Viad Corp (VVI): BCG Matrix [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're digging into Viad Corp (VVI)'s new life as a pure-play attractions powerhouse post-GES sale, so let's cut straight to the strategic map using the BCG framework. Honestly, the picture is clear: the established Glacier Park lodges are the reliable Cash Cows, generating $117.4 million in Q3 Adjusted EBITDA to fund the high-potential Stars like FlyOver and the big $111 million Tabacón acquisition, which is our main Question Mark right now. We need to see exactly where the capital is flowing and which legacy properties are just Dogs dragging down the $116 million to $122 million full-year guidance, so read on for the breakdown.

Background of Viad Corp (VVI)

You're looking to map out Viad Corp (VVI) for a BCG analysis, so let's get the current structure straight. Viad Corp (VVI) is a company that focuses on delivering hospitality and leisure activities, experiential marketing, and live events across the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Honestly, the company has been reshaping itself for decades, culminating in its current focus on two major areas, though it still reports three segments. The firm was founded way back in 1926 and keeps its headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Viad Corp currently reports results across three distinct segments: Pursuit, Spiro, and GES Exhibitions. The Pursuit segment is all about unique travel experiences, offering recreational attractions, hotels and lodges, food and beverage, retail, sightseeing, and ground transportation services. This division includes well-known assets like the Banff Jasper Collection, the Alaska Collection, FlyOver, and the recent addition of the Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa in Costa Rica, which was a $111 million acquisition in 2025. Pursuit is definitely showing strong momentum; for instance, its Q3 2025 revenue was reported at $241.0M, a jump of 32.2% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA hitting $117.4M.

The other two segments fall under the live events umbrella. The GES Exhibitions segment acts as a full-service provider for exhibition and conference organizers, handling strategic and logistics solutions for complex shows. Then you have Spiro, which operates as Viad Corp's dedicated experiential marketing agency, partnering with brands globally to manage and elevate their marketing activities. While GES and Spiro are distinct, they are often discussed collectively as the 'GES' businesses. As of late 2025, the company raised its full-year guidance, projecting adjusted EBITDA in the range of $108-118 million for 2025, which shows management's confidence in the portfolio's direction.

To give you a snapshot of the scale as of the most recent filings near November 2025, Viad Corp's market capitalization hovered around $965.31 million. For the quarter ending around November 7, 2025, the company reported earnings per share of $2.01 on revenues of $455.70 million. You should keep in mind that the company has been strategically focused on these service areas, having divested its consumer products business, Dial, back in 1996 to concentrate capital here. That history of strategic pruning is important context for understanding today's portfolio.

Viad Corp (VVI) - BCG Matrix: Stars

The Star quadrant in the Boston Consulting Group Matrix represents business units within Viad Corp (now primarily operating as Pursuit following the sale of GES) that exhibit high market growth and maintain a high relative market share. These assets require significant investment to sustain their rapid expansion but are leaders in their respective high-growth markets.

The experiential leisure assets, specifically the FlyOver attractions and the Sky Lagoon, are the clear candidates for the Star category. These are high-investment, high-growth experiential assets. The FlyOver Chicago attraction successfully opened on March 1, 2024, and the company continues to benefit from robust demand at the Sky Lagoon in Iceland.

The momentum in this portfolio is clearly reflected in the latest reported figures. Attraction ticket revenue growth has been a key indicator, showing a 13% year-over-year increase. This performance underpins the segment's overall strength, with Pursuit reporting record third quarter 2025 results.

These Star assets are slated to receive substantial funding to maintain their leadership position and fuel future growth. Viad Corp's Pursuit segment plans to invest $38 million to $43 million in growth capital expenditures in 2025. This investment supports the 'Refresh, Build, Buy' strategy, which includes organic investments identified through 2030.

Here's a look at the financial performance of the segment housing these Stars, based on the latest available 2025 data:

The company's full-year 2025 guidance reflects the expected continuation of this high-growth trajectory for the Pursuit segment. Management projects approximately 24% revenue growth at the midpoint versus 2024.

The key drivers supporting the Star classification for these assets include:

• Strong consumer demand for authentic experiential travel in iconic places.
• Successful opening of FlyOver Chicago in March 2024.
• Robust demand for the Sky Lagoon geothermal attraction in Iceland.
• Planned growth capital expenditures for 2025 of $38 million to $43 million.

To sustain this market leadership, the company is allocating significant capital. For instance, the development of the FlyOver Las Vegas attraction previously required approximately $8 million in capital expenditures during the third quarter of 2021.

Viad Corp (VVI) - BCG Matrix: Cash Cows

The core Cash Cows for Viad Corp, now operating as Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality, Inc. following the sale of GES, reside within its portfolio of established, high-barrier-to-entry experiential leisure assets in iconic destinations.

The Glacier Park Collection and established Banff/Jasper lodges hold irreplaceable, high-barrier-to-entry locations. These assets represent the mature, market-leading portion of the business that reliably generates significant free cash flow.

