lever of net yield growth. We are still pricing up on a like-for-like basis, although we do have some mix headwinds in terms of our itineraries, especially with some of the voyages that we added 6 to 9 months out, which is a much shorter booking window than we would typically have. And then as we turn the page from 2026 to 2027, our expectation is that net yield is much more pricing driven than it is occupancy driven at that stage.

Natalya, anything to add?

No, that was great.

Your next question comes from the line of Stephen Wieczynski.

So I want to go back to the guidance here for a second. So the revenue guidance for the year was raised. EBITDA guidance was maintained. And Rick, you called out fuel headwinds, but that just doesn't seem to be that big of a headwind given your consumption there. So if you guys did $67 million in EBITDA in the first half of the year, I guess what we're struggling with here is how do you still kind of get into that range for EBITDA in the back half of the year? I mean has there been a change in cost in the second half? Or is there something else we're just flat out missing here? I mean maybe a little bit of help around the cadence of the next 2 quarters would be helpful.

Absolutely, Steve. So just as a reminder, Q1 included an approximately $3 million onetime benefit related to the timing of land experience tour insurance revenue and Q2 benefited from a 12% increase in capacity, whereas we expect capacity to be flat in the second half of the year. It will be up mid-single digits in Q3 and down mid-single digits in Q4. The main headwind in the second half of the year is fuel costs, which remain elevated. And our assumption is that prices remain elevated throughout the rest of the year. If you're comparing year-over-year, you also have the final royalty rate step-up related to our National Geographic contract. And then additionally, there's always risk of canceled voyages due to uncertainty surrounding geopolitical events.

Let me ask that different, Rick. So if oil -- obviously, fuel has actually started to kind of work the other way, is it fair -- I think you kind of said that based on your guidance today, you guys are still assuming, let's say, crude is kind of in that $100 a barrel range. And if there's no geopolitical further headwinds, there should be upside to that EBITDA guidance range. Hopefully, that makes sense.

I think, Steven, our guidance is already a range, and it assumes a number of outcomes based on what we are modeling. So I would say it does assume both upside and downside within this guidance. It's as accurate as we can communicate right now based on what we know.

Okay. One more quick one, if I could, please. I don't -- did you mention Disney anywhere in terms of where bookings are pacing right now for those guys?

Well, I mentioned a number of initiatives that we continue to drive. I mean we're not driving Disney bookings versus non-Disney bookings. We are driving a number of demand generation initiatives together. So for example, our outbound sales increase driven by increase in lead generation. Some of them come through National Geographic, Disney channels. Our international expansion success is clearly a result of National Geographic global brand name recognition. So I think it's embedded in many of our commercial initiatives.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Rick Goldberg for closing remarks.

Just want to thank everyone for joining today's earnings call and for your continued interest in Lindblad Expeditions and especially to our team at Lindblad Expeditions who has worked really hard to put together a strong quarter in Q2 2026 and is working towards continuing to drive the business forward. Thank you so much, everyone.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Amy, and I will be your conference operator for today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Rick Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer with Lindblad. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad's first quarter 2026 earnings call.

With me on today's call is Natalya Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer. Natalya will begin with some opening comments, and I will follow with details on our Q1 results and expectations for the full year 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 forecast 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 Natalya.

Thank you, Rick, and here we are again. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter earnings call. In a complex macro and geopolitical environment, our team delivered another record quarter. We achieved record first quarter occupancy of 93% on a 6% increase in capacity and increased net yield by 7% to a record of $1,631 per guest night.

For the quarter, revenues increased 16% with the Lindblad segment growing 16% and the Land segment growing 14%. We delivered 14% EBITDA growth and generated $6 million in net income available to shareholders compared to a slightly negative net income last year. These results reflect the strength of our strategy and importantly, the discipline of our execution.

We remain confident in our ability to drive long-term value as we continue to navigate external dynamics. We delivered these results in a challenging and complex operating environment, including some of the most difficult weather conditions in Antarctica in over a decade. As a result, we experienced increased cancellations in our Antarctica flight program in addition to several Egyptian river cruises. These cancellations not only impacted revenue from some of our most profitable voyages, but also led to higher land costs as some guests were already in transit or on the ground when disruptions occurred.

We increased demand generation spending to mitigate the risks of volatile external environment, and I'm pleased to share that we delivered a historically strong wave season, maintained booking pace for 2026 and further accelerated bookings momentum for 2027. Let me also address fuel. We are closely monitoring the rapidly evolving situation. Due to our diversified portfolio, fuel costs have historically averaged around 3% to 4% of our total revenues. We have doubled down on initiatives to reduce fuel consumption while maintaining an exceptional guest experience.

As I mentioned during Q&A of our last earnings call, our guidance reflects a range of potential outcomes and we are reaffirming our full year outlook. This is supported by continued execution across our 3 strategic pillars: number one, maximizing revenue generation through occupancy pricing and deployment optimization; number two, optimizing financial performance through cost innovation and fixed assets utilization; number three, capitalizing on accretive growth opportunities, including expanding our portfolio brands.

Starting with our first pillar, maximizing revenue. Our Disney and National Geographic relationships continue to strengthen. In the first quarter, bookings from Disney EarMarked travel agents increased 67% compared to prior year, demonstrating the meaningful value of this partnership in reaching new audiences through new channels. Building on this momentum, we recently signed our first ever charter agreement with Club 33, Disney's most exclusive private membership club, and the voyage literally sold within a couple of hours.

We will continue to explore additional opportunities with Club 33 members. Our onboard sales program continues to deliver exceptional results. On vessels with dedicated expedition sales consultants, more than 1/4 of our guests are booking their next voyage before disembarking. This conversion rate reflects both the strength of our guest experience and the effectiveness of our approach to driving repeat engagement. Our outbound sales program is also gaining significant traction, increasing 64% versus prior year, supported by a meaningful increase in lead generation. We believe we are still in the early stages of unlocking the full potential of this high-value channel.

We continue to see strong momentum in the U.K. market launched last year. This year, we are also deepening our presence in Australia, one of our key international growth markets. In fact, our Chief Sales Officer, Kathi and I will be in Australia later this month and very much looking forward for a major market engagement.

While our Expedition segment continues to perform well, our Land Experiences segment is equally positioned for growth. We recently completed highly productive strategic planning session with our land company leaders to develop a long-term plan for accelerated growth. A key element of our success in land acquisitions is our ability to partner closely with founders of these businesses, combining their deep understanding of the guests, passion for the business with the scale and capabilities of our global platform. I'm pleased to share that all of the founders of our land companies have extended their relationships with us, ensuring leadership continuity.

Turning to our second pillar, cost innovation and fixed assets utilization. We continue to build a strong pipeline of cost initiatives across the organization. As mentioned earlier, we have launched comprehensive programmatic fuel consumption efforts. We have also enhanced ship maintenance protocols, including more frequent propeller polishing and hull cleaning, which will support improved fuel efficiency over time.

Complementing these operational improvements, our Chief Supply Chain Officer and his team have made significant progress renegotiating key contracts, delivering both immediate and long-term savings across both our cost and capital. We are also reevaluating elements of our operating model to drive greater efficiencies. For example, we have outsourced certain warehouse functions to improve performance and scalability. In addition, we have made meaningful progress in optimizing crew travel through better planning and rotations with strong results already visible this quarter. Collectively, all these initiatives will deliver long-term structural benefits to our business.

Turning to our third pillar, accretive growth. We recently launched our partnership with Earthwatch, expanding into the citizen science travel segment and reinforcing our commitment to conservation and education.

At the same time, we continue to evaluate opportunities across fleet and portfolio expansion. The sustained strength in demand for our products presents compelling opportunities to grow in a disciplined and strategic way. Throughout all of this, we remain grounded in what makes Lindblad unique, Our Why. Our commitment to responsible exploration is central to who we are and a defining differentiator. For us, it is more than a trip, it is a mission, and I will continue to highlight this as it is fundamental to our business and experience that we deliver to our guests.

