Employment
14,913
Total employees (Census CBP)
Transportation and Warehousing ·NAICS 48721
NAICS 48721 · IRS SOI (C corp) · Census CBP 2023
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water - Industry Benchmarks
$54,072/yr average annual pay, with 174 SBA loans on record for NAICS 48721.
- 2K
- Establishments
- 15K
- Workers employed
- $54,072/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $60M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Data updated August 2026
The verdict · NAICS 48721
Florida leads Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water activity nationally, across 2K establishments employing 15K workers. IRS SOI doesn't publish margin data at this NAICS level.
- 2K
- Business establishments (Census)
- 15K
- Workers employed (Census CBP)
- $54,072/yr
- Avg payroll / employee
- $60M
- SBA lending, FY20–26
Use Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water's NAICS benchmark as a comparison point, not a forecast for one business.
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water 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, Water
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water sits inside Transportation and Warehousing.
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.
Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water sits in the 14th percentile for employment among 5-digit NAICS industries with reported data.
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.
Subscribe to this industry's release updates (RSS)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 487210 | 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 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.
Nationwide industries with similar benchmark drivers
Two IRS/Census peer sets for Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water, both at NAICS level 5 and excluding this code so the neighborhoods are not self-links.
According to Census County Business Patterns 2023, Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water ranks #475 of 551 U.S. industries at the 5-digit NAICS level by total employment.
Similar workforce scale
Nearest peer industries by ABS(Census employment) (14,913 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 48721 · 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.