CHICAGO — The First Quarter (Q1) Results Report from Viad Corp, GHG‘parent company, reflects the robust return of live events in 2023, with revenue and year-over-year growth exceeding those of the first quarter of 2022.
According to the earnings report, revenue from shows produced by the U.S. exhibition team increased 91% from 2019 levels, compared to 73% in the first quarter of 2022. For the three months ended March 31, 2023, GES recorded revenue of $169.5 million, compared to $111.8 million in the first quarter of 2022.
The results beat expectations for first-quarter earnings.
“After nearly three years of travel restrictions, we are seeing pent-up demand for face-to-face customer encounters and the value proposition that trade shows and similar events provide,” said Jeff Quade, executive vice president of GES. “With the return of trade shows, attendance and increased show sizes have helped the company exceed expectations.”
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“We are very encouraged by the strong demand we experienced in the first quarter and the better than expected financial results from GES and Pursuit. GES continues to benefit from positive momentum in the live events sector with growing revenues and healthy margins,” said Steve Moster, President and CEO of Viad.
Despite the impressive first quarter performance and GES’ work on new offerings, expectations for second quarter 2023 results are lower than those for second quarter 2022.
“We expect consolidated results to be lower than the second quarter of 2022, largely due to changes in GES’s operations, including the sale of ON Services, the impact of the return to the normal first quarter of shows after being postponed to the second quarter last year, and other non-recurring activities. GES is able to offset this through new business and net square footage increases,” Quade said. “We are always working on new offerings and innovations for our customers and exhibitors. We continue to invest in our wall systems to improve the appearance and efficiency of our shows, and we are also working on a few programs to add to our GES Plus series for exhibitors, as well as Pro Desk for the EAC community.”
Contact Steve Moster at (602) 207-1000; Jeff Quade at (702) 515-8625 or jquade@ges.com