An estimate of the value of the beachfront with respect to the hotel room rates in Thailand

An economic assessment for a non-market resource like sandy beaches is always a challenge for Thailand's coastal policy planners due to the lack of data availability, especially on the national scale. While beach tourism in Thailand has been an essential part of the Thai economy, the sandy beaches are probably exposed to the future sea-level rise. Therefore, the need for tourism benefits of the beaches should be conducted. The research attempted to measure the effect of sandy beach characteristics and hotel location on hotel room rates. A sample of 3319 hotel rooms across Thailand's coastal sub-districts, covering the entire sandy beaches in Thailand, was collected through a hotel-booking online database during the country's peak season. The considered variables include hotel room attributes, sandy beach characteristics, hotel locations, and coastal infrastructures. Through a hedonic price model based on geographically weighted regression analysis, the relationship between the dependent variables (hotel room rate) and the independent variables (selected beach variable) was estimated to evaluate the marginal effect and its spatial variations. The tourism benefit was calculated assuming the marginal effect of the hotel's beachfront locations on hotel price. The study suggested that the location in front of the beach raised the average hotel room rates by 13–41%. The results emphasized the significant spatial variability of the effect of beachfront location on the hotel price. In addition, the effect of beach protection structures (i.e., seawall, breakwaters, groins) on the hotel price was also investigated and implied a slight drop by 8–15% of the average price. The other sandy beach variables (such as beach length, width, and slope) effects on hotel price were also investigated. The finding of this study aims to help policymakers select and design proper adaptations to coastal erosion on tourist beaches in Thailand.