Beach recreation on the US East Coast: trip counts, use patterns, and economic values

This paper provides a comprehensive profile of beach recreation along the U.S. East Coast, including estimates of trip counts, use patterns, and economic values. Using survey data from households in the 20 states nearest the coast from 2014, we estimate the number of beach trips taken annually across 275 ocean beaches from Massachusetts to South Carolina. We find that beach recreation occurs at a substantial scale, with approximately 118 million trips and 226 million beach days per year, including day, short-overnight, and long-overnight trips. In addition to documenting patterns of use, we estimate the economic value of beach recreation using a travel cost random utility model. The resulting per-trip values range from approximately $59 to $103 (2025 dollars), depending on assumptions about the opportunity cost of time, and are in line with estimates reported in prior studies. By combining trip counts, trip characteristics, and valuation, the paper provides a consistent, region-wide measure of beach use that is not available from existing data sources. These results have direct applications in benefit–cost analysis, natural resource damage assessment, and coastal planning, where reliable estimates of recreation demand and value are needed.