Business Description

Overview Ryman is the successor to Gaylord Entertainment Company (“Gaylord”), a Delaware corporation originally incorporated in 1956. As part of the plan to restructure our business operations to facilitate our qualification as a REIT for federal income tax purposes, Gaylord merged with and into its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ryman, on October 1, 2012, with Ryman as the surviving corporation, and Ryman succeeded to and began conducting, either directly or indirectly, all of the business conducted by Gaylord immediately prior to the merger. Ryman is a Delaware corporation that began operating as a self-advised and self-administered REIT for federal income tax purposes on January 1, 2013. We specialize in group-oriented, destination hotel assets in urban and resort markets. As a REIT, we generally will not be subject to federal corporate income taxes on that portion of our capital gain or ordinary income from our REIT operations that is distributed to our stockholders. This treatment substantially eliminates the federal “double taxation” on earnings from our REIT operations, or taxation once at the corporate level and again at the stockholder level, that generally results from investment in a regular C corporation. Our non-REIT operations, which consist of the activities of our TRSs that lease or sublease our hotels from our Operating Partnership (as defined below) and its subsidiaries, as well as businesses within our Entertainment segment, continue to be subject, as applicable, to federal and state corporate income taxes. Our core holdings include a network of upscale, meetings-focused resorts totaling 11,869 rooms that are managed by Marriott under the Gaylord Hotels and JW Marriott brands. The five Gaylord Hotels resorts, which we refer to as our Gaylord Hotels properties, consist of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee (“Gaylord Opryland”), the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center near Orlando, Florida (“Gaylord Palms”), the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center near Dallas, Texas (“Gaylord Texan”), the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center near Washington D.C. (“Gaylord National”), and the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center near Denver, Colorado (“Gaylord Rockies”). The two JW Marriott resorts, which we refer to as the JW Marriott properties, consist of the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa (“JW Marriott Hill Country”) (effective June 30, 2023) and the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa (“JW Marriott Desert Ridge”) (effective June 10, 2025). Our other hotel assets managed by Marriott include the Inn at Opryland, an overflow hotel adjacent to Gaylord Opryland, and the AC Hotel at National Harbor, Washington D.C. (“AC Hotel”), an overflow hotel adjacent to Gaylord National. We also own an approximate 70% controlling equity interest in a business comprised of a number of entertainment and media assets, known as the Opry Entertainment Group (“OEG”), which we report as our Entertainment segment. These assets include the Grand Ole Opry, the legendary weekly showcase of country music’s finest performers for 100 years; the Ryman Auditorium, the storied live music venue and former home of the Grand Ole Opry located in downtown Nashville; WSM-AM, the Opry’s radio home; Ole Red, a brand of six Blake Shelton-themed bar, music venue and event spaces; Category 10, a brand of Luke Combs-themed bar, music venue and event spaces that opened in Nashville, Tennessee in November 2024, with additional locations expected to open in Las Vegas, Nevada in late 2026 and at Universal Orlando Resort’s CityWalk in late 2027; Block 21, a mixed-use entertainment, lodging, office, and retail complex located in Austin, Texas (“Block 21”); as of January 3, 2025, a majority and controlling equity interest in Southern Entertainment, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based national music festival and events production company; in January 2026, OEG began managing the Ascend Amphitheater in downtown Nashville, Tennessee; and we expect OEG to begin managing the CCNB Amphitheatre outside of Greenville, South Carolina in February 2026.