This quarter, I would like to highlight our continued progress in food waste reduction, which delivers positive impact on environment, but also saves costs. We have made significant strides through a combination of disciplined execution and innovative practices. Our guest dinner sign-up program has reduced prep waste by up to 75%. Local provisioning has reduced excess inventory and associated waste.

Our culinary teams continue to adopt zero waste techniques and food preservation methods, particularly in remote environments. We have also begun installing food dehydrators on our ships, which convert food waste into reusable byproducts. In addition, we published our 2025 Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund Traveler Impact Report, detailing our efforts to protect oceans, wildlife and communities. We are also honored to be named by TIME as one of the 10 Most Influential Travel and Tourism Companies of 2026.

We believe this recognition reflects our pioneering heritage and leadership in purpose-driven expedition travel and strength of our brand and expertise built over nearly 60 years. Again, our quarterly results reflect the strength of our strategy and disciplined execution. Our focus on our 3 strategic pillars positions us to drive long-term shareholders' value. In closing, I want to express my sincere appreciation to our teams across the organization for navigating a complex environment with focus, resilience and unwavering commitment to our guests, our shareholders and each other.

Thank you for your continued confidence in Lindblad Expeditions. We look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters ahead.

Thank you, Natalya. Despite a challenging geopolitical backdrop, we delivered another record quarter, reflecting the resilience of both our team and our business. Total company revenues for Q1 2026 were $208 million, an increase of $28.3 million or 15.7% versus Q1 2025. Lindblad segment revenues were $152.5 million, an increase of $21.4 million or 16.3% (sic) [ 16% ] compared to the prior year. Occupancy increased 4 percentage points from 89% to 93%, the highest first quarter occupancy in company history despite a 6.4% increase in available guest nights and net yield per available guest night increased 7.2% (sic) [ 7% ] to $1,631, marking the highest quarterly net yield in company history.

Land Experience (sic) [ Land Experiences ] segment revenues were $55.5 million, an increase of $6.9 million or 14.2% (sic) [ 14% ] compared to Q1 2025, driven by higher revenue per guest.

Turning now to the cost side of the business. Operating expenses before stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest and taxes increased $23.4 million or 15.7% versus Q1 2025. Specifically, cost of tours increased $13.9 million or 15%, driven by operating additional voyages and trips as well as higher air expense associated with expanding our Flying Antarctica program. The most notable impact of the war in Iran has been on fuel prices. Fuel costs represented 5.2% of Lindblad segment revenue in Q1.

While absolute fuel spend increased year-over-year, it declined by 40 basis points as a percentage of revenue, reflecting stronger top line performance. Importantly, our diversified portfolio, including our Land Experiences platform, helps mitigate the impact of fuel price volatility at the overall company level. In the first quarter, fuel costs were 3.9% of total company revenue. And as a point of reference, a 10% change in fuel costs would have an impact of just under $2 million for the remainder of the year.

Sales and marketing costs increased $7.7 million or 27.2%, primarily due to increased royalties associated with the final royalty rate step-up under our National Geographic agreement and investments in demand generation efforts. General and administrative costs, excluding stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses and reorganization costs, increased $1.9 million or 6.5% versus a year ago, driven by higher personnel costs. As a percentage of revenue, G&A was 14.7%, down 120 basis points from the prior year, reflecting our continued focus on cost discipline and efficiencies as we scale the business.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $34.8 million, an increase of $4.8 million or 16.2% versus the prior year. Lindblad segment EBITDA grew $1.6 million or 6.2% in spite of the impact of the Fly Antarctica voyages canceled due to weather and the Egypt voyages canceled due to the war in Iran.

Land Experiences EBITDA grew $3.2 million or 88%. This includes an approximately $3 million onetime benefit related to the timing of tour insurance revenue recognized in the quarter. First quarter net income available to stockholders was $6 million or $0.10 per share compared to a slight loss a year ago.

Turning now to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with total cash of $321 million, an increase of $31.3 million versus the end of 2025. The increase reflects $49.5 million in cash from operations due primarily to the strong results of the business and increased bookings for future travel. We used $6.9 million of cash for investing activities, primarily related to maintenance of our own ships. For the quarter, free cash flow increased 21.7% to $42.6 million. Our net leverage declined from 3.1x at the end of the year to 2.7x, highlighting the strength of our balance sheet and disciplined capital management.

This progress was recognized by Moody's, which recently upgraded our rating. As we've shared on recent earnings calls, the company will continue to explore accretive growth opportunities, including expanding our fleet and further diversifying our portfolio of Land Experience (sic) [ Land Experiences ] brands to capitalize on continued growth in the demand for adventure travel.

Turning now to our full year outlook. We are maintaining the guidance we shared on our last earnings call. Available guest nights are expected to increase 4.5% to 5%. Net yield per an available guest night is expected to increase 4% to 5%. We expect total company revenue in the range of $800 million to $850 million, and we expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $130 million to $140 million. As Natalya mentioned, despite a challenging geopolitical backdrop, we have maintained strong booking momentum for 2026 and are seeing accelerating demand for 2027. This reflects the growing demand for experiential travel, the strength of our affluent customer base and continued execution against our commercial initiatives.

With that, we thank you for your interest in Lindblad Expeditions. Natalya and I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Goldberg. [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Steve Wieczynski with Stifel.

So Natalya or Rick, if we think about your yields guidance for the remainder of the year, wondering how we should be thinking about the cadence of yields over the last 3 quarters? Because if I remember correctly, I think you guys were thinking as we kind of talked to you guys back in February, that first half yields were going to be, let's say, more -- a little bit more muted and then there'd be more upside in yields in the back half of the year. But after putting up a really solid 7% yield in the first quarter, just wondering how we should think about yields now over the last 3 quarters of the year.

Thanks so much, Steve, and great to hear from you. So what I'd say is our underlying assumptions haven't changed. We're expecting significant capacity expansion in the first half of the year, especially in Q2. So we saw 6% capacity growth in Q1. We're expecting double-digit capacity growth in Q2. The rate of capacity growth will then decelerate in the second half of the year. So you should expect lower net yield growth in Q2 and stronger net yield growth in the back half of the year.

Okay. Got you. And then second question, Rick, you touched on this a little bit in your prepared remarks. But if we want to dig in a little bit more in terms of maybe what you're seeing from a forward bookings perspective at this point. I guess what I'm trying to understand is, has the booking environment changed? Has it not changed over the last 2 months? And maybe a little bit of color around cancellation rates. Have you seen any of that around the potential war impact? And then maybe as we think about 2027, any change around the booking pattern in '27? I guess just with higher airline prices out there, has that been a little bit of a headwind for you guys? Or you just haven't seen that at all yet?

Yes, Steve, this is -- let me take this question. I think, first of all, I do want to remind, we started the year with a very strong position in '26. And so that is an important kind of a backdrop point. We did see a slight uptick in cancellation rates in the last couple of months. That's one of the reasons, as I mentioned, that we increased demand generation spending. I would say that it really reenergized the market environment. We were able to maintain very healthy pacing in '26, therefore, reinforcing very confidently our guidance forward on the revenue side.

And '27, frankly, accelerated pacing. I'm knocking on the wood, but we are very pleased with our performance based on our commercial initiatives and demand generation and several initiatives that we highlighted in the prepared remarks.

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum.

Great. Congrats on another strong quarter, especially despite some of these cancellations here. So one of the things that stuck out to me in your prepared remarks was the impact of the dedicated expedition sales consultants. I think you said over 1/4 of guests are now booking their next voyage before disembarking. That's just -- it's much higher than I would have expected. So obviously great to see. I'm just wondering how does that sort of compare to your internal expectations or overall industry averages? And just kind of wondering if this was an especially strong quarter? Or just kind of how to think about that conversion going forward?

