Good morning, and welcome to the SeaWorld's Q4 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matthew Stroud of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to SeaWorld's fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 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.seaworldinvestors.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 Elizabeth Gulacsy, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This morning, we will review our fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 financial results, and then we will open up the call to your questions. Before we begin, I'd 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 on Form 10-Q, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These risk 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?
Thank you, Matthew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report another quarter of record financial results and record financial results for the fiscal year. In the fourth quarter in fiscal 2021, we delivered record revenue, record net income, and record adjusted EBITDA. We are especially pleased to deliver these record results while continuing to operate in an environment with significant and unprecedented headwinds related to COVID-19. These results are a testament to the tireless work of our incredible team, the demonstrated resiliency of our business model, and the continued successful implementation of our proven business plan and strategies. Our fourth quarter and fiscal year financial performance would have been even better if not for limited international guest attendance and reduced group-related attendance related to the impacts of COVID-19.
While we have made good progress on our plans, as we look to the future, we continue to be highly confident that we can deliver even more operational and financial improvements that we expect will lead to meaningful increases in shareholder value. In particular, we believe our forward ride, attraction, and park enhancement investment plans are the most robust they have ever been and currently reflect the cadence, focus areas, and strategies we have been working towards. We are extremely excited about the new rides we have opened and plan to open this year and the new additions, upgrades, and improvements we've made to our parks. We encourage you all to visit our parks with your family and friends very soon and often this year.
We continue to improve our commercial functionality with investments in talent and capabilities in revenue management and marketing and have opportunity to continue to improve in these areas. We also continue to identify, track, and execute on additional cost reduction and efficiency opportunities that we expect to continue to help offset inflationary pressures and lead to structurally improved profitability. With respect to our digital capabilities, including our mobile app and CRM implementations, we are encouraged by the early results and are in the very early innings of realizing the full potential of these initiatives. I would also say that we believe we are behind our competitors in some of these areas, which gives us even greater confidence in the potential we have yet to realize.
We continue to make progress on our inorganic growth initiatives related to hotels, new parks, and international expansion, and expect to have more to share later in the year. We are also pleased to have ended 2021 in a particularly strong financial position as a result of the proactive and decisive decisions made over the last couple of years, as well as our record financial performance in 2021. Our available liquidity, including cash on our balance sheet and capacity on our revolving credit facility, was over $800 million, and our total leverage was less than 2.50x. Our strong financial position provides us significant flexibility to invest in our business, fund high-growth ROI initiatives, consider strategic opportunities and/or return capital to our shareholders.
In 2021, we are proud to have received numerous industry honors and recognitions, including SeaWorld Orlando, voted as No. 1 for Nation's Best Amusement Park by USA Today readers. Aquatica Orlando voted as No. 1 for Nation's Best Outdoor Water Park by USA Today readers, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg named World's Most Beautiful Theme Park for the 31st year in a row by the National Amusement Park Historical Association. In addition, two of our other water parks, Water Country USA and Adventure Island Tampa, were voted in the top 10 of the nation's best outdoor water parks by USA Today readers. The Mako roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando was ranked as the No. 1 for Best Roller Coaster, and the Celtic Fyre dance show at Busch Gardens Williamsburg was voted as No. 1 for Best Amusement Park Entertainment, each by USA Today's readers.
We also launched new iOS and Android mobile apps for all our parks in 2021 and completed what we believe to be the most significant transformation of our in-park venues as many were redesigned, refreshed, or added across our parks in 2021. We are very excited for 2022, as we believe we have the most exciting lineup of new rides, attractions, events, and upgrades we have ever had in our history with something new and meaningful in every one of our parks, including, according to USA Today, four of the nine most anticipated roller coasters of 2022 opening across our parks this year.
