United Parks and Resorts (PRKS) Q3 2026 Earnings Call: Besucherzahlen sinken, Pro-Kopf-Umsatz steigt

United Parks and Resorts (NYSE: PRKS) verzeichnete im dritten Quartal 2026 einen Rückgang bei Umsatz und bereinigtem EBITDA, da ungünstige Witterungsbedingungen, Kalendereffekte und eine schwächere Nachfrage internationaler Gäste die Besucherzahlen belasteten. Höhere Eintrittspreise sowie Mehrausgaben in den Parks federten den Rückgang teilweise ab.

Wichtigste Erkenntnisse

• Der Umsatz im dritten Quartal sank im Jahresvergleich um 1,1 % auf 506,5 Millionen US-Dollar, während die Besucherzahl um rund 320.000 Gäste bzw. 4,7 % zurückging.
• Der Gesamtumsatz pro Kopf stieg um 3,8 %, einschließlich eines Zuwachses von 3,4 % beim Eintrittserlös pro Kopf und eines Anstiegs von 4,4 % bei den Pro-Kopf-Ausgaben in den Parks.
• Der Nettogewinn ging von 89,3 Millionen US-Dollar auf 80,0 Millionen US-Dollar zurück, während das bereinigte EBITDA um 11,2 Millionen US-Dollar auf 205,1 Millionen US-Dollar sank.
• Das Management führte den Verlust von rund 325.000 Eintritten auf Witterungseinflüsse, Kalendereffekte und internationalen Gegenwind zurück. Eine geplante Reduzierung von Aktions-Eintrittsprodukten verringerte die Besucherzahl um mehr als 100.000.
• Die Basis bezahlter Pässe lag bis Oktober um 0,3 % im Plus, während die Stückzahl-Basis für spezifische Pass-Produkte für 2027 zum 31. Oktober um mehr als 15 % zulegte.
• Das Management rechnet für 2027 mit einer Rückkehr auf den Wachstumspfad, gestützt durch Passverkäufe, höhere Pro-Kopf-Ausgaben, Gruppenbuchungen, die Nachfrage nach Discovery Cove, internationale Besucher und weitere Kostensenkungen.

Zentrale Finanzdaten

In den ersten neun Monaten des Jahres 2026 sank der Umsatz um 1,6 % auf 1,27 Milliarden US-Dollar. Die Besucherzahl ging um rund 670.000 Gäste bzw. 4,1 % auf 15,7 Millionen zurück. Der Nettogewinn fiel um 44,1 Millionen US-Dollar auf 109,2 Millionen US-Dollar, und das bereinigte EBITDA verringerte sich um 31,4 Millionen US-Dollar auf 458,6 Millionen US-Dollar.

Zum 30. September lag der Nettoverschuldungsgrad bei 3,55x. Die verfügbare Liquidität belief sich auf rund 675 Millionen US-Dollar, einschließlich liquider Mittel von etwa 26 Millionen US-Dollar. Die abgegrenzten Erlöse stiegen im Jahresvergleich um 4,9 % auf 152,5 Millionen US-Dollar.

Geschäftliche und operative Entwicklung

Preisgestaltung und Produktmix stützten den Eintrittserlös pro Kopf, während eine höhere Marktdurchdringung und Preisinitiativen die Pro-Kopf-Ausgaben in den Parks ankurbelten. Nach Angaben des Managements wäre die Besucherzahl gestiegen, wenn man die rund 325.000 Besuche herausrechnet, die aufgrund außergewöhnlicher Witterungsbedingungen, Kalendereffekten und internationaler Faktoren verloren gingen.

Die Trends bei den Pässen verbesserten sich im Laufe des Quartals. Die gesamten Passverkäufe stiegen um fast 8 %, und die Basis bezahlter Pässe drehte zum 31. Oktober ins Plus. Pass-Produkte machen rund 40 % der jährlichen Gesamtbesucherzahl des Unternehmens aus. Das Management stellte klar, dass das Wachstum von über 15 % bei spezifischen Pass-Produkten für 2027 auf ein Mengenwachstum – vor allem bei Produkten wie der Fun Card – und nicht auf Preiserhöhungen zurückzuführen war.

Die im Voraus gebuchten Erlöse für Discovery Cove sowie die Buchungen im Gruppengeschäft für 2027 wiesen jeweils zweistellige Wachstumsraten auf. Die internationalen Umsatzerlöse stiegen zuletzt im mittleren einstelligen Prozentbereich, und das Management rechnet damit, dass die internationalen Besucherzahlen im verbleibenden Verlauf des Jahres 2026 sowie bis ins Jahr 2027 hinein für Rückenwind sorgen werden.

Dennoch lagen die internationalen Besucherzahlen weiterhin mehr als 50 % unter dem Niveau von 2019. Das Management schätzte, dass eine Rückkehr auf das Niveau von 2019 ein Potenzial von rund 1 Million Eintritten bieten könnte, vor allem in Florida.