• Glacier View Lodge (Glacier Park Collection)
• Pyramid Lake Lodge (Banff Jasper Collection)
• Chateau Jasper (Banff Jasper Collection)
• The Crimson (Banff Jasper Collection)
• Marmot Lodge (Banff Jasper Collection)
• Miette Mountain Cabins (Banff Jasper Collection)
• Lobstick Lodge (Banff Jasper Collection)
• Forest Park Hotel (Banff Jasper Collection)

Pursuit's overall strong margin profile, with Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA at $117.4 million, shows significant cash generation. This figure, reported by Pursuit Attractions and Hospitality, Inc., demonstrates the high profitability of this core business unit in the third quarter of 2025.

These core assets provide the stable cash flow that supports the company's growth strategy. Following the sale of the GES business, Pursuit had $250 million in liquidity, which is being deployed for growth initiatives. The company executed the acquisition of Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa in Costa Rica in July 2025, an example of using cash flow for strategic inorganic growth.

High occupancy and average daily rates (ADRs) in core geographies are driving stable, predictable returns. For instance, lodging RevPAR metrics showed 9% year-over-year growth in the first quarter of 2025, indicating strong pricing power and demand in the hospitality component of these established locations. The Jasper SkyTram, acquired in 2024, is noted for its deep competitive moat and strong perennial demand, characteristics of a Cash Cow asset.

Viad Corp (VVI) - BCG Matrix: Dogs

You're looking at the portfolio of what is now Pursuit, post-GES sale, and trying to figure out what's dragging down the overall potential. In the BCG framework, Dogs are those units stuck in low-growth markets with low market share. They tie up capital without offering much return. For Pursuit, these are the assets that don't fit the 'Refresh, Build, Buy' growth narrative.

We need to look at the assets that are residual or legacy, requiring only minimal maintenance capital rather than significant investment. These are the properties or smaller operations that simply aren't scaling up like the flagship attractions. They are prime candidates for divestiture, honestly, because the expensive turn-around plans rarely work out in this quadrant.

The company is guiding for a strong 2025, projecting full-year Adjusted EBITDA between \$116 million and \$122 million. Any asset classified as a Dog contributes minimally, if at all, to this target. Consider the trailing impact from the 2024 Jasper wildfire; that event caused an approximate \$15 million Adjusted EBITDA decline for the affected Jasper properties in 2024. While the core business is recovering strongly-Q3 2025 saw Adjusted EBITDA hit \$117.4 million alone-these smaller, non-core legacy lodging properties or trailing operations are the ones that don't move the needle positively.

Here's a quick look at the strategic contrast. The core business is pouring capital into growth, while the Dogs are candidates for pruning.

These Dogs are the units that have low market share and low growth rates. They break even, or worse, they consume cash without generating meaningful returns. You want to keep your focus on the assets that are driving the \$111 million Tabacón acquisition or the expansion of the 14 attractions and 28 unique lodges that make up the core portfolio.

The assets falling into this category are:

• Certain smaller, non-core legacy lodging properties lacking flagship scale.
• Residual, non-strategic assets outside the core growth strategy.
• Smaller operations with trailing negative impacts, like those from the 2024 Jasper wildfire.
• Units requiring only minimal maintenance capital expenditure.

The financial reality is that these low-growth assets contribute so little that their performance is often masked by the strong results from the core business, such as the \$73.9 million net income attributable to Pursuit in Q3 2025. You're looking at assets that are cash traps because they keep money tied up for almost no return.

Viad Corp (VVI) - BCG Matrix: Question Marks

You're looking at business units that are burning cash now but hold the key to future market leadership. For Viad Corp (VVI), the Question Marks category centers on recent, large-scale investments in high-growth travel markets where market share is not yet established.

The $111 million acquisition of Tabacón Thermal Resort & Spa in Costa Rica, which closed around July 1, 2025, is a prime example of this strategy. This purchase brings a 105-room luxury hotel and 570 acres of terrain into the Pursuit portfolio, representing a major new geographic entry. This move into a premier global destination is designed for accelerated growth, but its market penetration is unproven as of late 2025. The expected Adjusted EBITDA contribution for the partial year of 2025 (July through December) is only about $3 million.

This aggressive investment posture comes with a significant new overhead burden. Viad Corp must absorb approximately $12 million to $13 million in standalone public company costs during 2025. This is a new, high-cost factor as the company transitions following the sale of its GES business for $535 million.

The pipeline for future growth also features Question Marks. The next generation of FlyOver attractions represents high-investment projects that carry unproven market success until their official launch dates. For context on the investment scale in this segment, the FlyOver Chicago attraction, which opened in March 2024, contributed to Pursuit's 14.4% year-over-year revenue increase in Q2 2024.

Here's a look at the key financial figures associated with these high-growth, low-share-of-market initiatives:

The management focus is clearly on driving adoption and market share quickly for these new ventures, especially Tabacón, to prevent them from becoming Dogs.

• Pursuit welcomed nearly 420,000 room nights across its lodging portfolio in 2023.
• Pursuit welcomed 3.5 million visitors across its attractions in 2023.
• FlyOver Chicago opened in March 2024.
• FlyOver Canada was acquired in December 2016 for $68.8M.

These Question Marks require heavy investment now to secure future Cash Cow or Star status. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.