We recently opened the Ice Breaker roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando, a quadruple launch coaster featuring four air time-filled launches, both backwards and forwards, culminating in a reverse launch up a 90-foot, 93-foot vertical spike, leading to the steepest, beyond vertical drop in Florida. The Iron Gwazi roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, what we believe could be the best roller coaster in the world, and it certainly got quite a bit of hype already, opened for pass members on February 13 and will open to the general public on March 11. This will be the tallest hybrid coaster in North America and the world's fastest and steepest hybrid coaster with the world's tallest drop. Riders will climb more than 200 feet before plunging into a beyond vertical drop, reaching speeds of 76 miles per hour and experiencing a dozen air time moments.
In addition, the Emperor roller coaster at SeaWorld San Diego will open to pass members on March 2 and to the general public on March 12. This will be the tallest, fastest, longest, and first floor-less dive coaster on the West Coast. After climbing more than 150 feet, riders will dangle at a 90-degree angle before plunging into a 143-foot vertical drop that will accelerate riders to more than 60 miles per hour. The Pantheon roller coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg will open to pass members on March 4 and to the general public on March 25. Pantheon will be the world's fastest multi-launch coaster, will accelerate riders to a speed of 73 miles per hour, and will include a 180-foot drop at 95 degrees, four launches, two inversions, and 15 air time moments.
All four of these coasters are among the nine most anticipated coasters of 2022, according to USA Today. At SeaWorld San Antonio, the Tidal Surge Screamin' Swing, the world's tallest and fastest Screamin' Swing, will open Saturday to select season pass holders and on March fifth to all guests. Later this spring, we will open the Big Bird's Tour Bus at Sesame Place Philadelphia, the Reef Plunge water slide at Aquatica Orlando, the Rapids Racer and Wahoo Remix water slides at Adventure Island Tampa, the Aquazoid Amped water slide at Water Country USA, and the Riptide Race water slide at Aquatica San Antonio. Overall, we are very excited about this new lineup at our parks. In addition to these attractions, we're also very excited that our newest park, Sesame Place San Diego, will open March twenty-sixth.
This will be the first Sesame Place theme park on the West Coast and only the second in the United States. This will be the first new theme park we have opened since 2013. On the technology front, we are pleased to have completed the rollout of our mobile app across our parks. These mobile apps feature interactive maps, ride wait times, and e-commerce capabilities that allow for in-park purchases and are now being used by guests in our parks to improve their visit. We plan to continue to add features to the app and enable in-app purchases across more in-park venues over the next several quarters, which we expect to contribute to enhanced guest satisfaction, incremental revenue opportunities, and cost efficiencies. Turning to our pass base.
At the end of January 2022, our pass base was up approximately 27% compared to January 2021, and is approximately 19% higher than January 2020, which was the previous January record. This is especially encouraging as the peak pass-selling seasons of spring and summer are still ahead of us. We are also seeing a higher mix of premium passes in our pass base compared to prior year as our pass holders continue to recognize the value and benefits of our higher-tiered products. Finally, like many other companies, the current labor market continues to present staffing and wage challenges, which we are working to manage through, including expanding our use of international workers at our parks, something we didn't take advantage of as much as our competitors may have in the past.
We continue to work on cost reduction and efficiency opportunities, including continuing to eliminate unnecessary and redundant costs, optimizing our staffing and spend levels, and investing in and leveraging technology. Our teams continue to make extraordinary efforts to operate our parks despite the challenging environment we face this year and better position this company for revenue growth and increased profitability. As we have demonstrated in the fourth quarter and throughout 2021, we believe the strategies we have developed and refined over the past few years, along with the actions we have taken since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, will continue to lead to significantly improved financial results for the company. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Elizabeth to discuss our financial results in more detail. Elizabeth?
