Estimating nonmarket values of Brisbane (state capital) residents for state based beach recreation

Beaches in Australia are a national icon and internationally renowned. In Queensland, coastal areas and beach recreation attract domestic and international visitors, underpinning the tourist industry across the State. However, the activity of local residents, who use the beaches most frequently, is generally not recorded in official records, but has significant economic value. In the study outlined in this paper, the value of beach recreation by residents in Brisbane (the capital city and largest population centre in Queensland) was estimated using the Travel Cost Method. Negative binomial models were used to estimate values associated with both day trips and overnight trips to beaches in different regional areas. It is estimated that Brisbane households make approximately 5.78 million daytrips and 2.97 million overnight trips to the beaches in southeast Queensland each year. This results in a total annual value of $1,039M ranging from $839M to $1,416M. Variations in value estimates for different regions indicate that there are important differences in the factors driving site selection between daytrips and overnight trips to the beach which have not been identified in this study and need to be considered if value estimates are to be considered for extrapolation to other situations. The research results also identified some methodological limitations in the application of a population-based approach to the valuation exercise rather than the more traditional site-based approach. Brisbane residents make an important contribution to the value of beach recreation in central and northern parts of the State, with households making approximately 0.27 million overnight trips per year. However, it was not possible to estimate travel cost models for beaches in these regions because there were low visitation rates and insufficient differentiation in visitation rates.