Yes. I think, Eric, this is a great question. I would say I'm not going to comment on an industry average because it's, I think, very different from company to company. We are very pleased with performance of our onboard cruise program. I will remind you that we have our cruise consultants only on select larger ships. We don't have onboard cruise consultants on our smaller ships that are below 100 passenger count.

So just keep that in mind as you are doing average. But overall, performance is exceptionally strong and frankly, stronger than we initially expected, which, again, is first and above all, is illustration of our exceptional guest experience on board, but also a very strong repeat rate and expanding booking curves.

That's great. I appreciate that color. And then you've touched on how some of the recent geopolitical volatility is impacting overall customer demand. Could you comment on how it may or may not be impacting sort of M&A dynamics, whether that's on sort of adding capacity to your fleet or on the land side of things? I'm just wondering how this may or may not be impacting any of those conversations.

Thanks, Eric. So I'd say we continue to be actively focused on looking to expand capacity in terms of our expedition fleet as well as looking to add to our portfolio of land-based companies. Those remain important priorities for us as a leadership team, and we're not seeing any impact of the geopolitical situation on either of those.

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Wold with Texas Capital.

I guess first question, you mentioned that you've been making a lot of efforts operationally to reduce fuel consumption in general, given kind of what's going on with Iran. Any -- have you also been including price increase for tours, not a surcharge, but for expeditions that have not yet been booked? Have you been raising prices to potentially offset lingering fuel prices? And if so, how far out in the booking curve are you making these moves?

Great question, Eric. I think our pricing is driven by demand, which we always continue to take pricing up when the demand comes, and that's why we're investing in the demand generation and all commercial initiatives and expanding booking curves and increasing price elasticity, et cetera. I would say we are very pleased with our '27 booking pace.

We are booked on both Land and Expedition segment significantly ahead of prior year and continue to accelerate momentum, with that comes price increases. On some of our more popular destinations like Alaska and Antarctica, we literally are reviewing prices on a weekly basis and adjusting them as needed. In terms of cost innovation, we have launched a number of very detailed reviews, including involving our ship leaders on understanding how we can optimize ship consumption, analyze consumption of energy within the ship environment, optimize our speed, maintenance protocols, et cetera.

Got it. Okay. And then second question, you've had some great success, seems like in cross-selling the brands. I know -- looks like the ratio of other tour revenues to ticket revenues continue to increase and made a nice move year-over-year in the quarter for the Lindblad segment. Maybe update us on kind of those efforts to kind of boost your wallet share of the guests, especially with cross-promoting the Land Experiences kind of before and after the expeditions.

Yes. So Eric, our focus to drive onboard revenue and pre- and post-trip experience continues to be one of the strategic focus areas. That is separate from our land companies' cross-sell efforts. Both are an important strategic driver of our performance. We continue to provide more experiences as guests when they travel literally to the ends of the world. They usually want to stay a couple of days before and after their trip onboard the ship. And we expanded our offerings of exceptional experiences before and after the trip, but we also doubled down on communicating to guests and making it easier to book pre and post experiences including most recently upgrading our web platform to be able to book pre and post experiences very easily as part of a booking flow. We also continue to partner with our land companies and use our global platform and a guest list to cross-promote our experiences.

Your next question comes from the line of Mike Albanese with StoneX.

Yes. Regarding the 2027 booking curves running ahead of '26 and then obviously accelerating here, could you just, if possible, either quantify or just add some color in terms of how much you're pacing ahead of 2026?

Well, we do not give a guidance for 2027 [ years ], and we usually don't disclose that. I would say we are very pleased with our booking pace. Our overall occupancy guidance remains to be that we are targeting to be at 90% and above as we mentioned last year, which is this quarter, we delivered the highest in the history of the company of 93.2% (sic) [ 93% ] occupancy. And I would say we are confidently marching to deliver on our goal to stay above 90%, both in '26 and '27 while driving pricing.

Okay. Fair enough. And then just regarding the weather impact, I mean, is there any way to quantify or add context to that impact? I'm just thinking here how many days were lost or voyages were lost or a sense of the cancellation, trying to get a sense of essentially what this may have looked like if weather was not a factor.

Yes.

So what I'd say there, Mike, is that if you factor in both the cancellations due to weather as well as the cancellations in Egypt due to the geopolitical situation, the impact was multimillion dollars. So multi-single digit million dollars.

Single digit.

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer.

Good quarter. Have any of you guys seen any benefit from the Middle East hostilities as far as shifts in booking locations, so maybe travelers staying closer to home and doing Baja or Galapagos or something along those lines? Or any other kind of color you can give us there?

Thank you, Ian. We are constantly watching for any shifts in demand between our over 70 locations. I can't say that we've seen any specific patterns, to be honest. Our demand in places like Alaska and Baja you mentioned, continues to grow, but frankly, it started prior to geopolitical situation. Baja had finished a very, very strong quarter, basically 100% booked on cabin basis with very strong demand. Antarctica, Alaska continues to grow demand, Galapagos. So we haven't seen any specific shift in demand, to be honest, but we are constantly monitoring it.

Okay. And then on the land-based Land Experiences, even though it's very strong, I know there's a little bit of a benefit, but maybe can you talk to the strength you're seeing there? And then maybe your appetite to get larger on the Land Experience (sic) [ Land Experiences ] side?

Well, our Land Experiences have been a growth engine for us over the past few years, as you have seen from our financial statements. So as I mentioned in my remarks, we've been spending time with our Land Presidents to really prepare them and invest in the next phase of unlocking growth. They have been growing double digits, very strong growth, and we continue to think how we can accelerate momentum.

Those businesses are very capital-light with incredibly well-positioned expertise in various different parts of the world, very differentiated. So we will continue to focus on accelerating growth momentum with them.

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

Just want to thank everyone for their interest and for all the great questions today and look forward to being back with you next quarter. Thanks again. Bye now.

That concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

Hello, and thank you for standing by. My name is [ Bella ], and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Lindblad Expeditions Holdings, Inc. 2025 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the conference over to Rick Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad's fourth quarter 2025 earnings call. With me on today's call is Natalya Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer. Natalya will begin with some opening comments, and I will follow with details on our 2025 results and 2026 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 forecast 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 Natalya.

Thank you, Rick. Good morning, everyone. Well, we are very excited to share our progress and results today. As we begin this call, I'd like to start with the words from our founder, Sven Lindblad, "We have always had a very distinct North Star. If we can provide people with extraordinary experiences in the world's most charismatic places, they form a connection with the natural world that is truly profound."

This year, as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the very first nonscientific expedition to Antarctica led by Sven's father, this North Star feels as relevant as ever. It guides us in every decision every day.

Rick and I recently marked our first year in the company, aboard National Geographic Resolution in Antarctica and standing on a bridge as Captain Martin noted that we were the southern most passenger ship in the world for days. And latest came with expedition leader, Stefano towards a glacier with emperor penguins nearby.

It's moments like this that remind us what truly sets Lindblad Expeditions apart, unmatched expertise, intimate shifts and deeply authentic experiences. That commitment is not only philosophical, it drives results. In 2025, we delivered record guest satisfaction scores and record financial performance while strengthening our operating discipline and accelerating progress across all 3 strategic pillars.

To that end, we've also rounded up our strong leadership team with the recent addition of a new Chief Marketing Officer, Mike Fulkerson, who brings extensive experience across hospitality, luxury, expedition and cruising sectors.

Turning to our results. Full year revenues reached a record $771 million, representing 20% growth year-over-year. We achieved record growth in yields to $1,335 per guest night, the highest in the company's history.

Our adjusted EBITDA increased 38% to another record of $126.2 million with margins expanding 220 basis points to 16.4%, reflecting our operational discipline and the scalability of our business model.

We also strengthened our balance sheet position, improving our net leverage from 4.6x at the end of 2024 to approximately 3.1x by year-end 2025. These full year achievements were punctuated by our strong fourth quarter results with revenues increasing 23% to $183.2 million.