Thank you, Marc, and good morning, everyone. Similar to last quarter, due to the disruption we experienced when we temporarily closed all of our parks on March 16, 2020, I'll provide commentary today around our financial results compared to 2019. We believe this comparison provides a more meaningful insight on our performance and operating trajectory. For those interested, we provide a comparison versus both 2019 and 2020 in our earnings release, and will do so as well in our Form 10-K. During the fourth quarter, we generated record total revenue of $370.8 million, an increase of $72.8 million or 24.4% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
The increase in revenue is due to an increase in total revenue per capita of 18.1% and an increase in attendance of 5.4% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Attendance would have been even better if not for limited international guest attendance, due in part to travel restrictions and reduced group-related attendance. Excluding international guests and group-related attendance in the fourth quarter increased by approximately 20% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Our pricing and product strategies, along with the strong consumer demand environment, continued to drive higher realized pricing and strong guest spending, resulting in total revenue per capita in the quarter of $74.87, compared to $63.42 in the fourth quarter of 2019.
This increase was driven by improvements in both admissions per capita and in-park per capita spending. This is the highest total revenue per capita we have ever reported in the fourth quarter. Admissions per capita increased by 15.2% to $43.55, and in-park per capita spending increased by 22.3% to $31.22 in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. The increase in admissions per capita primarily relates to the realization of higher prices for admission products resulting from our strategic pricing efforts, partially offset by the net impact of the admissions product mix when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
In-park per capita spending improved due to a combination of factors, including an improved product mix, higher realized prices and fees, and the impact of new or enhanced and expanded in-park offerings compared to 2019. We also benefited from a strong consumer demand environment, which contributed to higher guest spending levels during the quarter. We generated net income, record net income of $71.5 million compared to a net loss of $24.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. We generated record adjusted EBITDA of $152.8 million, an increase of $68.8 million or 82% when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
The increases in net income and adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2021 were primarily impacted by an increase in total revenue when compared to the fourth quarter of 2019. Looking at our results for the full year, which were still impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, total attendance was approximately 20.2 million guests, a decrease of 10.7% versus 2019. Excluding international guest visitation and group-related attendance in 2021 increased by approximately 2% when compared to 2019. Total revenue was a record $1.5 billion, an increase of $105.5 million or 7.5% when compared to 2019.
Fiscal 2021 total revenue per capita was $74.43 compared to $61.80 in 2019, a 20.4% increase, driven by an increase in admissions per capita and in-park per capita spending. Admissions per capita increased 18.9% to $42.17 compared to $35.48 in 2019. The improvement in admissions per capita is primarily due to the realization of higher prices in our admission products resulting from our strategic pricing efforts, along with the net impact of the admissions product mix when compared to 2019. In-park per capita spending improved by 22.6% to $32.26 from $26.32 in 2019.
The increase was primarily due to a combination of factors, including an improved product mix, higher realized prices and fees, and the impact of new, enhanced or expanded in-park offerings when compared to 2019. Operating expenses decreased by $27.2 million or 4.2% when compared to 2019, primarily due to a net reduction in labor related costs and other operating costs resulting from structural cost savings initiatives and the impact of modified and or limited operations due to COVID-19. These factors were partially offset by certain non-recurring contractual liabilities and legal costs impacted by the temporary COVID-19 park closures, operating costs associated with incremental operating days and events added in 2021, and an increase in non-cash equity compensation expense.
Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by $76.8 million, or 29.4% when compared to 2019, primarily due to a targeted reduction in marketing-related costs, a decrease in legal costs largely related to a legal settlement charge in 2019, a decline in third party consulting costs, and the impact of cost savings and efficiency initiatives. These factors were partially offset by an increase in non-cash equity compensation expense. Net income for the year was a record $256.5 million, an increase of $167 million. Adjusted EBITDA was a record $662 million, an increase of $205.1 million when compared to 2019, which held the previous record in both net income and adjusted EBITDA.
Now turning to our balance sheet. Our current deferred revenue balance as of the end of the fourth quarter was $154.8 million, an increase of approximately 48.2% when compared to December 2019, due in part to our strong pass sales. We have discussed throughout this year, we continue to be encouraged with the trends we're seeing in our pass base. At the end of January 2022, our pass base was up approximately 27% compared to January 2021. We are also still seeing a higher mix of premium passes in our pass base as our pass holders continue to recognize the value and benefits of our higher tiered products. Additionally, we continue to see the impact of our pricing strategies with stronger realized prices on our pass sales.
