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School of Marine Affairs > Research > Program on Ocean Governance (POG) > Seminar on US Ocean Governance > Coastal Recreation and Tourism

Coastal Recreation and Tourism

Marc L. Miller
Professor, School of Marine Affairs; Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology; Adjunct Professor, School of Fisheries
University of Washington
Professor; (Courtesy) Department of Sociology
University of Oregon

Nina P. Hadley
Tidal Delta Consulting

Jan Auyong
Oregon Sea Grant
Oregon State University

Issue

Coastal recreation and tourism should be identified by the Presidential Commission on Ocean Policy as a complex governance topic that merits separate and sustained multidisciplinary attention.

Recreation and tourism conducted in the US coastal zone is of great economic and social importance. Personal and environmental security issues further influence patterns of coastal recreation and recreation.

At the same time, patterns of coastal recreation and tourism significantly influence--both positively and negatively--the biological, ecological, and physical condition of environments. While federal programs and policies addressing coastal recreation and tourism management, planning, and education have great merit, they are too frequently uncoordinated and weakly funded. Overall, the problems and opportunities presented by coastal recreation and tourism have been recognized more by the general public than by the federal government.

The challenge for the federal government is to engage in coastal recreation and tourism governance that responsibly addresses societal needs and aspirations without sacrificing environmental quality and cultural values.

Background

The vast majority of Americans reside in areas within 100 miles of the ocean and the Great Lakes. Most of these citizens have had opportunities to enjoy the multiple recreational and touristic amenities found along the Nationās beaches, harbors, islands, and estuaries. Many other Americans--together with a great number of international visitors--travel for recreational, educational, and business reasons to these same destinations. Taken together, these activities reflect and create a complex economic demand for services and products. The result is that coastal recreation and tourism is the US has emerged as an enormously potent force jointly affecting society and the environment.

Because the natural and cultural features along the coasts are so highly prized, the US coastline is increasingly characterized by congestion and competition. This has, in turn, resulted in multiple-value problems and multiple-use conflicts. Coastal dependent and other industries strive to develop at the same time diverse publics seek fulfillment through a variety of forms of leisure, recreation, tourism, recreation, and play.

The Federal Presence

Coastal recreation and tourism activities are federally regulated in accordance with statues that concern the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the National Ocean Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the US Forest Service, among other entities. As a result, federal authority and expertise have contributed to the establishment and management of parks and forests; marine sanctuaries, marine protected areas, fishery reserves, and the like.

In recent years, coastal recreation and tourism in the US has begun to command the same attention of federal policymakers that fisheries, marine pollution, and Law of the Sea topics have attracted in the past. Several publications make this point:

• US Department of Commerce. 1998. "Coastal Tourism and Recreation," Year of the Ocean: Discussion Papers. (March). Washington, DC., pp. F-1 to F-33.
• Environmental Protection Agency. 2001. A Method for Quantifying Environmental Indicators of Selected Leisure Activities in the US. Washington, DC.
• Leeworthy, V.R. 2001. Preliminary Estimates from Version 1-6: Coastal Recreation Participation (National Survey on Recreation and the Environment 2000). Silver Springs, MD: US Department of Commerce.

Recommendations

The challenge for federal governance is to design, implement, and enforce institutional structures and cooperative arrangements that allow for the governance of coastal recreation and tourism. These solutions must allow for a balancing of economic growth, environmental protection, and human welfare objectives. This response of federal governance should explicitly provide for mechanisms that foster:

1. Multidisciplinary Science and Research
   • identification of pressing coastal recreation and tourism issues (e.g., environmental quality, resource conservation, economic prosperity, transportation, community and cultural continuity, and sociological quality of life personal security for recreationalists and tourists, as well as those who reside in destinations visited)
   • identification of involved and affected constituencies, stakeholders, and interest groups (e.g., in the public, private, and activist/nongovernmental spheres)
   • identification of federal agencies and entities with recreation and tourism authority and also non-federal entities (e.g., elements of state and local government, port authorities) with other pertinent mandates
2. Institutional and Policy Development
   • (re)design of legislative and regulatory tools
   • (re)design of regulatory agencies and entities
   • design of policies
3. Multidisciplinary Planning
   • design of integrative planning philosophies
   • design of integrative planning frameworks
4. Environmental Education
   • design of educational strategies and tools
   • design of outreach and advisory strategies and tools
   • design of program evaluation methodologies

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