The Lindblad segment delivered 28% revenue growth, driven by an 11% increase in net yields to $1,279 per guest night, while occupancy rose to 87% from 78% in Q4 2024.

Our Land Experiences segment maintained its momentum with 16% revenue growth, underscoring strength across our entire portfolio.

Let me walk you through how we achieved these results across our 3 strategic pillars. Our first pillar focuses on maximizing revenue generation through occupancy, pricing, and deployment optimization. I'm proud to update you on our progress across multiple initiatives in this area.

Our relationships with Disney continues to expand our reach through broader distribution to broader audiences, contributing to strong performance across key channels. As an example, bookings from earmarked Disney travel agents increased 35% for the full year.

Our onboard expedition sales program rollout resulted in nearly 3x as many bookings in 2025 compared to 2024. Importantly, the percentage of guests booking within 30 days from a voyage has doubled since the launch of the program, leading to expanded booking curve and higher repeat rate.

Our outbound sales program gained significant traction with sales increasing 97% for the full year. We continue to see this as a high potential channel that is in its early stages.

Our online bookings increased 52% year-over-year, fueled by strong demand generation through our National Geographic partnership as well as significant enhancements to our web platform. Our extension revenues increased 45% for the year. We are pleased that we are seeing customers take full advantage of our full range of expedition offerings as they travel with us.

I just returned from London, where our team hosted a series of travel advisers and journalists. We are very encouraged by the progress in the U.K. market and the momentum we've been building. In just the first 6 weeks of the year, we already booked half of our 2025 revenue.

Our second pillar focuses on optimizing financial performance through cost innovation and fixed asset utilization. During the year, we made significant strides in building cost innovation pipeline throughout our organization.

A key highlight in our 2026 capacity growth strategy is that we are now realizing the benefits from last year's fleet optimization work. We expect mid-single digit capacity growth in 2026, driven almost entirely by our dry dock and deployment optimization that reduced non-revenue days by over 100, enabling us to release additional voyages and drive incremental sales.

We've extended this work into our 2027 deployment and beyond, and are pleased to see that we expect further efficiencies to be unlocked.

Looking ahead, we've also built another strong pipeline of cost innovation initiatives for 2026 and beyond, positioning us to realize continued operational efficiencies over the long term.

Our last strategic pillar focuses on exploring and capitalizing on accretive growth opportunities. Last January, we acquired 2 Galapagos ships, as you know, expanding our presence in the core market, reinforcing our leadership position there. We also expanded charter portfolio, including a new 3-year agreement with Greg Mortimer, increasing and modernizing our Alaska capacity through a capital-light approach.

Additionally, we completed the small tuck-in acquisition of Earthwatch under Natural Habitat, adding a respected citizen science brand to our portfolio.

As we look ahead, a key focus of 2026 will be on identifying accretive growth opportunities, both across the fleet and by adding to our portfolio of brands.

As always, I want to reiterate our purpose, our why. Our commitment to responsible exploration remains central to who we are and a defining differentiator for our company. For us, it's more than a trip. It's a mission.

In 2025, we made a record $3 million investment through the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund, the largest in its 18-year history, supporting critical conservation, research and education initiatives worldwide. We supported 36 scientists' education and storytelling projects, including hosting visiting scientists on 25 voyages and welcoming 35 teacher fellows. I'm especially proud of our teams whose grassroots efforts raised over $50,000 to support gray whale research, a powerful reflection of our culture and action.

Turning to our outlook for 2026. Our bookings momentum remains very strong. We had a record wave season and booked revenue for '26 has already exceeded revenue for 2025. We are seeing similar positive trends for 2027 bookings, both across land and expedition segments.

We are guiding full year revenues and adjusted EBITDA in the range of $800 million to $850 million and $130 million to $140 million, respectively. Rick will provide more details on the pacing of our earnings build this year, but we are excited by our momentum and are optimistic about the opportunities ahead of us.

In closing, 2025 was a foundational year, laying the groundwork for sustained profitable growth in years ahead. We delivered record revenue, record yields and record EBITDA alongside a significantly strengthened balance sheet, clear evidence that our strategy is working. These results reflect our team's disciplined execution and long-standing commitment to our North Star.

Thank you for your continued confidence in Lindblad Expeditions. I'll now turn the call over to Rick for the financial results.

Thank you, Natalya. It's been a privilege to partner with you and the entire leadership team at Lindblad Expeditions over the past year. And traveling with you to Antarctica aboard the National Geographic Resolution and to Churchill, Canada to see the polar bears with Natural Habitat were 2 personal highlights.

2025 was a record-setting year for Lindblad Expeditions. We achieved the highest guest satisfaction scores in our history, the highest net yield, and the highest EBITDA, a testament to the strength of our brand, our strategy and our team. Total company revenues for 2025 were $771 million, an increase of $126.3 million or 19.6% versus 2024.

Lindblad segment revenues were $495.6 million, an increase of $72.3 million or 17.1% compared to the prior year. Occupancy increased 10 percentage points from 78% to 88% and net yield per available guest night increased 14.1% to $1,335, the highest in company history.

Land Experience segment revenues were $275.4 million, an increase of $54 million or 24.4% compared to 2024, driven by a 16% increase in guests and a 7% increase in revenue per guest.

Turning now to the cost side of the business. Operating expenses before stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest and taxes increased $91.3 million or 16.5% versus 2024. Specifically, cost of tours increased $55.4 million or 15.3%, driven by operating additional voyages and trips and the inclusion of a full year of the results for Thomson Group.

Fuel costs were 4.8% of Lindblad segment revenue, which was down 150 basis points versus 2024. Sales and marketing costs increased $27.7 million or 31.8%, primarily due to higher royalties and commission expenses and investments in demand generation efforts.

General and administrative costs, excluding stock-based compensation and transaction-related expenses, increased $8.2 million or 7.8% versus a year ago, driven by higher personnel costs and the inclusion of a full year of results for Thomson Group, partially offset by $5.3 million of employee retention tax credits.

2025 adjusted EBITDA was $126.2 million, the highest result in our history and an increase of $35 million or 38.4% versus the prior year. This was driven by a $20.4 million or 34.3% increase in the Lindblad segment and a $14.6 million or 46% increase in the Land Experiences segment.

EBITDA margin improved 220 basis points from 14.2% in 2024 to 16.4% in 2025. Net loss available to stockholders was $34.6 million or $0.63 per diluted share versus $0.67 per diluted share in 2024, driven by improved operating income, offset by a $23.5 million loss on extinguishment of debt related to our August refinancing and higher depreciation and amortization, primarily from the addition of the National Geographic Gemini and Delfina to our fleet.

Looking quickly at the fourth quarter of 2025, revenues increased $34.6 million or 23.4% compared to the same period in 2024. Lindblad segment revenues increased to $25.2 million or 27.8%, driven by a 9 percentage point increase in occupancy to 87% and an 11.2% increase in net yield per available guest night.

Land Experiences revenues increased $9.3 million or 16.1%. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter was $14.2 million, an increase of approximately $700,000 or 5.4% from the fourth quarter a year ago. This was driven by a $2.5 million increase in the Land Experiences EBITDA, partially offset by a $1.8 million decline in Lindblad segment EBITDA.

As we previously shared, Q4 EBITDA was impacted by an increased number of dry and wet docks, and a shift in the timing of our marketing spend to set the stage for wave season.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the year with total cash of $289.7 million, an increase of $73.6 million versus the end of 2024. The increase reflects $111.6 million in cash from operations due primarily to the strong results of the business and increased bookings for future travel. We used $67.3 million of cash for investing activities, which includes the acquisition and refurbishment of 2 Galapagos vessels. For the full year, we generated $63.8 million in free cash flow.