Das Unternehmen rechnet für 2026 mit Sponsoringerlösen von rund 12 bis 15 Millionen US-Dollar und peilt für die kommenden Jahre jährlich mindestens 30 Millionen US-Dollar an. Zudem unterzeichnete es eine unverbindliche Absichtserklärung für einen potenziellen neuen Freizeitpark im Nahen Osten und führt weiterhin Gespräche mit weiteren internationalen Partnern sowie Lizenzgebern für geistiges Eigentum.

Ausblick des Managements

Das Management geht davon aus, dass die Investitionsausgaben im Jahr 2026 unter 250 Millionen US-Dollar liegen werden.

Das Unternehmen liegt weiterhin auf Kurs, sein Bruttokosteneinsparungsziel von 50 Millionen US-Dollar zu erreichen, wobei der Großteil der Einsparungen im Jahr 2026 realisiert wird und der Rest für 2027 erwartet wird. Für 2027 hat das Management ein erstes zusätzliches Bruttoeinsparungsziel von 40 bis 50 Millionen US-Dollar identifiziert, darunter Potenziale in den Bereichen KI, Automatisierung, Robotik, Personaleinsatzplanung, Versicherungen, Versorgungsleistungen und Steuern.

Das Management strebt an, die Kosten zwischen Umsatz und bereinigtem EBITDA im Jahr 2027 stabil zu halten oder allenfalls im extrem niedrigen einstelligen Prozentbereich wachsen zu lassen. Es erwartet, dass Technologieinvestitionen und gezieltere Marketingausgaben dazu beitragen werden, die Bruttoeinsparungen in Nettoeinsparungen umzuwandeln.

Das Unternehmen erwartet, dass das Wachstum im Jahr 2027 durch eine größere Pass-Basis, anhaltende Pro-Kopf-Zuwächse bei Eintritten und Ausgaben im Park, stärkere Buchungen bei Discovery Cove und im Gruppengeschäft, neue Fahrgeschäfte und Events, eine verbesserte Umsetzung der Marketingmaßnahmen sowie eine Erholung bei den internationalen Besuchern gestützt wird. Diese Erwartungen bleiben teilweise von den Witterungsbedingungen abhängig.

Das Management erklärte zudem, dass es die Wiederaufnahme von Aktienrückkäufen nach dem Wiederaufbau der Barmittelbestände erwartet – vorbehaltlich der Liquiditätslage, von Governance-Vorgaben und der Genehmigung durch das Board. Im Jahresverlauf 2026 hatte das Unternehmen bis zum Datum der Telefonkonferenz eigene Aktien im Wert von rund 218 Millionen US-Dollar zurückgekauft, was etwa 12 % der gesamten im Umlauf befindlichen Aktien entsprach.

Risiken und Beobachtungspunkte

• Extremwetter blieb die größte kurzfristige operative Belastung. Das Management verwies auf heftige Regenfälle, ungewöhnliche Hitze und Unwetter in Kalifornien, Virginia und Florida im Oktober.
• Das Management erklärte, dass ein Wachstum des bereinigten EBITDA im vierten Quartal ohne eine Entspannung beim Wettermuster Super El Niño schwieriger zu erreichen sein werde.
• Die internationalen Besucherzahlen liegen weiterhin deutlich unter dem Niveau von 2019 und hängen teilweise von makroökonomischen Bedingungen ab, die sich der Kontrolle des Unternehmens entziehen.
• Die Umsetzung der Marketingmaßnahmen fiel schwächer aus, als das Management für akzeptabel hält, obwohl Anpassungen bei Teams, Partnern, CRM-Kapazitäten und der Werbebotschaft bereits im Gange sind.
• In der Vergangenheit haben Bruttokosteneinsparungen zwar den Inflationsdruck ausgeglichen, führten jedoch nicht immer zu entsprechenden Nettoeinsparungen oder einer Margenausweitung.
• Die Zinsvolatilität hat den Zeitplan für Immobiliengespräche verlängert, und das Management betonte, es gebe keine Gewähr dafür, dass akzeptable Transaktionsbedingungen erzielt werden.

Highlights aus der Fragerunde der Analysten

Das Management prognostizierte trotz erheblicher wetterbedingter Beeinträchtigungen und eines ungünstigen Halloween-Kalendereffekts einen Umsatzanstieg im Oktober. Die separat bepreisten Howl-O-Scream-Events verzeichneten an Tagen ohne Wetterstörungen ein deutliches Wachstum im Jahresvergleich.

Mit Blick auf das Wachstum 2027 hob das Management die positive Basis bezahlter Pässe, das Stückzahlwachstum von mehr als 15 % bei spezifischen Pass-Produkten für 2027, das zweistellige Buchungswachstum bei Discovery Cove und im Gruppengeschäft, sich verbessernde internationale Verkäufe und anhaltende Pro-Kopf-Zuwächse hervor.

