Boat Tour and Sightseeing Cruise Company Revenue Benchmark

Average Boat Tour Company Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every scenic and sightseeing water transportation business with paid employees, including harbor cruises, whale watching trips and dinner cruises, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of businesses gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$1,254,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $2.8 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 2,238 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,254,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water, NAICS 487210. The Census category is Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water, which counts harbor cruises, whale watching trips, dinner cruises and similar sightseeing by boat. Ferries providing transit and charter fishing boats are counted in separate categories. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 26.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a modest share covering licensed captains, deckhands, guides and ticket staff in a business where the vessel, fuel and dockage take much of the rest.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and it excludes vessels, fuel, insurance, dockage and the food and drink served on board, which together carry much of what an operator spends.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 6.4 people, and the industry averaged 1.0 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be captains, crew and ticket staff for one or a few vessels, many of them seasonal.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Boat Tour and Sightseeing Cruise Company: what vessels, weather and a harbor's tourists do to the average.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How long is the season? Whale watching and harbor cruises in northern ports run for a few months, while operators in warm harbors sail year-round. Operating days decide what a vessel can earn, and an annual total hides the idle months.
• How many seats sail? Revenue follows seats sold per departure, and a half-empty boat costs almost as much to run as a full one. Seats sold per sailing is the number the trade runs on, and receipts do not show it.
• What does the vessel cost? Boats must be bought or financed, surveyed, insured and maintained, and a larger vessel needs more licensed crew. Vessel capital and upkeep are fixed costs outside a revenue figure.
• Which licenses and inspections apply? Passenger vessels and their captains fall under federal licensing and inspection rules that depend on vessel size and passenger count, with additional local permits for docks and harbors. Meeting those rules costs money every year and limits what an operator can offer.
• Tickets, charters or dinner cruises? Public tours sold by the seat, private charters sold by the boat and dinner cruises with catering earn very differently and need different vessels and staff. The product mix behind an operator's receipts varies widely.
• Where do the customers come from? Tourists, cruise ship passengers and hotel referrals drive most boat tours, so an operator rises and falls with visitor traffic in its harbor. Local tourism matters more than any national figure.