On January 20th, we announced the mandatory conversion of our 6% Series A convertible preferred stock. Following the refinancing of our debt in August, this transaction further simplified our capital structure and strengthened our balance sheet by eliminating our interest obligation and removing the risk of needing to repay the preferred stock in cash at maturity.

With this conversion behind us, we remain focused on pursuing accretive growth opportunities, including fleet expansion through charters, acquisitions and potential newbuilds, as well as continuing to expand our portfolio of world-class land-based experiences.

Turning to full year guidance. I'm pleased to share our outlook for 2026. Available guest nights are expected to increase 4.5% to 5%, about half of which is driven by optimizing our deployment and minimizing our non-revenue days. We also benefited from the full year contribution of our 2 new Galapagos vessels and additional charter offerings. This capacity growth will be weighted towards the first half of the year.

As Natalya mentioned, booking momentum remains strong. We delivered a record wave season and booked revenue for 2026 has already surpassed full year 2025 revenue. We are also seeing encouraging trends in 2027 with bookings pacing ahead of 2026 at the same point last year.

Net yield per available guest night is expected to increase 4% to 5%. As a result of heavier capacity growth in the first half, mainly outside of our core most profitable geographies, we anticipate a more modest net yield growth early in the year with stronger performance in the second half.

For 2026, we expect total company tour revenue in the range of $800 million to $850 million. We remain focused on cost innovation with more than 20 targeted initiatives designed to enhance efficiency while preserving our commitment to a world-class guest experience and responsible exploration.

At the same time, effective January 1st, we reached the final step-up to the run rate royalty under our National Geographic agreement. Taking these factors together, we expect adjusted EBITDA in the range of $130 million to $140 million. We expect EBITDA growth to be slightly stronger in the second half, supported by a more favorable deployment mix and the first half impact of lapping the majority of the employee retention tax credits.

We also anticipate approximately $10 million lower capital expenditures year-over-year, reflecting our work to optimize capital spend and the onetime impact in 2025 of refurbishing the National Geographic Gemini and Delfina.

After 1 year at Lindblad Expeditions, Natalya and I are even more confident in the long-term potential of this business and remain firmly committed to executing against the strategic pillars we outlined a year ago: first, maximizing revenue generation through occupancy, pricing and deployment; second, optimizing financial performance through cost innovation and fixed asset utilization; and third, exploring and capitalizing on accretive growth opportunities.

Now we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Your first question comes from the line of Steve Wieczynski with Stifel.

So Natalya or Rick, if we think about your guidance for the year, and Rick, you gave us a lot of good color in terms of what you're expecting from a yield perspective. But just maybe if you could walk us through what would get you more towards whether it's -- we think about the high end of that range or the low end of that range?

Just trying to get a feel for what is embedded in there. Because if I think just about occupancy, you guys ended '25 right around 87%, 87.5%. And I think you guys were still kind of thinking that could get into the low 90s this year. It seems like getting to the midpoint of your guidance range, I mean, seems very, very realistic. And that would be even before assuming any kind of material price increases. So just trying to understand what would get you more towards the high end versus the low end.

Steve, good to hear from you. So we ended the year with 88% occupancy, and that's been a significant improvement. We are seeing great momentum. We are very confident to get to historical occupancy levels of 90%, and so as we've been talking about for a while now and I think that we are on track to do that. And yields, of course, will be mid-digits as we talked about in the past, it's very much dependent on the booking curve. We see strong momentum. And it's always dependent on absence of any geopolitical situation or unexpected events that can impact the demand. And Rick, anything else you want to add?

Yes. I think specifically to your question, Steve, around what would it take for us to hit the high end of our range. I think it really comes down to; one, no major geopolitical disruptions; and secondly, continuing to execute well against our strategic pillars of maximizing revenue growth and cost innovation.

Okay, got you. And then second question, I guess, is we kind of -- you obviously kind of helped us a lot with the revenue side of the equation. But Rick, maybe if you could kind of walk us through how you're thinking about kind of cost for this year? Anything from a cadence standpoint in terms of where costs would hit through the quarters.

Obviously, I think you said EBITDA growth will be higher in the second half of the year. But just maybe how you guys are -- what you're targeting from a cost per head perspective as we think about 2026.

Yes, I think there are a few major pieces moving around. The first is the employee retention tax credits that we are lapping year-over-year, the majority of which hit in Q2 of 2025. Obviously, we have the step-up in National Geographic royalties as well as the cost innovation initiatives.

The other big thing for us always is dry docks and wet docks and where those fall in the year, and we're never trying to optimize necessarily just to hit certain quarters. What we're trying to do is thinking holistically about where is the best place and time for us to take those dry and wet docks in order to maximize revenue and EBITDA for the year. But those dry and wet docks costs will be weighted towards Q1 and Q4 in this year.

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Wold with Texas Capital Securities.

Two questions. So I guess, first, kind of as you think about the guidance for 2026, you kind of gave great color on bookings or how much has been booked relative to '25 at this point. Can you give us a sense of how pricing is looking within kind of 2026 bookings? And similarly, as you kind of talked about '27, any kind of embedded price increases or how pricing is shaping up in '27 versus '26 as well?

Eric, great question. I mean we continue to see -- as we mentioned, we continue to see momentum both in '26 and '27 across both segments, land and expedition. If you look at the market in general, we very much maintain strong price integrity across all our products. Our demand all-time highs for core destinations like Galapagos, Antarctica, Alaska, we are very much expanding the booking curves. And if any message to the guests, we say book earlier, our '27 booking curve is ahead of '26 by literally months. So that allows us to drive price elasticity and maintain pricing momentum on both years.

Perfect. And then a follow-up question, I guess, second question. Any plans to expand the fleet with newbuilds at this point? I think as you get closer to pre-pandemic, post above 90% occupancy on a larger fleet than you had pre-pandemic and kind of get more visibility to that. Obviously, you're seeing strength in '27 or '26. When does it become the right time to start thinking about ordering a new ship? And what does the backlog look like if you were to place an order today for a ship that you would want? What is the time frame for delivery?

Yes. I mean the right time to grow capacity for us is now. That's a short answer. And by the way, we've been doing it. So in '25, as you know, we added 2 more ships in Galapagos, as we talked about. We also have been growing capacity through additional charters. For example, '27, Alaska capacity is increased by 12% by both optimizing our deployment, but also adding Greg Mortimer because we see strong demand.

This year, as you know, we added European river charters. We expanded our charters in Asia. So we continue to do that now in addition to optimizing our deployment and reducing non-revenue days.

We are looking at acquisitions of the ships or newbuilds actively. There is nothing to announce yet. But pipeline, if we were to go newbuild route is approximately 4 years.

Question comes from the line of Mike Albanese with [ StoneX ].

Just a couple of quick ones. First, regarding bookings, you provided nice color there. I'm just trying to get a sense of seasonal cadence. Is booking activity usually pretty stacked here in Q1? I guess I'm trying to get a sense on whether we can kind of expect that momentum to continue to build throughout the year? Or is it generally kind of tail off as the year goes?

Well, there is -- we did just complete the record wave, and this is a time where there are a lot of bookings done and that's just coming to completion. I think this -- we've had to extend it by a week or so.

But generally, our business is like bookings throughout the year at a pretty consistent level, because we operate in destinations like Galapagos year-round. So we are completing the wave now, but people are still booking for the summer vacation and start really planning next winter and spring.

There is not a significant booking seasonality in the business. There is, obviously, seasonality in revenue stream. As you know, and Q3, Q4 are generally very, very accretive because of Antarctica and Alaska season. But bookings are relatively consistent throughout the year.

We do see an expanded booking curve, which is a great thing for us to see, and we've been intentionally driving it. So '27 bookings ahead of '26, '26 bookings ahead of '25, and that allows us to drive pricing elasticity and booking momentum.

And then secondly, I just wanted to touch on some of the momentum you're seeing in online bookings here. You, obviously, have a few initiatives, marketing, expansion of the National Geographic relationship. Could you just talk about kind of the key drivers to the 50% plus growth?

