Ernst Teunissen
Management
Thank you, Steve. Good morning, everyone. I first just want to echo some of Steve’s comments, uneven trends and uncertainty persists, but improvements have been encouraging. I remain pleased and impressed with our team’s continued operational focus and how they rallied together to strengthen Tripadvisor, not for only a strong recovery, but for the long run. Q1 demand and revenue trends indeed reflected our commentary back in February with varied stories by geography and by offering. Progress in the U.S., almost single-handedly drove sequential revenue improvements in our business in February, March and in April. On the other hand, persistent lockdowns across Europe and challenges throughout international markets, as well as the absence of international travel remain significant drags on our results. The good news is, that there is a lot of room for continued improvements in the periods to come in the U.S., but especially in Europe and beyond as the number of people vaccinated increases, countries reopen, and the leisure travel recovery broadens. I want to quickly highlight three financial themes that remain within our control, driving significant cost savings, ensuring a solid liquidity position and laying the groundwork for compelling and profitable growth when the pandemic subsides. Firstly, regarding cost, we continue operating effectively and efficiently as a leaner company. Operating expenses in Q1 were 32% lower year-on-year. We expect the majority of the fixed cost savings that we generated in 2020 to persist, positioning us for operating leverage as the travel environment normalizes. On the liquidity front, in Q1, we completed an opportunistic convertible debt capital raise, which further fortifies our balance sheet with $674 million of cash on our balance sheet at the end of the last quarter, plus an undrawn credit facility, for which covenant flexibility was achieved last year, as well as enhanced operating leverage as revenues comes back, we believe we are in a strong liquidity position. And finally, throughout the pandemic, we have been focused on driving improvements across our platform. We expect that these efforts will pay dividends as faster growth and more efficiency across our various revenue lines as the market recovers. So, in summary, much uncertainty remains, but green shoots have definitely started to emerge. We remain optimistic that leisure travel will come roaring back as early as the second half of the year and are pleased with the ongoing work that will enhance our positioning well into the future. With that, we will now open the call for questions.