Hinsichtlich der Margen betonte das Management, dass aufgrund des operativen Hebels des Geschäftsmodells selbst ein moderates Besucher- und Umsatzwachstum zu einem starken Durchschlagen auf das Ergebnis (Flow-Through) führen sollte. Das zusätzliche Bruttoeinsparungsziel von 40 bis 50 Millionen US-Dollar soll die Inflation ausgleichen und stärkere Nettoeinsparungen unterstützen.

Zur Kapitalallokation im gesamten Parkportfolio erklärte das Management, dass Investitionsentscheidungen weiterhin marktspezifisch getroffen werden. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay wurde dabei als besonders vielversprechende Chance hervorgehoben, was sowohl mit dem Attraktionsangebot des Parks als auch mit der Notwendigkeit begründet wurde, den Bekanntheitsgrad und das Besuchererlebnis zu verbessern.

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Vollständiges Transkript der Telefonkonferenz

Ausführungen des Managements

Operator

Hello and welcome to United Parks and Resorts' third quarter earnings conference call.

[Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Stroud, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Matthew Stroud

Thank you, Sarah, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to United Parks and Resorts' third quarter earnings conference call. Today's call is being webcast and recorded. A press release was issued this morning and is available on our Investor Relations website at www.unitedparksinvestors.com. Replay information for this call can be found in the press release and will be available on our website following the call. Joining me this morning are Marc Swanson, Chief Executive Officer, and Jim Forrester, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning we will review our third quarter financial results and then we will open the call to your questions. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that our comments today will contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal Securities Laws.

These statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those forward-looking statements, including those identified in the Risk Factors section of our annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports filed on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These factors may be updated from time to time and will be included in our filings with the SEC that are available on our website. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. In addition, on the call we may reference non-GAAP financial measures and other financial metrics, such as Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. More information regarding our forward-looking statements and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measure is included in our earnings release available on our website and can also be found in our filings with the SEC. Now I would like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Marc Swanson.

Marc Swanson

Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased with the underlying performance of our business, despite significantly unfavorable weather, calendar impacts, and international headwinds during the quarter. Excluding the impact of these unusual headwinds, which amounted to approximately 325,000 visits, our attendance would have been up. Our attendance during the quarter was also impacted by a planned reduction in promotional admissions products, which amounted to more than 100,000 visits. We delivered another quarter of growth in total revenue per capita driven by continued strong in-park execution and improved admissions product pricing and management. We are continuing to make progress across many of our key initiatives and continue to have significant opportunity to improve execution. Underscoring the progress we are making, our total pass sales during the third quarter were up almost 8% and our total paid pass base was positive as of October 31st. Even more encouraging, our 2027 specific pass products base is up over 15% as of October 31st.

Despite continued brutal weather in October, our projected total revenue was up for the month and our separately ticketed Howl-O-Scream events saw meaningful year-over-year growth on non-impacted weather days. Looking ahead to 2027 and beyond, we see a clear path to deliver significantly higher attendance, revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow. In addition to the encouraging trends in our admissions and in-park per caps, our pass sales and pass base, in 2027 forward bookings revenue for Discovery Cove and for our group business are each currently running up double-digit percentages versus prior year at the same time. I'm also pleased with the forward trends we are seeing in our international business, which is now and will be going forward, lapping a tough stretch. Our international sales revenue has been up mid-single digits recently, and we expect international visitation to be a tailwind for the rest of the year and into 2027.

As we enter this upcoming holiday season, we are about to launch another year of our popular holiday event lineup, which again will feature the popular rides, attractions, and immersive exhibits that guests have come to love, alongside new and improved elements across our parks. I want to thank our ambassadors for their dedication and hard work during our busy summer and Halloween seasons and their ongoing commitment to deliver another memorable holiday experience for our guests.

While this year's weather and international attendance-related headwinds have been challenging, we are encouraged by our recent results and trends and the significant opportunities we have ahead. We remain focused, well-positioned, and highly confident in our ability to significantly grow the business and deliver meaningful increases in value for shareholders.

Let me briefly comment on the most recent market price of our publicly traded stock. While I recognize we have recently delivered financial performance meaningfully below the potential of this business, the management and the board strongly believe the current value of our company is materially below the fair and reasonable value of the business. Our long-term track record, our irreplaceable assets, our globally recognized brands, our favorable market position, our owned underlying real estate, our proven and resilient business model, long-term cash flow generation potential, and the long-term growth prospects of the business warrant a significantly higher valuation. Management and the Board are committed to taking action and utilizing available options to close the sizable valuation gap. We expect to continue to buy back stock as long as a disconnect exists between our view of fair or reasonable value and the market price of our common equity, when we have sufficient available liquidity, when our governance documents allow, and when our board determines it's the best use of capital.