And then second to that is, there's an initiative you have to basically grow international bookings and you just came back from the U.K. I mean, are we seeing a lift from that yet in these numbers? Or is that still kind of yet to come?

So there are 2 good questions. The web platform is, obviously, a very, very accretive platform for us, so we are very pleased with the progress there. And I think it's like Rick mentioned, it's driven by 2 major initiatives.

One is we actually did a number of updates of our web platform. We completely changed our platform, but we also enhanced our search engine capabilities there, the bookings capabilities, the way the web platform flows and allows higher lead generation. And then, of course, our partnership with National Geographic, Disney is driving more leads to our website. So those are the 2 major drivers of increased web platform bookings.

Question on international markets. We launched our brand in U.K. market last May. We are very committed to that market, and we are finally seeing a very real booking momentum. As I mentioned, in the first 6 weeks of this year, we already booked almost half of total 2025 annual revenue. So we will continue to be committed to that market, and we also plan to expand our efforts in Australia.

All right. Bella, before you go to next question, I did want to clarify, I think, a question from Eric before on the newbuild. There was -- if we were to goal a newbuild pipeline, I mentioned it's a 4 years pipeline, approximately. But just a reminder in this industry, as you know, you start publishing destinations around 3 years ahead. And so you start selling cycle about 3, 2.5 years ahead of actually delivering the ship, which drives an increased deposit before you pay for the newbuild. So I think it's just an important clarification I thought to share. Bella, back to you.

Your last question comes from the line of Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum.

Congrats on a very strong year. As you look to add capacity, you just provided some nice color on newbuilds. In terms of acquiring vessels or signing charter partnerships, acquiring new land-based experiences, can you kind of talk about the competitive environment around those right now? Are you seeing the number or quality of bidders either increase or decrease? Just any kind of commentary on the overall competitive landscape when it comes to acquiring new vessels and experiences.

I mean, I think that when it comes to acquiring new vessels and experiences, it's less about competition and just what's available in the marketplace. And so we're constantly looking for opportunities to acquire vessels that meet our standards for our guest experiences. But the reality is there aren't a lot of vessels that meet those criteria and certainly not available in the marketplace today.

And then similarly, in terms of Land Experiences, I think that for many of these founder-led businesses, we are the preferred buyer given our commitment in terms of what we believe in responsible exploration as well as how we've worked so effectively with the founders who have come on board as part of the broader Lindblad family over the course of the last decade. However, it's really about sourcing opportunities that are unique to us more so than competing with other folks who are out there, who are trying to buy similar businesses.

That concludes our Q&A session. I will now turn the call back over to Rick Goldberg, Chief Financial Officer, for closing remarks.

Just want to thank everyone for your continued support and interest in Lindblad Expeditions, and to our team on a really strong 2025, and we remain very excited about the year ahead. Thanks so much, everyone. Bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Desiree, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Lindblad Expeditions Third Quarter Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Rick Goldberg, CFO. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Lindblad's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. With me on today's call is Natalya Leahy, our Chief Executive Officer. Natalya will begin with some opening comments, and I'll follow with details on our Q3 financial results and updated expectations for the full year 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 forecast 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 Natalya.

Thank you, Rick, and welcome, everyone, to our third quarter earnings call. I want to start a bit differently today. Our guests are in the center of everything we do, and I want to share a remarkable highlight from this quarter. We achieved our highest guests Net Promoter Scores ever, both for quarter 3 and year-to-date since we began measuring them. That milestone made me pause and reflect on where we came from on the history and legacy that make us who we are today and differentiate us and set us up for success going forward.

In January 1966, Lars-Eric Lindblad led to very first nonscientific expedition to Antarctica, followed a year later by the first citizen voyage to the Galapagos. These were the expeditions that started it all, the beginning of expedition travel and in many ways, the birth of ecotourism, now one of the fastest-growing segments in global travel. That legacy still defines us in our industry, experience and expertise truly matter and those take decades to build. It's this foundation built over nearly 60 years of pioneering exploration that continues to drive the exceptional guest experiences and results we are seeing today.

Talking about results. We are pleased to report another quarter of very strong performance with revenue and adjusted EBITDA both exceeding expectations. Consolidated revenues increased 16.6% with our Lindblad and Land Segments growing 13.4% and 21.1%, respectively. Within our Lindblad segment, occupancy reached 88%, 6 points higher than last year on a 5% increase in capacity in the quarter, resulting in a record level of available guest nights of any quarter of our company's history. Net yields increased 9% to $1,314, the higher third quarter yields in the company's history. We were particularly pleased to see our core Alaska trade performed exceptionally well, achieving almost 16% yield growth. This result demonstrates that travelers truly appreciate the unique intimate and highly differentiated experiences we provide, thanks to our unparalleled expedition expertise. We will continue to look for opportunities to increase capacity to meet demand in popular destinations like Alaska.

From a profitability perspective, we produced the highest level of adjusted EBITDA in a company history with adjusted EBITDA increasing 25% to $57.3 million and margins expanding 160 basis points to 23.8%. These results are proof that our commercial strategy to drive occupancy and maximize revenue is working and gives us strong confidence that we are on our way to achieve historical occupancy levels in 2026 and beyond.

Looking ahead, our net booking costs remained strong for 2026 in both segments and are taking significantly ahead of prior year. We've seen a very encouraging uptick in 2027 bookings as well as we just launched our 2027 deployment. Supporting our optimism marketing conditions in the luxury travel segment remain highly favorable. According to a recent McKinsey study, demand for luxury tourism is expected to grow faster than any other travel segment with a projected 10% CAGR through 2028. These industry tailwinds reinforce our confidence in our positioning for sustained growth.

Focusing on our 3 strategic pillars continues to be essential in our path forward: number one, maximizing revenue generation through occupancy, pricing and deployment optimization; number two, optimizing financial performance through cost innovation and fixed asset optimization; and number three, exploring and capitalizing on accretive growth opportunities, including growing our portfolio.

Let me begin with our first pillar, which focuses on maximizing revenue generation. Our Disney relationship continues to introduce the National Geographic Lindblad brand to new audiences and expanded distribution channels. In partnership with National Geographic, we successfully relaunched our youth travel program called Explorers in Training, targeting core family-friendly destination. This program combined with other marketing initiatives to drive multigenerational travel has generated encouraging early results with travelers 18 years and younger, increasing 24% this summer versus prior summer. Our efforts will drive occupancy and yield optimization in family-friendly destinations such as the Galapagos, Alaska and Iceland.

Our Disney Vacation Club activation continues gaining momentum as DVC members can now redeem points for National Geographic Lindblad expedition cruises. Our expedition team had an opportunity to sail with and present our brand to guests of the 4,000 passenger Disney Dream, generating not only media and bookings for members, but also significant interest and leads. This represents the beginning of a significant opportunity to introduce expedition cruising to DVC's most loyal and engaged member base.

We continue to see strong momentum from earmark Disney travel advisers with bookings increasing 42% year-to-date. We are seeing higher adoption from this distribution channel as we educate and market our brand to these highly productive advisers, representing a large opportunity to deepen our penetration.

Regarding our sales initiatives. In August, we fully rolled out on board dedicated expedition sales specialists. For the quarter, our onboard sales program performed exceptionally well, with bookings as a percentage of total more than tripled year-over-year as our expedition experts effectively introduce guests to new destinations, converting them into repeat customers at the height of their excitement. This program not only drives higher repeat rates, but also expand booking windows, which is so important for pricing optimization. Similarly, our recently expanded outbound sales program is gaining significant traction with year-to-date sales increasing approximately 80% versus the prior year. We believe we're still in the early stages of optimizing this high potential distribution channel.

In our Land segment, we delivered strong quarter 3 performance with our portfolio of premium adventure destinations continuing to exceeding guest expectations. We appointed a dedicated sales leader to capitalize on cross-selling opportunities between our Land segment and expedition cruise offerings, creating additional revenue synergies across our platform.

