[Lee Stewart]

Beaches are a large driver of the U.S. economy, with research in 2008 that around 180 million Americans making an estimated 2 billion trips to the beach each year. It is estimated that coastal states bring in around 85% of U.S. tourism revenue, contributing more than $320 billion to the annual economy. By comparison, this is more than 25 times the revenue brought in by U.S. national parks with twice the visitation to U.S. beaches versus national parks.