Employment
14,913
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 4872
NAICS 4872 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water - Industry Benchmarks
$54,072/yr average annual pay, with 174 SBA loans on record for NAICS 4872.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin
- 15K
- Workers employed
- $54,072/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $60M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated July 2026
The verdict · NAICS 4872
Florida leads Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water activity nationally. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level, but the broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin.
- 6.0%
- Transportation and Warehousing sector margin (IRS SOI)
- 15K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $54,072/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $60M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Benchmarking Insights for Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water sits inside Transportation and Warehousing, a sector that runs a 6.0% net margin overall.
2,217 establishments employ 14,913 workers (6.7/location) at $54,072/yr average annual pay. Florida leads employment, followed by California and Hawaii.
Avg Payroll / Employee
$54,072/yr
Annual compensation
Establishments
2,217
Business locations
Release-over-release change
What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023
Employment increased by 2,035; establishment count decreased by 26. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.
Workforce scale
Financial Detail
- Annual Payroll (Total)
- $806.4M
- Avg Employees per Establishment
- 6.7
Sub-Industries
| Industry | Profit Margin |
|---|---|
| Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water NAICS 48721 | N/A |
Top States by Employment
| State | Employment |
|---|---|
| Florida | 2,568 |
| California | 2,512 |
| Hawaii | 2,492 |
| Illinois | 680 |
| Washington | 549 |
| Louisiana | 521 |
| Alaska | 463 |
| Texas | 390 |
| Massachusetts | 375 |
| Pennsylvania | 217 |
Showing top 10 of 43 states
SBA Lending Activity
SBA FY2020–2026SBA Loans Approved
174
Total Loan Volume
$60M
Avg Loan Size
$344K
Jobs Supported
888
Program Breakdown
7(a) 163 (94%)
504 11 (6%)
Top SBA Lender
TD Bank, National Association
18 loans in this industry
New Business Share
39.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses
Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)
2020 21
2021 20
2022 20
2023 28
2024 35
2025 46
2026 4
Frequently Asked Questions
How profitable is Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water?
IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at the NAICS 4872 level. Florida leads this industry nationally. The broader Transportation and Warehousing sector runs a 6.0% net margin (IRS SOI 2023).
How many businesses are in Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water?
2,217 business establishments. Together they employ 14,913 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water?
$54,072/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 6.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water employment?
Florida leads with 2,568 workers. California (2,512) and Hawaii (2,492) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water receive?
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water businesses received 174 SBA loans totaling $60 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $344K. These loans supported 888 jobs at origination. Most lending (94%) 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: Its Census employment total exceeds 6% of that same 259-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 workforce scale
Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.
Benchmarking Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water
- No margin data, check the parent industry. Browse Transportation and Warehousing
- 2,217 establishments, 14,913 workers. Payroll benchmarks
- 174 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 4872 · 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.