Whale Watching Worldwide

North America
Year Number of
whale
watchers
AAGR Number of
countries
Direct
expenditure
Indirect
expenditure
Total expenditure
1991 3,430,225 N/A 3 $46,230,000 $179,045,000 $225,275,000
1994 4,074,195 7.9% 4 $65,791,000 $227,606,000 $293,397,000
1998 5,500,654 7.8% 4 $194,575,000 $399,692,000 $594,267,000
2008 6,256,277 1.3% 4 $566,200,198 $626,352,749 $1,192,552,947
All countries on the continent of North America are involved in whale watching with some of the most
mature and long established whale watching communities – a history of over 50 years. In 2008, North
America continues to be the largest whale watching region in the world, with two countries accounting for
over 1 million whale watchers ‐ the US taking nearly 5 million and Canada over 1 million.
The cetacean watching industry across the continent is a major generator of economic activity, being
responsible for total expenditure of over $1 billion in 2008. This is a significant figure, particularly when
considered that the entire global value of whale watch expenditure in 1998 was $1 billion.
In 1998, North America accounted for 60% of the globe’s whale watchers, which has dropped to
approximately 50% in 2008, mainly as a result of the ever growing whale watching indsutries in many other
parts of the world. However, some of the long established whale watching communities in North America
are showing very slow or no growth over the last decade, explained by a number of factors in the country
summaries below.
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