Increasing marine and coastal tourism makes marine environments increasingly important for the provision of open spaces and opportunities for tourism and recreation activities [1,2]. The beach, being one such marine environment, is a meeting place between land and ocean, extending from the low tide line landward across the unvegetated sediment to the beginning of vegetation or to the next geomorphic feature in the landward direction, which may be a dune, a bedrock, or nowadays a seawall [3]. With its interesting landscapes, fascinating creatures, and beautiful scenery, beaches are important resources for tourism and make potential valuable economic contribution to tourist destinations [4,5]. However, it is noted that beaches are classical examples of common property resources. Its two inherent characteristics of excludability and subtractability would potentially lead to a tragic loss of the resource [6]. It is therefore not surprising to see that as beach tourism continues to increase, the activity has started to exhibit signs of causing environmental degradation, affecting both ecological status and the recreational experience of tourists and thereby become detrimental to host communities [7,8]. To prevent ‘the tragedy of the commons’ and secure significant values generated from beach tourism, pursuing sustainable beach tourism is very important