We continued to opportunistically repurchase shares during the quarter, buying approximately 2.2 million shares of common stock at a total cost of $133 million. As of December 31, 2021, our total available liquidity was approximately $808 million, including $443.7 million of cash and cash equivalents on our balance sheet, and $364.5 million available on our revolving credit facility, which was undrawn. Cash flow from operations was a record $86.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, and a record $503 million for fiscal 2021.
Free cash flow was a record $31.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2021, and a record $374.2 million for fiscal 2021. We spent $55.3 million on CapEx in the fourth quarter of 2021, of which approximately $25.4 million was on core CapEx and approximately $29.9 million was on expansion ROI projects. For 2022, we plan on spending approximately $150 million in core capital expenditures and another $30 million-$50 million on growth or ROI capital expenditures. Now let me turn the call back over to Marc, who will share some final thoughts. Marc?
Thank you, Elizabeth. Before we open the call to your questions, I have some closing comments. In the fourth quarter, we helped rescue almost 370 animals, and we are approaching nearly 39,900 animal rescues over the company's history. We are one of the world's leading animal rescue organizations, and we are proud of our efforts to protect and save wildlife. Lately, our rescue teams have been even busier helping to save manatees throughout Florida due to the recent cold weather as well as the overall degradation of their habitat, which is reducing their primary food source. In fact, we have seen such an increase in the number of manatees in need of help that our Florida team proactively added temporary pools to allow us to rescue and rehabilitate even more manatees.
I'm really proud of the team's hard work and their continued dedication to these important rescue efforts. I want to thank them and all our ambassadors for all they do to operate our parks in this current environment. We are excited about 2022. We have an exciting lineup of new rides, attractions, and events that we believe is one of our best offerings ever. We recognize that we have made good progress over the past year, but we continue to believe there are significant additional opportunities to improve our execution, take advantage of clear growth opportunities, and continue to drive meaningful growth in both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. We continue to have high confidence in our long-term strategy and our ability to deliver significantly improved operating and financial results that we believe will lead to meaningfully increased value for stakeholders. Now, let's take your questions.
We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Then re-queue if you have further questions. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Steve Wieczynski with Stifel. You may now go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, guys. Good morning. So, Marc, obviously, you guys don't give annual guidance, but, you know, I guess, as you look to this year and you're obviously coming off of an all-time high EBITDA year in 2021, you know, how should we think about the opportunity to grow EBITDA from current levels? And I guess, you know, maybe a better way of asking that is, you know, what are some of the gives and takes we need to be thinking about for this year that could impact that EBITDA growth? And then kind of the last part of that question is, you know, you know what, did you guys witness any type of impact in January, you know, around the variant that we need to be thinking about as well?
Hey, Steve. Thanks. I'll start with the last part of your question. You know, look, on the variant. Look, there's a lot of factors that you know impact our attendance, and some of them are easier than others to tease out. Certainly, we know the variant was on people's minds. We see it in our surveys. We saw the travel disruptions you know across the country. We saw people you know workers calling in sick and things like that. You know, I'm sure it had an impact. What I can't give you is an exact number of what that is, but I'm sure it had an impact.
You know, I think the good news for the country is we seem to be on a better path now here in February just based on you know the news that we see out there regarding the variant. You know, I think your second question about you know where do we see the business going? How do we think about the opportunities we have to grow EBITDA? You know, I think one of the things you know that I immediately go towards is if you look at our attendance this year versus 2019, we're still down over you know 2.4 million people. What I would quickly
You know, I'm not gonna do the math for you, but you can imagine if we can just get back to 2019 attendance levels, pick up another 2.4 million people, you flow that through our P&L. You know, you can do the math on that. I think that's pretty meaningful, obviously pretty significant. You know, beyond that, we're gonna continue to execute on our per caps. I think we have a lot of momentum, but still plenty of opportunity as well. We have new venues in our parks. We've expanded menus and offerings in our parks. We've refurbished things in our parks. We have a great lineup of new rides and attractions. You heard me talk a lot about that.