To date this year, we have purchased approximately $218 million of stock or approximately 12% of our total operating outstanding shares. While we didn't purchase any shares in Q3 due to the cash flow dynamics of the business this year, we expect to return to buying our shares when we rebuild our cash balances going forward, subject to the conditions previously outlined.

Now, let me give a brief update on some of our strategic initiatives. On real estate, as we previously reported, we've received interest from multiple highly credible parties that have assigned significant value to our real estate versus the implied value in the public equity market. Recent volatility in interest rates has extended the timeline of our discussions. As you well know, there can be no assurances we will ultimately achieve terms that meet our requirements. In any event, learning the value that these parties assign to our real estate has confirmed our belief that the value of our real estate is not reflected in our public market valuation. We will continue to work on these opportunities and will continue to report to you on our progress.

On sponsorships, we continue to be on track to have approximately $12 million to $15 million in sponsorship revenue in 2026. We expect this business to be at least a $30 million line of business in the coming years. We are really excited for this opportunity.

On international, we are happy to report that during Q3, we signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with a new partner for a potential new park in the Middle East, and we continue to advance discussions with several other partners around the world. We look forward to sharing more on this potential new project and on other discussions as they progress.

On IP partnerships, we continue to be in multiple active discussions to bring additional compelling and well-recognized IP into our parks in innovative and exciting ways. We're also in discussions with potential partners about adding complementary entertainment offerings on land we own adjacent to our parks. We expect to have more to share related to these opportunities in 2027 and beyond.

On marketing, as we've previously communicated, we have had less than stellar execution and it's been an area that has been quite frustrating. We are making slow progress. We are continuing to evolve our strategy, our partners, and our teams. We need to continue to make investments to reach new and incremental audiences and to provide more compelling visuals and messaging and generate more awareness. We also need to leverage our CRM much better and have made some progress to modernize our activities and increase effectiveness in this area. There's a lot more work to do, and we are confident the changes we are making will help strengthen how we communicate and position us to engage a broader audience more effectively.

On costs, we continue to be on pace to achieve our $50 million gross cost savings target, most of which will have been realized in 2026 and some of which will be realized in 2027. We are actively working on our 2027 objectives with an initial targeted savings of an additional $40 million to $50 million of gross cost savings. We have spent considerable time with an in-house team, along with third parties, on identifying and mapping plans for AI capabilities in the organization where relevant. We have also invested in and are excited about the results we have seen exploring the application of robotics and automation in certain parts of our operations.

Regarding capital allocation, as we've discussed in the past, our strong balance sheet provides us with the flexibility to allocate capital to maximize the long-term value of our enterprise. As you all know, our board is focused on maximizing long-term value for shareholders and will act dynamically with that objective as opportunities are presented.

We are encouraged by the clear strategic runway ahead, supported by substantial capital investments and a comprehensive suite of initiatives currently underway across our organization. These deliberate actions are designed to enhance the guest experience, accelerate revenue growth, and optimize our cost structure to drive long-term profitability. By building a more robust and resilient enterprise, we are confident in our ability to deliver higher attendance, revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow, and higher shareholder value. Jim will discuss our financial results in more detail.

James Forrester

Thank you, Marc. During the third quarter, we generated total revenue of $506.5 million, a decrease of $5.4 million or 1.1% when compared to the third quarter of 2025. The decrease in total revenue compared to the third quarter of 2025 was primarily a result of a decrease in attendance, partially offset by an increase in total revenue per capita. Attendance for the third quarter of 2026 decreased by approximately 320,000 guests or 4.7% when compared to the prior year quarter. The decrease in attendance was primarily attributable to unfavorable weather, a calendar impact, and a decline in international visitation compared to the same quarter in the prior year.

In the third quarter of 2026, total revenue per capita increased 3.8%, admission per capita increased 3.4%, and in-park per capita spending increased 4.4%. Admission per capita increased primarily due to increased realized pricing on certain admissions products and the net impact of the admissions product mix when compared to the same prior year quarter. In-park per capita spending increased primarily due to higher penetration and the impact of pricing initiatives compared to the same prior year quarter.

Operating expenses decreased $4.1 million or 1.9% when compared to the third quarter of 2025. Selling, general, and administrative expenses increased $7.9 million or 13.1% compared to the third quarter of 2025. We reported net income of $80 million for the third quarter compared to net income of $89.3 million in the third quarter of 2025. We generated Adjusted EBITDA of $205.1 million, a decrease of $11.2 million when compared to the third quarter of 2025.

Looking at our results for the first 9 months of 2026 compared to 2025, total revenue was $1.27 billion, a decrease of $20.9 million or 1.6%. Total attendance was 15.7 million guests, a decrease of approximately 670,000 guests or 4.1%. Net income for the period was $109.2 million, a decrease of $44.1 million, and Adjusted EBITDA was $458.6 million, a decrease of $31.4 million.

