Whale Watching Worldwide

February 2009 for consistency. Despite care being
taken, fluctuations in global currencies against the
US dollar will lead to some distortion of the value of
whale watching in certain countries and therefore
make comparison from year to year difficult. This is
further justification for growth calculations based
on whale watch numbers rather than dollar values.
Additionally, due to these currency fluctuations,
dollar values for the industry should be seen as
indicative rather than precise.
Employment Levels
To calculate regional and global employment
estimates for the global whale watching industry,
regional revenue‐per‐employee figures were
calculated where data was available (i.e. from
Limitations
The data in this report provide an estimation of the
economic contribution of the whale watching
industry to countries around the globe from an
expenditure basis and is provided as best available
data within the limits of scope, time and budget. In
light of this, the data reported within is provided as
an estimate of the size of the whale watching
industry across the world, and is best used to
identify trends rather than precise numbers.
Data for this report were collected through a survey
process and desktop review of available
information, and as such depends on those primary
and secondary sources for its reliability. There was
no on‐the‐ground data collection or verification
undertaken by Economists at Large. Instead local
in‐country sources were used to verify data in all
operator survey results). From these regional
revenue‐per‐employee figures, we then estimated
the employment levels for countries where actual
employee estimates were unavailable. Estimates
were calculated by dividing direct expenditure
(revenue) by the regional revenue‐per‐employee
calculations. From this, country level employment,
regional and then global employment estimates
were calculated.
For these purposes, employment does not
distinguish between permanent and seasonal
employment; it is based on full‐time equivalent
employment levels.
countries. For all data used in this report, a variety
of sources were consulted in order to calculate
average values. Where possible, data are averaged
across operator survey responses, tourism data and
other stakeholder discussions.
As mentioned above, currency conversions across
the significant number of countries covered in this
report can lead to some distortions in the dollar
values reported. This is particularly the case at the
time of writing due to the high volatility of
currencies during the global financial crisis. To
mitigate for this, growth is based on tourist
numbers, not expenditure values.
This report reflects the views of the authors
Economists at Large.
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