Reconnaissance of the Economics of Beach Usage: A Case Study

Sand starvation and beach erosion problems have caused the Gold Coast Council to plan beach replenishment and protection programmes. Any expenditure by the Council has to be justified by a favourable benefit/cost ratio. There is no doubt that the major attraction of the Gold Coast is its beaches but as yet no attempt has been made to put an economic value on this. The purpose of this reconnaissance was to collect and analyse available data to determine the beach usage influencing factors as well as the estimated total annual beach usage. The influencing factors will provide the Council with specific physical goals in their beach management programmes and economists will be able to calculate a benefit value from the total beach usage.