We believe it's our best lineup. These coasters and some of these other rides are just gonna be fantastic. Then on the go-forward, you know, the longer-term plan is, you know, again, what we believe is the most robust plan we've had. You know, there's a lot of positive, you know, things I think ahead of us there. Then as far as the cost, you know, we continue to focus as we have for a number of years on achieving cost savings, on identifying efficiencies, and trying to offset as much of the inflationary pressures as we can. We're gonna continue with those strategies, and we believe that's a good recipe. I think probably with that information, you can probably do some of the math.
I think what I would also remind you is, and you heard me talk about it, our pass base here in January is the highest, you know, pass base we've ever had for January. A lot of things, I think that we're excited about for 2022.
That's great color. Thanks, Marc. Second question, you know, I've gotta ask this question, I think, and I'm not sure what you're gonna say, but, you know, you indicated in your prepared remarks about using excess capital to consider, which I think you referred to as strategic opportunities. I'm just wondering what that
I meant in the grand scheme of things, you know, what are some of those strategic opportunities you guys you know would look at? Obviously there was a, you know, public offer for Cedar Fair, you know, maybe you could comment on, you know, what attracted you to, you know, to those assets.
Yeah, sure, Steve. Look, I'm not gonna comment a whole lot on Cedar Fair, but what I can tell you is obviously we like the industry. We have a lot of respect for Cedar Fair, their assets and their management team, a lot of respect for them. You know, we obviously believe the combination made sense for us. You know, it didn't, they rejected the offer. It didn't work out, obviously, you know.
I like, you know, sitting here, you know, maybe the first part of your question, you know, sitting here today, you know, we talked about in my prepared remarks, we like the strong financial position we find ourselves in, and I think we have some flexibility in whether it's investing in the business, which we're clearly doing with our rides and attractions, our refurbishments, other things like that, technology with our mobile app. There's other ROI-type things that we could pursue. We're opening a new park, obviously, in San Diego, a new Sesame Place. Certainly could return, you know, there's capital return to shareholders. And then lastly, you know, there's the M&A opportunity as well. I'm not gonna speculate on what we may or may not do.
I think what you can rest assured is, you know, we would look to be opportunistic and study those type of uses of cash with our board and advisors and, you know, again, I'm not gonna speculate. You know, beyond that, we're right now really focused on getting ready for spring break. We've got our rides opening and we're excited about the year.
Okay, great. Thanks, Marc. Appreciate it.
Sure.
Our next question comes from Stephen Grambling with Goldman Sachs. You may now go ahead.
Hey, thank you. Just wanted to ask on Sesame Place, the opening in March. Any thoughts you could give us in terms of what the contribution might look like to attendance, revenue, and what the margin profile of this park might look like relative to the company average?
Yeah. Hey, Stephen, it's Marc. I can take that. Look, we're, you know, as I said in my prepared remarks, we're very excited that park will be opening here at the end of March. We're very excited and I think you can, you know, assume that one of the things that gets us excited is we believe it has a better margin profile than the park that was there previously. You know, the Sesame product is a great IP. We'll be able to open this park more on a year-round basis 'cause it'll have some dry attractions. It'll have some water attractions as well.
I'm pretty optimistic that, you know, there's a better margin profile, a better attendance profile, a better EBITDA profile from that location. I'm not gonna guide you to a specific number, but I think probably gave you enough information there to help you.
Got it. Maybe going back to your comments on strategic investments. How do you generally think through synergies or just broader consolidation upside and what makes an asset more or less attractive?
