Development of a Method to Estimate and Predict Beach Visitation

Abstract

Beaches are important tourist attractions in many countries. To plan and manage coastal zones, authorities require knowledge about beach visitations. However, current procedures lack accuracy and coverage. To address this, a method to estimate the total beach visitor population was tested for a selected coastal strip over a specified time period, based on directly observed daily visitor counts. Visitor count data were then used to model readily observable weather and location factors predicting daily beach visitations at the peak-use period. Further application of the novel method will inform authorities with crucial and pertinent data to manage natural coastal visitor attractions.