Now turning to our balance sheet, our September 30th, 2026 net total leverage ratio is 3.55x and we had approximately $675 million of total available liquidity, including approximately $26 million of cash on the balance sheet. The strong balance sheet gives us flexibility to continue to invest in and grow our business and to opportunistically allocate capital with a goal to maximize long-term value for shareholders.

Our deferred revenue balance as of the end of September was $152.5 million. Deferred revenue increased approximately 4.9% when compared to September of 2025. As a reminder, our deferred revenue balance contains a number of products that include ticketing, vacation packages, annual and seasonal passes, and ancillary products. We also continue to see many pass holders who have been with us for at least a year who transition to month-to-month payments at the completion of their initial pass commitments. This month-to-month revenue does not show up as deferred revenue. Through October 2026, our paid pass base increased 0.3% compared to October 2025.

During the quarter, we launched our new pass products for 2027, which include our best benefits ever. We have a new dedicated team, a new strategy, and approach to pass that we continue to expect will lead to meaningful increases in pass base for 2027 and beyond.

We spent $69.7 million on CAPEX in the third quarter of 2026, of which approximately $47.4 million was on core CAPEX, and approximately $22.4 million was on expansion, NRR, and/or ROI projects. For 2026, we currently expect to spend less than $250 million of CAPEX. Now let me turn the call back over to Marc who will share some final thoughts. Marc.

Marc Swanson

Thank you, Jim. Before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the third quarter of 2026, we came to the aid of 237 animals in need. Over our history, we have helped over 43,000 animals, including bottlenose dolphins, manatees, sea lions, seals, sea turtles, sharks, birds, and more. I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts.

Looking ahead, our strategic priorities center on growing revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow, and significantly growing shareholder value. Our roadmap is driven by several high impact initiatives. We have an exciting pipeline of new rides, attractions, new or refreshed seasonal events. We are executing in-park upgrades to improve guest experience and optimize in-park per capita spending.

We are deploying an updated and modernized marketing framework to accelerate brand awareness and drive visitation. We are investing in resources and technology to help us manage and grow in-park and admissions per capita spending. We are rededicating resources to better manage and capture domestic, international, and group sales. We are investing in capabilities and dedicating teams to capture sponsorship opportunities and international licensing opportunities.

We are highly focused on identifying efficiencies and reducing waste and unnecessary costs through technology, capital investment, and process improvements. We are dedicated to allocating our excess capital with care and in a way that maximizes value for shareholders.

We operate in a growing industry characterized by favorable competitive dynamics supported by our irreplaceable brand portfolio, a highly cash generative business model, and well-capitalized assets. And we have high conviction in our long-term trajectory and our ability to increase shareholder value. Now we can take your questions. Thank you.

Operator

[Operator Instructions]

Your first question comes from Steven Wieczynski with Stifel.

Fragen und Antworten

Steven Wieczynski

So, Marc, I want to understand the October trends a little bit more. I guess you called out a significant weather headwind in October, but the month, it sounds like it's still going to be positive from a revenue perspective. So maybe can you help us think about what that revenue trend would have looked like if weather was normal, or maybe a better way to ask that is, on the days where weather was normal, what did revenue trends look like on those days? And I guess, given how October trended, do you think it's possible at this point to still kind of grow EBITDA in the fourth quarter, over the fourth quarter of '25?

Marc Swanson

Yes, hey, Steve, I can take that question. So, yes, October was really impacted by a lot of weather, as I mentioned in my prepared remarks. We're dealing with this Super El Niño that has been talked about quite a bit. So we saw a very meaningful impact, especially in our California park and then really across a number of markets, including Virginia, as well as here in Florida where we've had rain. So we just had a lot of rain on a number of weekends. And, when you have a rainout on a weekend in a park like Williamsburg, Virginia, where they're really not open as much during the week, the weekend is where they make most of their attendance. So when we have a rainout on a big weekend day, that significantly impacts it.

And we had poor weather over Columbus Day as well. And then again, these dynamics that we're seeing in California where, at one point it was 100 degrees in San Diego, which is very unusual, to where they had this tropical storm / Hurricane Rachel over Columbus Day weekend. And then they even had some rain on Halloween Day itself in San Diego, which is very, very unusual. So there's a lot of weather noise in the business in October.

Despite that, we did grow revenue or we're projected to grow revenue during the month. We did pick up an extra Saturday in the month, obviously, but it was Halloween day. And typically Halloween on a Saturday is not something we would prefer. A lot of people spend Halloween closer to their neighborhood or with friends or something and not necessarily at a theme park. But nonetheless, we expect to grow revenue in the month of October as far as the outlook for the rest of the year.