Yeah, thanks. I'm not gonna comment a whole lot. I mean, I think you heard me say, you know, we like the industry, you know. Certainly with Cedar, we had a lot of respect for their assets and their management team. You know, again, I think I'm not gonna speculate. Every kind of thing we would evaluate is gonna have, you know, different puts and takes. I think what I would assure you is we like the position we're in. We like where we ended the year, the flexibility we have to deploy cash in a variety of ways. Like I said, whether it's put back into our own business, which we've been doing, obviously, whether it's other ROI initiatives, whether it's returning to shareholders or whether it's some sort of M&A transaction.
Got it. Thanks. I'll jump back in the queue.
Our next question comes from Mike Swartz with Truist Securities. You may now go ahead.
Hey, guys. Just wanted to dig into the per caps for a bit. You know, obviously you saw some strong growth there over the past year, and there's obviously some exogenous things going on to drive that, but as well as some of the internal things you've done to optimize yield. Maybe is there a way you could give us a sense of how much or how you think about the growth there over the past 12 months? How much of that was, you know, things within your control? And then how should we think about just generally speaking, per caps, in 2022? Meaning, do you think you can keep them at these levels? Do you think you can grow them? Is there any kind of puts and takes we should be thinking about?
Yeah. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate the question. You know, what I'll go back to is a couple things. I mean, one, you've kind of acknowledged it and we acknowledge it clearly that we're operating in a good economic environment. So that's obviously benefited us. But setting that aside, I think of a number of things that, you know, I've been at this company a long time and I see us doing better than we have before, but with still areas to improve on and certainly one around our revenue management team and optimizing our pricing and how we look at products, how we price them, how we promote them, that type of thing.
I think that work has got us, you know, has done well, but still a lot more opportunity there, especially around, you know, understanding, testing and optimizing what promotions are really driving people, what are the key levers that we can pull that we know will have a direct impact, that type of thing. On the marketing side, again, I think a lot of opportunity there. Some things we've done better, but I think things we can continue to do better to generate demand to stimulate people to come visit. You know, we've benefited some here in 2021, and I think certainly very early innings of our mobile app and CRM implementation.
Realizing the full potential of those over the next several years, I think is, again, a good backdrop to growing our per caps. Then, you know, you layer on top of that, we did this growth this year without any international attendance or, I shouldn't say without any, but very little international attendance. That will eventually, we believe, be a tailwind at some point for us. And those folks generally tend to spend more on an in-park basis. Then you layer on the things we're doing in the park, the new venues, the new menus, the new offerings, the expanded events, you know, reasons for people to come visit. Then, you know, the lineup of rides and attractions.
There's just a lot of things that, you know, I think we're doing in our parks to get people excited about the investments we're making in the product. Those things, I think, give us pricing power as well. You put all that together, and, you know, I think certainly we still have runway there with our per caps.
Thanks for that, Marc. Just second question, shifting over to the labor environment. I know you guys tend to have a larger year-round full-time labor base, and sounds like you're gonna take advantage of maybe the J-1 visa program. How should we just frame or think about labor or wage inflation in 2022 relative to what we saw in 2021?
That's a good question. You know, what I can tell you is, you know, we have a tremendous focus on cost. Certainly, you know, labor is one of our larger costs. We're gonna continue to try to find other efficiencies, other opportunities to offset as much of that inflation as we can. That's our goal, obviously. We're doing things like you mentioned, taking advantage of the international worker program. That was a program that we had largely only utilized really in one of our parks in the past, and this year we're expanding it across our markets. We're excited about that. We like that that provides a stable level of workers that can, you know, come and experience a great time in our parks.
Beyond that, you know, we're focused on, you know, some of the reasons that make it attractive to work in our parks. I think maybe in the past, we've not played that up as much. I think working in a theme park can be a lot of fun. It can be. You're generally outside, you're around people who are generally having fun. You can learn a lot. You can get some good leadership skills, get some good management skills, you know, wherever you go in life that you can use. We gotta do a better job of kind of showcasing that and some other things. It's not always wage that drives people to your company or retains them.