Moving to our second pillar, which focuses on optimizing financial performance through cost innovation. We continue to build cost innovation capabilities throughout the organization. This ongoing initiative helps us well on our way to meeting our cost efficiency targets this year while kicking off the next round of cost innovation projects. Among our accomplishments this quarter, we renegotiated corporate leases and port agreements, generating hundreds of thousands in cost savings. We also recently hired a Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Procurement, who brings years of world-class experience across multiple industries, including cruise operations. Additionally, we successfully refinanced our debt, extending maturities and lowering our interest rate by approximately 75 basis points, a very meaningful achievement that strengthens our balance sheet flexibility and enables us to continue investing strategically across both our Lindblad and Land Experience segments. Rick will share more details on this in his section.

Our third pillar focuses on accretive growth opportunities. The sustained strength in demand for our product presents compelling opportunities to strategically expand our capacity, including through new builds and charter partnerships. To that end, we continue to strategically expand our charter offerings. Our inaugural European river cruising program exceeded expectations, prompting us to increase the number of voyages for 2027. We've added spring and summer departures, as well as new in-demand Christmas market and holiday sailing offerings. In fact, we just announced our 2027 River collections this morning, including European, Egypt, India and Vietnam itineraries. Charters provide a very efficient, capital-light approach to enter high demand markets for the right season. We are also actively evaluating accretive acquisitions, both with Lindblad and Land segments.

As always, I want to briefly highlight our why because while these 3 strategic pillars drive our operational excellence and growth, our success is equally rooted in our unwavering commitment to our purpose of responsible exploration. During the quarter, we held our Arctic Visiting Scientist program in collaboration with National Geographic Society. Our ships hosted 10 projects, 6 of which were led by National Geographic explorers and funded by the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund. Participating scientists surveyed glaciers to study the stability and structure, monitor changes in sea temperature and collected seawater to understand how small microbes survive in dynamic and extreme environments. Guests traveled alongside the scientists and learn about their work in real time, exemplifying how our collaborative impact programs with National Geographic Society differentiate us in the marketplace.

Turning to guidance. Given the strength of our performance, we are raising full year guidance for net yields, revenue and EBITDA. Rick will take you through the specifics of our outlook in his remarks. These results reinforce our confidence that we are executing successfully on our strategic plan and are well positioned to capitalize on the significant opportunities ahead.

In closing, I want to express my sincere appreciation to our crew, our field experts, the incredible founders of our land companies and the entire team who worked tirelessly to deliver extraordinary guest experiences at the highest standards. This unwavering commitment to excellence is reflected in our results and is built into our DNA. As we look ahead, we remain committed to building on this momentum, continuing to invest in our people and operations and delivering the transformative travel experiences that sets Lindblad apart in the marketplace. Thank you for your continued confidence. We look forward to updating you on our progress in quarters ahead.

And now I'm turning the call over to Rick for his remarks.

Thank you so much, Natalya. This was an outstanding quarter with strong top line growth as we continue to drive occupancy back to historical levels and solid bottom line performance as we advance our cost innovation initiatives to improve margins. Total company revenues for Q3 2025 were $240 million, an increase of $34 million or 16.6% versus Q3 2024. Lindblad segment revenues were $138 million, an increase of $16 million or 13.4% compared to the prior year. Occupancy increased 6 percentage points from 82% to 88% despite a 5% increase in available guest nights, and net yield per available guest night increased 9% to $1,314, the highest third quarter yield in company history. Land Experience segment revenues were $103 million, an increase of $18 million or 21.1% compared to Q3 2024, driven by a 12% increase in guests and an 8% increase in revenue per guest.

Turning now to the cost side of the business. Operating expenses before stock-based compensation, transaction-related expenses, depreciation and amortization, interest and taxes increased $22.7 million or 14% versus Q3 2024. Specifically, cost of tours increased $14.6 million or 13%, driven by operating additional voyages and trips. Fuel costs were 4.5% of Lindblad segment revenue, which was flat to Q3 2024. Sales and marketing costs increased $5.1 million or 20%, primarily due to higher royalties and commission expense and investments in demand generation efforts. We expect marketing expenses to remain elevated in Q4, reflecting investments in initiatives designed to drive growth into 2026 and 2027. General and administrative costs, excluding stock-based compensation and transaction-related expenses increased $1.7 million or 7% versus a year ago, driven by higher personnel costs, partially offset by $1.8 million of employee retention tax credits realized in Q3 2025.

Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $57.3 million, the highest quarterly result in our history and an increase of $11.5 million or 25% versus the prior year. This was driven by a $6.5 million and a $4.9 million increase in the Lindblad and Land Experience segments, respectively, with both segments growing EBITDA by 25% year-over-year. This includes the impact of $1.8 million of employee retention tax credits realized in Q3 2025, which brings the year-to-date impact of this program to $5.3 million. We also continued to deliver margin improvement this quarter, driven by greater leveraging of our fixed cost infrastructure and our cost innovation initiatives with adjusted EBITDA margins expanding 160 basis points year-over-year to 23.8%. Net income available to stockholders for the third quarter was roughly breakeven or $0.00 per diluted share, reflecting $23.5 million in debt refinancing expenses.

Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with total cash of $290.1 million, an increase of $74 million versus the end of 2024. The increase reflects $97.1 million in cash from operations due primarily to the strong results of the business and increased bookings for future travel. We used $54.1 million of cash for investing activities, which includes the acquisition and refurbishment of 2 Galapagos vessels. Year-to-date, we've generated $60.4 million in free cash flow. During the quarter, we completed a comprehensive refinancing of our debt, a significant milestone that strengthens our balance sheet and enhances our financial flexibility to support strategic growth initiatives. As part of the refinancing, we issued $675 million of new senior secured notes to replace our 2027 and 2028 notes. This transaction simplifies our capital structure, extend our maturities and lower our cost of debt. The new notes were priced at 7%, approximately 75 basis points lower than our prior blended rate, reflecting strong investor confidence in our business.

In conjunction, we upsized and extended our revolving credit facility to $60 million with a new 5-year term, further improving our liquidity position. We've now delivered 10 consecutive quarters of deleveraging, driven by continued EBITDA growth and our net leverage stands at 3.1x. Reflecting this progress, S&P Global recently upgraded our corporate credit rating, citing Lindblad's strong operating performance and healthy forward book position. With a stronger balance sheet and ample liquidity, we're well positioned to aggressively pursue accretive growth opportunities, including fleet expansion through charters, acquisitions and/or new builds and adding [ to our ] portfolio of world-class land-based experiences.

Turning to our full year outlook. I'm pleased to share updated guidance for 2025. Our demand generation efforts continue to drive strong booking momentum across 2025 and 2026 as well as for our recently launched 2027 itineraries. As a result, we now expect net yield per available guest night to increase 12.5% to 14% year-over-year, up from our prior range of 9% to 11%. In line with this performance, we are raising our full year revenue guidance to a range of $745 million to $760 million, up from prior guidance of $725 million to $750 million. We are also raising our full year EBITDA guidance to a range of $119 million to $123 million, up from our previous range of $108 million to $115 million. This increase reflects the continued strength of our business and our disciplined execution against our 3 strategic pillars.

In closing, Natalya and I have now been on board for 10 months, and we couldn't be more encouraged by the progress our teams have made in such a short time. We remain confident in our ability to deliver sustained growth and long-term value for our shareholders.

With that, we would now be happy to take your questions.

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from the line of Steve Wieczynski with Stifel.

So Natalya or Rick, you gave some high-level color around '26 bookings, and I think you noted bookings for next year in 2027 are running. I don't remember what your adjectives were, but it sounds like well ahead of this point last year. So just wondering if you could give a little more color around those booking trends, maybe where demand is right now across maybe some of your different itineraries, maybe your more important itineraries in next year. And then maybe also some color -- a little bit more color around your commentary about the uptick in bookings from your Disney travel partners, which I think is -- which is obviously pretty important.

