Beach Users’ Perceptions Toward Beach Quality and Crowding: A Comparative Study Among Top Beaches in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada District

This Paper focuses on beach users’ perceptions toward beach quality aspects and crowding as well as investigating beach users’ preferred activities and their motivations to choose different beaches in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada District. In recent years, the scope of beach management practices has broadened although; a complementary bottom-up perspective that considers beach users’ preferences and demands is still missing. A case study was carried out at Top 10 beaches on the Udupi and Dakshina Kannada district. Beach users’ perceptions were collected by means of a questionnaire and samples were selected randomly. In this study, beach quality was analyzed in four different aspects: (1) physical and morphological,(2) environmental, (3) facility and safety and (4) landscape and design. Along with beach quality, Beach users’ perception towards crowding was analyzed. In SPSS Cross Tab technique used to make comparative study between 10 beaches.


Introduction
Tourism, has essentially been dependent upon the consumption of environmental resources and there has been a mutual dependency between environment and tourism because the quality of environment is strongly in danger by the growth in tourism, and on the other hand, tourism development is vastly reliant on the quality of environment [1]. According to UNEP [1], coastal tourism is highly dependent on natural resources such as climate, landscape and ecosystem, and cultural factors like historic and cultural heritage, arts and crafts, tradition, and so on. Tourists nowadays expect an experience on the beach that is more than sun, sand and sea. They look for a whole range of experiences like sea food, culture, natural beauty, sports, and so on. One of the prominent aims of this study is to understand the mutual interactive relationships between beach user's and the physical environment. As far as tourism is concerned, the quality of any beach is determined based on factors like local access, security, the availability of services and physical settings, and the quality of sand and water [2,3,4,5].

Objectives of the Study
To know the perceptions of beach users' towards quality and crowding of beaches.
To know preferred activities of beach users in different beaches in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District.
To know level of satisfaction of beach users toward Beach Visit.

Literature review
According to Roca and Villares [6] , in semi-natural beaches, users' satisfaction of beach quality is affected by natural beauty and conservation of the beach, and the beachgoer's profile.
According to Williams and Micallef [7] , five elements, which are very significant in ascertaining a successful beach setting, are safety, water quality, facilities, scenery and litter. [7] also stated the importance of a variety of physical (local geology and geomorphology), biological (flora and fauna), socio-economic (recreational amenities, access, safety, landscape, archeology, and commercial interest) and environmental quality elements (hygiene, cleanliness and toilet facilities) which have been determined in the previous studies regarding the assessment of the beach quality.

Williams and Micallef
According to Espejel et al. [8] , the ideal beach should be sandy where water is not deep with pleasant temperature, dangerous animals are absent, sand and water are clean, and no bad smells should be existent; it must be safe and basic infrastructure and services like access, lifeguards, bathrooms, shade, security, and minor shopping zones should be present.
Roca [9] assessed the beach occupancy and public perceptions of beach quality in six beaches in Spain. They divided quality parameters into four general groups as physical and morphological, environmental, facilities and services, and image and comfort. Characteristics of water, sand, beach dimensions and presence of waves, wind and rocks were studied in the physical and morphological group. The presence of items like waste and wastebaskets, toilet and shower, rain run-off, vegetation, fish and oil on water or sand, noise and animals were placed in environmental features group. Facilities and services group was divided into of stalls, deckchair, restaurants, life-saving equipment, walkway, beach and water game facilities, parking areas, and access subgroups. Finally, the quality of landscape, beach comfort, quality/price ratio and crowdedness were studied in image and comfort category.
Duvat [10] conducted a study in France beaches in order to find users' perceptions of beach quality. In the study of Duvat [10] , four major elements that affect the quality of the beach include coastal landscapes, the quality of the environment, quietness, and the natural properties of the beach. This study showed that users paid less attention to facilities in comparison with natural components. Majority of respondents expressed that physical characteristics of beaches play an important role in the quality of their visit including beach width and materials, sand quality and vegetation. [11] also conducted a study in four beaches in USA and Mexico. The results revealed that beaches with higher facilities and services were more appreciated by respondents.

Cervantes and Espejel
Marin et al. [12] also carried out a study in Italy to understand beach users' perceptions which beach and sea cleanliness were judged to be much more important than other issues. Majority of respondents reported beach quality and safety as good. About half of respondents judged that water quality is sufficient and the availability of recreational activities was stated as poor. In addition, crowding and its related noise were perceived high.