I think there's some things we can do that are non-wage related to hopefully drive people to come to us. Wage is certainly a factor, but there are certainly other things that we're working on as well.
Our next question comes from Ben Chaiken with Credit Suisse. You may now go ahead.
Hey, how's it going? I guess, you know, kind of similar to the previous questions, you've talked a lot about offsetting cost inflation. Is there any way to quantify how much of the recent inflation you either have already or expect to offset, maybe relative to what was in your expectation when you set the original 690 goal? I'm just trying to get some brackets of either what the headwind is or how much you expect to offset. Just any color there. Thanks.
Yeah. Hey, Ben. Thanks. Look, I think the $690 you're referring to was an illustration. That wasn't meant to be guidance or anything. That was an illustration, obviously. I think, you know, one of the things we are, you know, focused on is, you know, I've kind of already said it, but, you know, finding offsets to inflationary pressures. We know that inflation, especially in labor and some supply chain and things like that has been higher than normal, obviously. We're trying to find other ways, other efficiencies to try to offset as much of that as possible. You know, we have, as I mentioned, you know, we have things that we. You know, it's just a continuous culture here to identify and execute on things.
As we discover opportunities, we vet them and research them and understand them, and then, you know, if it makes sense for us, we try to execute on them. You know, that's our goal is to try to offset as much of the inflationary pressures as we can.
Gotcha. That's helpful. I guess just maybe thinking out over the next twelve months or so, given there have been, you know, a lot of changes in the variables of your original, sorry, not goal, but correct $690 illustration, and I'm kind of referring to inflation, which, you know, we've talked a lot about on the call, but then also positive things like per caps and attendance, like is there—how do you feel about, at some point over the next year, updating that illustration?
Yeah. Thanks, Ben. Look, you know, I'm not gonna comment specifically on when we may or may not update something. But I think as I noted, I think when Steve asked a question, I think you can do some math, and I think we won't do it for you, but I think you can assume we're not even back to 2019 attendance levels. We're still, like I said, over 2 million people shy of that in 2021. A big portion of that is obviously international attendance. You know, you can flow that through at whatever you think is appropriate, but pretty high flow through generally when new people come and visit your parks.
I've talked quite a bit already about per caps and why we believe we have opportunity there, and some tailwinds there. We've got a great lineup of new attractions. Certainly our goal is to not just get back to 2019 attendance levels, it's to exceed that. I think with our lineup, not only for this year but in the future years, you know, it's a great lineup. It's a great lineup. You know, we're investing in these parks. We're adding new rides and attractions. We're refurbishing things. There's, you know, I think a lot of reasons to believe that we can continue to grow. As I mentioned, the pass base again is at the highest it's been in January.
A lot of optimism around our ability to continue to grow.
Our next question comes from James Hardiman with Citigroup. You may now go ahead.
Hi. Sorry, this is Sean Wagner for James Hardiman. Attendance up 5% ahead of 2019 in the quarter. Is that a good baseline for us to think about 2022? Or should we be thinking somewhere closer to the in between that and the 20% number that you talked about, excluding group and international? I guess what's the opportunity for you if you can get back those two cohorts back to kind of their pre-pandemic levels?
Yeah. Thanks, Sean. Appreciate the question. I mean, I don't know that I can guide you to anything specific. Look, I mean, I think we laid out the potential tailwinds. You know, obviously one being international and two being group attendance. You know, when those return, you know, I'm not sure when that'll happen, obviously. You know, when we look out over the back half of the year, we see some things that are a little bit more optimistic than like right now, international is still a headwind obviously. You know, hopefully those improve in the back half of the year. Beyond that, look, I mean, generally, you know, we're investing in the business.
Generally when you do that, and have a high pass base, you know, generally those are good things for the business. I think we're giving people reasons to come out and visit with our lineup of attractions, our events, our new things in our parks. I don't have a specific number to guide you to or anything, but I think, you know, we're optimistic that a lot of things we're doing, that we can, you know, grow attendance over time here.
