Profit Margin
-11.9%
Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 487
NAICS 487 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$52,034/yr average annual pay, with 231 SBA loans on record for NAICS 487.
- -11.9%
- Net margin
- 27K
- Workers employed
- $52,034/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $81M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 487
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation runs a -11.9% pre-tax net margin - significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors - across 3K establishments employing 27K workers.
- -11.9%
- Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
- 27K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $52,034/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $81M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing at a -11.9% net margin (significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors), $1.2B in aggregate receipts across 15,996 returns, averaging $73.4M per establishment.
3,199 establishments employ 27,127 workers (8.5/location) at $52,034/yr average annual pay. Hawaii leads employment, followed by California and Florida.
Total Receipts
$1.2B
Annual revenue (IRS SOI)
Net Income
$-139440000
Pre-tax net income
Employment
27,127
Total employees (Census CBP)
Avg Payroll / Employee
$52,034/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
3,199
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 3,052; establishment count decreased by 12. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Where each dollar of Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation revenue goes
Workforce scale
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation margin vs national reference points
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation net margin 0.0%
Cross-industry median (5%)
p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%
Business Structure Breakdown
How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)
Sole Proprietorship
15,996 returns 100%
Margin: -11.9% · Receipts: $1.2B
Financial Detail
- Total Tax Returns Filed
- 15,996
- Avg Receipts per Business
- $73.4M
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $1.4B
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 8.5
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Land NAICS 4871 | N/A |
| Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Other NAICS 4879 | N/A |
| Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water NAICS 4872 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Hawaii | 4,189 |
| California | 3,732 |
| Florida | 3,563 |
| New York | 1,464 |
| Nevada | 1,113 |
| Arizona | 1,072 |
| Alaska | 907 |
| Illinois | 776 |
| Colorado | 709 |
| Louisiana | 688 |
Showing top 10 of 50 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
231
Total Loan Volume
$81M
Avg Loan Size
$351K
Jobs Supported
1,363
Program Breakdown
7(a) 215 (93%)
504 16 (7%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
21 loans in this industry
New Business Share
37.2% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 29
2021 27
2022 27
2023 35
2024 53
2025 56
2026 4
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average revenue for Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation?
$1.2B in total annual receipts across all Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation businesses. Average per business: $73.4M.
How profitable is Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation?
-11.9% net profit margin, significantly below average, typical of high-volume, low-margin sectors.
How many businesses are in Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation?
3,199 business establishments. Together they employ 27,127 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation?
$52,034/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 8.5 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation employment?
Hawaii leads with 4,189 workers. California (3,732) and Florida (3,563) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation receive?
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation businesses received 231 SBA loans totaling $81 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $351K. These loans supported 1,363 jobs at origination. Most lending (93%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.
Comparable industry benchmarks
These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.
How this ranks: Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation reports a higher net margin than 0% of the 79 IRS-tracked industries at the same NAICS detail level. Its Census employment total exceeds 4% of that same 77-industry cohort. Calculated by ranking this industry's reported value against every other industry at the same NAICS digit-level, not the whole dataset: comparing a 6-digit detail industry to a 2-digit sector would mix incompatible scales.
Closest reported net margins
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.
Closest workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation
- Net margin: -11.9% vs sector. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 3,199 establishments, 27,127 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 231 SBA loans on record. SBA lending rankings
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.
Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023
NAICS 487 · Data year: 2023
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023
Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.
Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.