About Patrick Moore
Patrick Moore, CEO of Opry Entertainment Group (OEG) at Ryman Hospitality Properties, discussed the company's growth strategy and performance in mid-2025. He described OEG as a live entertainment company focused on country music and lifestyle fans, noting it has grown at a 17% adjusted EBIT CAGR over seven years. Moore stated that the company is exploring organic development of new festivals and selective acquisitions, citing the Southern Entertainment acquisition as a platform play that added both festivals and operational expertise. He also mentioned the company's customer relationship management system as a tool to cross-promote across venues and acquired businesses.
In a September 2024 interview, Moore said the company was seeing broad-based spending across its hotel and entertainment businesses, with group business revenue 39% above the third quarter of 2019 and profitability up 44%. He attributed the return of corporate bookings to the post-pandemic realization that bringing large groups together is important for culture and strategy. Moore noted that Ryman deployed approximately $1.7 billion in capital since 2020 for enhancements, expansions, and acquisitions, and that higher prices were driving returns, which he said were sustainable due to product and experience improvements.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Patrick Moore's recent appearances.
Browse all interviews →
Transcript (12 segments)
K
Kelly0:05
Welcome back. Take a look at shares of Ryman Hospitality. The lodging REIT rising yesterday on the earnings report. They own convention resorts and a couple of concert venues, and their strength is coming from the return of corporate bookings while leisure spending is declining. Here is the President and CEO, Mark, welcome to the show. Good to see you.
P
Patrick Moore0:33
Thanks for having me, Kelly.
K
Kelly0:38
I am familiar with the Grand Ole Opry. I spent only time there. I think I saw Vince Gill there. Can you speak to whether this much-hyped trend of spending on entertainment is something that you are seeing and is broad based, or what it was going on with a little bit of this decline that you mentioned?
P
Patrick Moore1:01
We are continuing to see broad-based spending across our businesses, both in the hotel business, as well as entertainment. On the hotel side, that is both in the group business and our hotels are primarily large convention hotels with 70% of our business's group. We're seeing strong spending there, both in terms of rate and outside the room spending in areas like banqueting. We're also seeing it on the leisure side. As we look into the fourth quarter, we're seeing solid leisure demand with our sales up, our pace of sales up in the fourth quarter over the last year, which was a record for us.
K
Kelly1:41
With moderation of regular vacation rates declining, is that right?
P
Patrick Moore1:46
Our vacation — our leisure rates are holding up, as well as outside the room spending. What we are seeing is a stronger growth trend coming out of the pandemic on the group side.
K
Kelly1:58
Absolutely. How much more does that have to run? Where are we compared with prepandemic levels and how much further could that go?
P
Patrick Moore2:06
Well, from a perspective in this third quarter, we were 39% of revenue versus the third quarter of 2019. Profitability was up 44%. As we look at our group business moving forward, our business end of the books for 2024 is 10% ahead of where it was at the same time last year. We're up 12% for 2025, compared to the same time last year.
K
Kelly2:34
That's so interesting. So basically, the corporate is back, and your results are much better than they were prepandemic. Do you think that's sustainable?
P
Patrick Moore2:43
We do. We do. The reason we think it's sustainable is a couple of reasons. Number one, the pandemic made everyone realize you have to bring people together, particularly large groups, if you want to talk about culture, strategy, products, et cetera. So coming out of the pandemic, there was a strong move back to bringing people together. I think the other issue that's driving some of our growth is, we have made significant investments in our properties since 2020. We looked at the pandemic as an opportunity to go on the offensive, and we deployed approximately $1.7 billion in capital across both our businesses. Whether that's enhancements, expansions, or acquisitions in new properties.
K
Kelly3:32
You have major complexes in San Antonio, I mentioned Nashville, Kissimmee, Florida, Grapevine, Texas, Colorado, even in Maryland at National Harbor. So that CapEx is paying off. How much are higher prices driving returns and is that a trend where we are seeing moderation?
P
Patrick Moore3:49
Higher prices are driving returns. We are seeing, though, that business levels have returned to prepandemic levels in terms of the — part of the issue, we think that the pricing is sustainable, because we haven't invested in the properties. We have enhanced the product and the experience. You know, consumers look for value, they don't necessarily just look at price.