Okay. That's fair. I guess just to follow up kind of on that international market, particularly for the kind of maybe broader Orlando tourism industry versus maybe historical levels. I guess, how do you view the, maybe in 2022 domestic visitors having more international options and maybe the return of some international visitors to the United States? I guess kind of how do those balance out in your mind? I don't know if you can remind us of like the historical breakdown of those different groups.
Yeah. No problem, Sean. You know, just as a reminder, you know, we are in the Orlando market, but international attendance is only about across our company, about 10% of our attendance. That's a consolidated number across the company. 10% of our attendance is international. We have, you know, 90% of the people that come to our parks roughly are not international. That's an opportunity. I think that is clearly where having new things in the parks is to our advantage and having a high pass base is to our advantage.
You know, as the international comes back, I don't know exactly when it'll come back, and we don't have a ton of forward data, but the little bit we have would suggest it starts to get better in the second half of the year. You know, we'll see what happens. I think that'll be, you know, something we hopefully pick up over time.
Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Our next question comes from Paul Golding with Macquarie. You may now go ahead.
Great. Thanks so much for the question. I wanted to ask about sort of your thoughts, your outlook on the capital plan in general. You're doing 4 new coasters and continuing to invest in attractions and, you know, also talking about potential return and keep returning value to shareholders. Just trying to understand if these levels of CapEx that you've guided to for 2022, if that's sort of a run rate that you see, or if there's an opportunity to find more leverage in the investments you've made in terms of new attractions.
Yeah. Thanks, Paul. What I would say is, you know, certainly we're very excited about the forward plan we have for, you know, our rides, our attractions, you know, just general park investment. You know, I think you heard us say $150 million in core CapEx and then $30 million-$50 million of non-core. I think that's a good base for 2022. You know, again, not to guide you beyond that, but probably a reasonable starting point for the go forward. You know, we look to drive, you know, when we build an attraction, you know, we're looking to build something that we believe will be compelling to our guests.
Maybe at the same time, we can add something new to the park or in some cases, take an area that maybe was a little bit older and refresh it with something new. There's multiple ways we look at it. Beyond kind of the attraction mix and makeup and things like that, you know, then, you've heard us talk about how we work with our board on uses of cash. Beyond kind of investing in the business, you know, there would be other considerations as well, as you've heard me talk about. You know, the one thing I haven't mentioned yet is, you know, like hotels and things like that.
I think there's other considerations that we work with the board on, and we try to find, you know, what we believe is the highest and best use of the cash and try to spend that as efficiently as possible.
Thanks, Marc. Just a quick follow-up on the mix of attendance. You already talked about international. Any color you could give on how you view the group component? Is that just given what I expect is likely a diluted impact on per caps? Is that just a piece that maybe you are thinking of substituting with more single day non-group or substituting with a different category? How should we think about the emphasis on certain slices of mix going forward? Thanks.
Good question, Paul. You know, the group business is not quite as big as international, but not too far behind. You know, I think a lot of that is gonna be dependent on, not surprisingly, as people get back to whether it's field trips or, you know, church outings or convention business. As those things start to come back, you know, I think we feel more optimistic about our ability to share in that, and that's really the group business. In the meantime, you know, we're not gonna sit around and just wait. For international and group, you know, we have to find opportunities to fill that with other things.
I think what I would point you to is you heard us in our prepared remarks. Our attendance would have been up 20% in the 20% range in Q4 without, you know, controlling for international and group. We were up in the quarter, you know, without really having a significant contribution from either one of those areas. So we are filling it with other things, whether it's local or people who drive into our parks. Having that higher pass base, as I mentioned, I think certainly is one thing that's an advantage to us as well.
This concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Marc Swanson for any closing remarks.
Thank you, Anthony. On behalf of Elizabeth and the rest of the management team at SeaWorld Entertainment, we wanna thank you for joining us this morning. As you've heard 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. Thank you, and we look forward to speaking with you next quarter.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.