Methodology
In order to identify beach users' profile (socio-demographic characteristics, main activity and the reason of their choice) and perceptions toward beach quality and crowding, the questionnaire survey was carried out to collect the data from a total sample size of 285 respondents. To obtain data from respondents, the questionnaire was prepared in four parts: the first part for identifying beach users' profile (7 items); the second part for evaluating the preference of beach visitors and the third part for evaluating beach users' perceptions toward beach quality regarding physical and morphological, environmental, facility and safety, landscape and design aspects (33 items) in a 5 Likert scale range from poor to excellent ; the fourth part for evaluating beach users' perceptions toward beach crowding (8 items) in 5 Likert scale range; and the fifth part that aimed to identify beach users' future decision for visiting the beach based on their perception of the beach quality and crowding (5 items) in 5 Likert scale range from highly satisfied to highly dissatisfied. There are more than 25 beaches are there in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada District.
In order identify Top ten beaches out these beaches a small online survey was conducted with help of surveymonkey.com

Limitations of the study
Some of the respondents were not ready sharing the opinions.
Findings are purely based on response of the respondents; therefore there may be chance of biased response. If so then result may not be accurate.

Demographic Profile of the respondents
Demographic profile of the respondents helps researcher to know the diversity of the respondents. By this it can be seen whether the data has been collected randomly or non-randomly. This analysis also helps to see the homogeneity and the heterogeneity of the respondents.

Beach Users' Preference to Visit Beach
It is notable that the reason of choosing the beach is different in every context. There may be numerous reasons to visit beaches. Here researchers identified some of the preferred reasons based on literature (12).

Beach Users' Perceptions toward Beach Quality
In this study, beach quality was analyzed in four different aspects: a) physical and morphological, (b) environmental, (c) facility and safety and (d) landscape and design which mentioned in the study of Hamed Mehranian et al (12).  it dominates all other aspects also which up brings overall quality (M=26.8).According to respondents response Someshwara Beach has lowest quality with mean score of 23.98.

Beach Users' Perceptions toward Beach Crowding
Some destinations will always be very popular, particularly at peak times. There's also a degree to which overcrowding is a perception. Some might consider a place 'too crowded' whilst others wouldn't find it a problem. This perception also influences the visitors on their visiting decision and satisfaction level. Table No.5 explains beach users' perceptions towards crowding.  Table) Source: Survey Data

Satisfaction Level toward Beach Visit
One of the important factors which determine decision making and behavioural process of Beach user is the satisfaction level that they derived by visiting a particular beach. . If visitors are highly satisfied they will visit the beach one more time and suggest to other also (17). Table   No.6 shows satisfaction level of beach users' toward Beach Visit.  were least satisfied with Maravanthe Beach.

Google Reviews about studied Beaches
The quality and quantity of reviews on Google is one of the most important ranking factors for local SEO. And, when a person scans the search results for a local product or service in Google, the business listings that include customer reviews present greater credibility and, naturally, receive more clicks. The below table shows that Google ratings and Number of reviewer. As per Google reviews Kaupu Beach is quality beach to visit.

Suggestions/Recommendations
Most of the respondents opinioned that Malpe Beach is dirty but it has great landscape design to convert into great beach. Therefore it is suggested to concerned department focus on cleanliness of the beach.
There is need of proper toilet and dress changing room for Thanniru Bhavi Beach.
It is suggest to Thanniru Bhavi Beach Maintenance department to keep security to avoid problems from predators and drug addicts.
The access to the Malpe beach is through an industrial area, with heavy traffic and oil stained roads. The beach is very crowded and filthy. Therefore it is recommended to maintenance department to keep road clean and clear from over crowd.
There is no proper sitting facility in Someshwara Beach and Ullala Beach. Therefore it is suggested to respective department to maintain proper infrastructure facility.
The Ullala beach area smells horrible its one of the dumping ground in Mangalore.
Therefore it is Recommend Corporation department don't make tourism place as dumping yard.

Conclusion
Although overall satisfaction of respondents towards all beach was good. Beach visitors were most satisfied with natural and physical characteristics of the beach and the most dissatisfied with environmental issues. These findings highlight the need of the attention and consideration of local managers and authorities. Nature conservation should be prioritized to other functions of the beach in order to assure satisfaction of users, as nature and landscape were the primary reasons for choosing this beach to visit. Moreover, based on beach users' perceptions, management should pay more attention to beach sanitary and cleanliness issues and improve the facilities and services to the extent that there is no harm to the ecosystem. In specific, the result of this study reveals that beach users expressed the need for removing litter and abrasive material and install more public toilets, shower and foot-wash with better maintenance. In addition, more attention should be paid to beach's security and safety. For example, local management needs to apply security and adjust lifeguard tower in a better area.