Employment
27,127
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 487
NAICS 487 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation - Industry Benchmarks
$52,034/yr average annual pay, with 231 SBA loans on record for NAICS 487.
- 3K
- Establishments
- 27K
- Workers employed
- $52,034/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $81M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 487
Hawaii leads Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation activity nationally, across 3K establishments employing 27K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 3K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 27K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $52,034/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $81M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation is reported here with financial measures from IRS Statistics of Income and workforce measures from Census County Business Patterns. The page keeps those source systems distinct, shows unavailable fields rather than estimating them, and links the underlying industry context so readers can compare the same NAICS activity before interpreting a margin or payroll figure.
Source: IRS SOI (C corporation headline) and Census County Business Patterns 2023
Benchmarking Insights for Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
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.
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation sits in the 4th percentile for employment among 3-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)Workforce scale
Business Structure Breakdown
Per-entity IRS SOI tables at their own vintages, shares only when every row shares one year (never mix 2013/2017/2022 populations).
Sole Proprietorship SOI 2022
15,996 returns 100%
Margin: -11.9% · Receipts: $1.2B
Financial Detail
- 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
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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, both at NAICS level 3 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation ranks #74 of 77 U.S. industries at the 3-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (27,127 here).
Read with this industry: Industry employment trends · Transportation and Warehousing · 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 · CBP 2023 · IRS SOI
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.