I like the setup for some of the things we talked about for the rest of this year and into 2027 with a positive pass base now, trends on our per caps as we discussed, and some of the other forward indicators that really go more into 2027, obviously. But we'll have to see. I mean, if the Super El Niño hangs around, it's going to be tougher, obviously, to grow EBITDA in the back half or in the next 2 or 3 months. We don't have an October number yet. So to grow, we'll have to get some break from this Super El Niño, I think. Otherwise, outside of that, when weather is normal, I think we feel pretty good about the business. We like the opportunities we're seeing when weather is good. We saw that a little bit in October, I mentioned with our Howl-O-Scream event, which is a separately ticketed event at night in a few of our parks. And when weather was good, we saw nice results with that. So hopefully that's helpful.

Steven Wieczynski

Yes, that's great. Thanks, Marc. And then, I know it's early and you guys don't give guidance anyway, but as we start to think about next year, I would assume based on some pretty easy comparisons, coupled with stabilization, it sounds like on the international side of things, it should be a year finally of getting back to the growth side of things from an EBITDA perspective, even if weather doesn't cooperate given the somewhat easy comparison. So I want to make sure I'm thinking about that the right way. And then, Marc, if you want to provide any kind of high-level thoughts around how you guys are thinking about 2027, I think that would be super helpful. Thank you.

Marc Swanson

Sure, I absolutely agree with you that next year is the year to get back to growth, obviously. So I would agree with what you said there. And there's a few things that give me confidence in that, obviously. The pass base turned positive, as you heard Jim and I talk about. And we know that's a pretty critical piece of our business. Roughly 40% of our attendance comes on some sort of pass product. So to have that come over and into the positive territory now, and then those products that are specific to 2027, like our Fun Card, to see the growth that we've seen here early on in that sales process is encouraging. So I like the pass base setup going into next year.

Like you mentioned, the recent trends in per caps, getting admissions per cap into positive territory was good. And so if we can continue to grow both admissions and in-park per cap, we like that setup. The bookings revenue for Discovery Cove and our group business is up as well and looks encouraging. And this will all be supported by a lineup of new rides, attractions, events. Our goal obviously is to have new things in our parks every year. I think, again, we will have a good lineup going forward of some mix of all those things that I just mentioned.

We're also making, I mentioned slow progress, but progress in marketing. I certainly think we can do a better job of that next year. And I mentioned in my prepared remarks, the real recent trends here in international are showing growth as well. So I think we've hopefully hit the bottom there. And now going forward, we will see growth, and that will be a tailwind for us as well. So we like that setup with all those things. And then if we get any sort of break with the weather, which I'm optimistic we will, I think that can drive the growth that we've been talking about.

Operator

Your next question comes from James Hardiman with Citi.

James Hardiman

So I wanted to stay on topic here based on your previous answer and really focus on the international piece. Obviously, we really haven't recovered to where we were in 2019. It sounds like maybe though, at some point, maybe starting in 2025, things take an even incremental leg down. Maybe give us some of the whys surrounding why you think international has been so difficult for you in the last couple of years, and then what's changed to allow you to see better numbers more recently, but more importantly, gives you the confidence that we are at an inflection point and that ultimately that's going to be a tailwind in 2027. Thanks.

Marc Swanson

Yes, James, I can take that question. And yes, just as a reminder, because you kind of alluded to this, I mean, we are still down more than 50% versus 2019. So while that's a lot, normally it's about 10% of our attendance internationally in 2019. That's what it was. We're getting obviously much less than that. But it's in the range of 1 million person opportunity if we can get back to 2019 levels with international. So it's a big opportunity and we're aware of that. It's obviously more confined to the Florida market for the most part.

I think some of the macro headwinds related to international visitation have been discussed by us and others. So I don't know that I have a whole lot of control over that. I think one of the things we have tried to do more recently here is we have a better team managing this business. We're seeing some encouraging things with some of the international resellers. We have people that go over and visit some of these markets and try to encourage people to come to our park. So we're managing that, I think, better than we have in the past. So I think we're going to do our part. We can always do better. But certainly, some function of this will be dependent on just the macro conditions improving, primarily in Florida, which hopefully they will. Like I said, I think we've come close or have hit the bottom just based on what we're seeing and we have a fairly easy comp going forward, so we should see this as a tailwind, obviously.

James Hardiman

Got it. And then on the cost margin side, you've outlined $40 million to $50 million of gross cost savings for 2027. Pretty much every year you've successfully identified and I think executed on an impressive cost savings program, at least on the gross front. The challenge is, sometimes or most times it seems like that hasn't necessarily translated into net savings or I guess more specifically margin expansion. Maybe walk us through sort of how we should be thinking about gross to net in 2027, puts and takes, and obviously labor is a big one, but it seems like you're pretty optimistic that we are going to buck the last, I don't know, 3 or 4-year trend of margin compression. What gives you that confidence?