Steve. Well, thank you. Great question as usual. So we are not giving '26 guidance yet. It's coming next time, but I will give you a little bit more of a commentary. So as I mentioned, our booking cost [ side had on ] '26 in both segments, and it's important to note is quite significantly and actually seeing some recent uptakes which are encouraging.

On Lindblad segment, as we mentioned several times, we are working with all the commercial initiatives. As you know, we just implemented them throughout this year. So they have a lot of run rate to deliver results. We are working towards delivering historical occupancy levels, which are around 90%, and we are, I would say, well on track for that, which will result definitely into yield growth combined with managing pricing.

As of Disney relationships, we are just starting to see the fruits of all the initiatives that we're implementing there. So we are seeing some results that are coming this year, and I certainly expect more to come in forward years.

Okay. Got you. Second question is also going to be kind of a '26 question, so you might not answer this one, but I'm going to ask it in a way that hopefully, you give some kind of answer. So based on where you guys are booked today, obviously, as we kind of think about yields and pricing next year, you're going to be coming off of a -- what Rick say, 12% to 14% kind of growth year from a yield perspective. So not sure if you can kind of help us think a little bit more about maybe how pricing, how yields potentially could look into next year? Just I guess, coming off 12% to 14% growth, what could that potentially look like?

Yes. Well, as you are mentioning, we are coming out of double-digit yield growth year-to-date, which is very largely driven by a step change increase in our occupancy in addition to pricing integrity. Obviously, [ anniversarying ] it will normalize yield growth as we'll continue to increase occupancy, but it's not going to be double-digit increases that we've seen this year. So hopefully, it gives you some confidence. In terms of pricing, we continue to maintain price integrity as we increase occupancy.

Our next question comes from the line of Eric Wold with Texas Capital Securities.

I guess first question, kind of a follow-up on the last one. Natalya, kind of on the maintaining price integrity as you kind of go into next year, is that more -- as you think about that, should we think about that more as kind of the avoidance of discounting as you move into next year? Or do you think you actually have pricing power as you move into next year and the ability to actually take price up in both the Lindblad and the Land-based segments as you look into next year? I guess as you -- as your price, as you think about what you've been booking and how things are priced into next year, maybe talk about what the pricing has been looking like next year versus this year?

So again, we will be guiding for '26 during next earnings call. I think, Eric, we are clearly communicating that we are seeing an uptick in demand. We've been increasing our capacities through charter additions, through new ships we added this year. We have been communicating that we're actively looking to expand our capacity, whether it's through adding more charters or new builds or buying ships.

And that's because we are seeing a demand, particularly for some of our very popular destinations such as Alaska. We had a giant waitlist in Alaska this year, and delivered exceptional pricing power. Our [ flight ] cruise in Antarctica have been doing extremely well and pretty much selling out the moment we deploy it, and we continue to take price increases there. Galapagos is doing very well, and we now have 4 ships operating there where we basically increased capacity by 40% this quarter versus last quarter and continue to see this momentum. So we sell to over 100 destinations. Of course, there is a variable demand for each one of them. But overall, I think we are seeing exceptional demand for our product.

Yes. And if I can just add a couple of quick things. I mean, we're also continuing to build out our revenue management function, which is going to be critical to building out our price growth over time on the expedition cruise side. And then our Land Experiences segment experienced an 8% increase in revenue per guest here in Q3. And so we feel really good about our continued ability to take price in that segment as well.

And then my second question. Rick, on the guidance, I think [indiscernible] the updated EBITDA guidance still does imply a decline in Q4 EBITDA compared to last year's Q4, even with revenue up materially. I know on the last call, you noted expectation for some pressure in second half EBITDA. We obviously didn't see that in Q3. So maybe help us bridge kind of what you expect in Q4, what may be causing the expectation for Q4 EBITDA pressure.

Yes. So I think there's 2 important dynamics happening in Q4. The first is a shift in the timing of our marketing spend in order to set the stage for wave season. And the second is an increase in the number of dry and wet docks in Q4. We had 6 happening in Q4 2025 versus only 2 in Q4 of 2024.

Got it. And just quick, should we assume that's a recurring schedule going forward? Or is that more of a '25 specific?

What I would say is the timing of dry and wet docks is variable every year based on our decisions around deployment as well as shipyard availability.

Next question comes from the line of Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum.

Congrats on strong results. So the increase in occupancy in guest nights, obviously, very impressive here. It's clear that all the changes you've made since joining and the expanded NatGeo Disney partnership are providing some nice tailwinds here. On the flip side, are you guys seeing any headwinds at this point from the macro environment? Obviously, your customers are typically higher net worth so less sensitive to the macro. But just wondering if you're seeing sort of any offsetting headwinds to call out amid all the sort of positive news otherwise.

Eric, I think that -- I mean, we are always very mindful of geopolitical environment and always watching that. Our guests are a bit more resilient to economic vulnerabilities. And we've seen that this year as the economy kind of changed that the demand remained pretty stable. So we hope that it will continue moving forward. We always watch for macroeconomic environment. The only headwinds I will remind everyone is, as Rick mentioned several times, we do expect a step up in royalties in '26.

Yes. No, that's clear. And I think, I mean, if '26 is anything like what we've seen very early on from this expanded partnership, those royalties will be well worth it.

Next question for me. So you mentioned the benefit from increasing the mix of charters for a few quarters now. You also stated, Rick, that you expect to aggressively pursue accretive growth opportunities, including Land Experiences. So just kind of a bit of a higher-level question here, but how do you view your current mix of revenues? And is there anything that you would like to sort of increase or decrease from a mix perspective as you look out over the next 5 years or so, whether that's different channels or charters or what have you?

So I'll start by saying we're very comfortable with the mix that we have today. We currently have 10 charter ships that will operate in 2026. These are a great way for us to deliver our product in unique destinations at attractive margins without capital intensity. There are natural limitations of expanding capacity through this channel as there are just a limited number of ships available to satisfy our guest experience criteria. However, along with new builds and acquisitions, this is an important tool in our toolbox as we think about growing capacity and we're especially excited to launch a handful of innovative charter voyages this morning for our 2027 season, including on European Rivers, Egypt, India and Vietnam.

Next question comes from the line of David Hargreaves with Barclays.

Congrats on getting your bond refinancing done. And thinking of growth opportunities, I'm just wondering how you're thinking of financing alternatives and where you feel comfortable with leverage?

So I'd say we're very pleased with the results of our recent financing. And as we sit here with a strengthened balance sheet, we feel like that positions us well to aggressively pursue expansion opportunities, whether that's on the expedition cruise side, through charters, acquisitions and/or new builds or expanding on our portfolio of world-class Land Experience companies.

I guess I'm wondering [indiscernible] thinking bite-size type of expansion opportunities like the last couple of ships you acquired? Or I think you mentioned possibly new builds. Which way are you leaning?

I think that this is our -- we are evaluating and considering various different types of opportunities again. It is charter businesses, which have very great way to, as Rick mentioned, to expand capacity in specific destinations. But there are some limitations to that. We are definitely looking at buying existing tonnage if we find something that is accretive as a return on investment and satisfies our brand criteria, and we are evaluating new build opportunities as well. So I would say stay tuned, and you will hear more on that.

And sorry, Rick, I kind of cut you off. Were you going to say something on leverage sort of where your comfort zone is? Would you consider taking leverage higher?

I would say we now have delivered 10 consecutive quarters of deleveraging, and we're confident in our ability to continue to delever as we drive EBITDA growth.

[Operator Instructions] There are no more further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back over to Rick Goldberg for closing remarks.

Just want to thank everyone for your continued interest and support of Lindblad Expeditions. Have a great day. Bye now.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining, and you may now disconnect.