Marc Swanson

Yes, I can take that question, James. So first, I think one of the biggest impacts on margin has just been our revenue decline, right? So the beauty of this business is any sort of attendance or per cap growth generally has a very high flow-through. So if we can get just some nominal growth even, and hopefully we're going to do better in that, in revenue and attendance and stuff like that, it should largely flow through and help that margin. But on the cost side specifically, I think there's a couple of things. One, as we've talked about kind of managing that Adjusted EBITDA cost growth. And by that, I mean the costs that sit between revenue and Adjusted EBITDA. We've managed that to like a low single-digit growth level. And we did that again here in Q3. So we are finding the savings like you mentioned, and they're offsetting other pressures. And I think lots of companies talk about pressures and all sorts of things, whether it's utilities or insurance, whatever it may be. And we've done a reasonably decent job of offsetting a fair amount of that.

Perhaps what's changing a little bit going forward is I think there's some new tools I mentioned around AI and automation and things like that that are promising. Still, obviously, mapping those out and seeing how we will deploy those, but those I think have the opportunity to be a little more transformative than maybe some of the things we've done in the past in those areas. We have work that is a little bit longer lead time, but we've been working on now for a good part of 2026 around insurance and claims and utilities and taxes, some of those things just have a longer lead time. So hopefully we'll start to see some of the benefit of those in 2027. So we like the setup to find the gross cost savings. We have to do a better job, as you said, of kind of delivering that to the bottom line.

Operator

Your next question comes from Patrick Scholes of Truist Securities.

Charles Scholes

Question regarding where you wrote in the presentation release about 2027 specific pass product pace is up 15% as of October 31st. If you can be a little bit more clear or provide specifics on what specific pass product base is and what it isn't. Thank you.

Marc Swanson

Sure, Patrick, I can help you with that. So we have certain products, especially in some of our more seasonal parks, but really across all our parks that are just good for the season. If you buy them now, one of the incentives is you kind of get the rest of this year and 2027 included. And so like the most popular one would be our Fun Card. So whenever you buy the Fun Card, it's just good for that year, unless you buy it now, you get the rest of this year and 2027. But if you were to buy that in March of next year, it's only good for 2027. Whereas like our more annual passes are good generally 12 months from when you buy them or you can go into like a month-to-month program and they just continue on. So we have two sets of products: the kind of annual pass that you can eventually convert to month-to-month, and then the products that are just tied to one specific year, which would primarily be our Fun Card.

Traditionally, we have sold those here in the third to fourth quarter for next year as an incentive, and you'll get the rest of this year and next year included. I think we've done a good job of supporting that better than ever with not only a good team of people executing that sale and that sales process, but more dedicated messaging and media around that. It's encouraging, it's obviously early in the process, and really the next big period here is coming up pretty soon with our Black Friday sale. We typically do sell a good amount of passes or Fun Cards during that time frame, so I'll be able to report to you on that when we talk next. But obviously it's a good sign and encouraging sign.

Charles Scholes

Okay, and just quick follow-up, how much as a percentage of total annual attendance do those specific types of products typically account for? Thank you.

Marc Swanson

Well, we don't break it out. I mean, what I can tell you is we consider all those things generically as a pass. And so when I say our pass base is up, that includes our annual passes, our seasonal passes, our preschool passes, our teacher passes, all that we kind of consider pass. And that pass base is up, as Jim said, as of the end of October. And that usually accounts for about 40% of our attendance over the course of the year. It can vary by park, but 40% in total for the company usually.

Operator

Your next question comes from Lizzy Dove with Goldman Sachs.

Unknown Speaker

Hi, this is Nina on for Lizzy. Given some of the recent pressure at the non-Orlando parks, has your view changed at all around the appropriate level of investment across the portfolio? And how do you determine which parks warrant incremental capital?

Marc Swanson

Yes, thanks for the question. I can help you there. I mean, look, I mentioned earlier, we're going to make investments in our parks to make sure we have new things to talk about. And that could be either rides, attractions, events, venues, whatever it may be. So we'll continue to do that. It's really a market-by-market opportunity there, and we do try to study what we believe will drive more visitation to those parks. So we'll continue to support the non-Orlando parks like we have in the past. I think we probably have the biggest opportunity in Busch Gardens Tampa Bay.

I think not only is it a great park, it has a good breadth of rides, attractions, a wonderful animal collection. But at the same time, I don't know that people really have a total awareness of everything it has and everything we can do. We also need to do a better job of managing the experience in that park. And we recently brought back one of our former leaders who is back running that park, and I think he's going to do a better job of getting that experience where we'd like to going forward. But we'll continue to invest in Tampa, and we have continued to invest in all of our parks going forward. Thank you.

Operator

Your next question comes from Ben Chaykin with Mizuho.

Unknown Speaker

Hi, this is Rita Chan on for Ben Chaykin. Would you mind talking a little bit more about your deferred revenue? It's up year-over-year in the quarter, and that includes a number of products. So we just kind of want to understand what's driving the acceleration.

Marc Swanson

Yes, let me start and then Jim wants to add anything. But yes, I'm glad you mentioned that. Our deferred revenue or the current portion is up almost 5%, as Jim said in his prepared remarks. And there's a lot of things that make up that balance, obviously, but clearly it's advanced purchases, right? So it's advanced purchases of our tickets, our in-park experiences, group business, all that. So there's a myriad of things that go in there and that drive that. I think the key takeaway is that it is positive and to be up almost 5% I think is another good indicator for where the business is headed for the foreseeable future here.

James Forrester

Marc, the only thing I would like to add to that is you mentioned the group business as part of that. We have some forward-looking indicators that our group business is going to be substantially up next year, which gives us a lot of confidence, again, in some of the indicators of how 2027 might fare for us. And so that is a major part of this that we're pleased to see that growth year-over-year.

Unknown Speaker

Great. Thank you for the—

Operator

Your next question comes from Arpine Kocharian with UBS.

Arpine Kocharyan

I was hoping you could clarify the pass product growth for 2027. What portion of that is actually pricing versus unit increase? And there's a small clarification question I have on per cap increases for the quarter. It seems like you were saying the sponsorship revenue will kick up in the back half of the year. Year-over-year, how that's adding to per cap growth if you could clarify that, and then I have a quick follow-up.

Marc Swanson

Yes, so on the 2027 comment, I was quoting the base, so the base would be number of units, so people who have a product, right? So the total pass base, as Jim mentioned, is positive as of October 31st and those 2027 specific products are more positive, but that would be the number of units, which I think is a good thing, right? The more people that have a unit or a pass, hopefully that translates into a visit. And then on your question on sponsorship revenue, I mean, certainly we've seen that as an opportunity. We've talked about that for a while now and we continue to execute on some of those things. We think over the coming years, that'll continue to be an area that we can grow. And that'll contribute to some of the growth here, I think, even in the back half of this year, right?

James Forrester

Yes. There's still some additional opportunity at the back half of the year, and then we continue to find new opportunities that will materialize in 2027.

Arpine Kocharyan

Okay, that's great. Thank you. That's helpful. And then my first question was actually related to how much pricing you've taken in the pass product if you're able to shed any light on that. But it's combined with my follow-up question, which is really on 2027. I guess I'm trying to better understand what gives you the confidence in projecting EBITDA growth for 2027. Is that just a function of this strong pass base that you're looking at, better group business, it seems like? But then I was hoping you could talk a little bit more on the OPEX side of things. What gives you confidence there as it relates to stuff that you can actually control? Like what underlying inflation are you factoring in today when you talk about growth in EBITDA for 2027?

Marc Swanson

Okay, yes, there's a couple of things there, so let me start and then Jim can connect maybe some stuff on the cost. But look, I think part of your question was about what gives me confidence for next year and one of them, one of the things you've already alluded to, is just the pass base and the fact that it's up and positive, and that's a good thing. I mean, we haven't been able to talk about a positive pass base in a little while, so to have that positive should obviously support more visitation from that group on a go-forward basis. And we'll continue to, I don't want to get into it too much for competitive reasons, but we'll continue to kind of optimize how we sell our product and we can test and learn and optimize from there. So our goal is obviously to drive total revenue. And there's times we're going to do things that we want to test and learn from. So we'll continue to look to sell more passes, more Fun Cards, those type of things on a go-forward basis that'll help support the 2027 growth potential along with some of the other things I talked about with the lineup of new things we've got coming to our parks next year.

And whether it's new rides or events or enhanced venues, we'll have, I think, a better marketing strategy and execution around that. We should have international growth going forward, as I already alluded to. The Discovery Cove and group business looks very encouraging for next year. And then more recently here, the per cap trends on admissions per cap. We continue obviously to deliver on in-park which we have for some time now. I guess the obvious other thing is if we would expect to get some better weather, we got to get through this Super El Niño thing. But I'm optimistic that weather like the majority of next year should hopefully be improved from this year, which was really, unfortunately, bad. So that's kind of how we think about next year. On the cost, I think you had a question around kind of inflation and our assumptions. So I'll let you—

James Forrester

Generally, we would assume that we're going to do everything we can to flatten the curve continued in 2027 for cost, at maximum extremely low single-digit, but again aiming for flat to seeing those net savings materialize to go under. We've got confidence there because of our current investments in technology, whether that is directly replacing things that lease costs, for example, or to implement some ideas in the labor scheduling area that will allow us to better schedule and reduce labor costs there. And then we also are being much more judicious in our use of marketing funds to be very much more targeted and to allow us to see the benefits there as well.

Operator

This concludes the question and answer session. I'll turn the call to Marc Swanson for closing remarks.

Marc Swanson

Yes, thank you, Sarah. On behalf of Jim and the rest of the management team at United Parks and Resorts, I want to thank you for joining us this morning. As you heard us today, we are confident in our long-term strategy, which we believe will drive improved operating and financial results and long-term value for stakeholders. We invite everyone to join us at our parks to experience the energy and excitement we are offering. Thank you, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.

This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review.