A largely pristine Sarasota Bay is worth $11.8 billion to Sarasota and Manatee counties and helps attract nearly 12.2 million trips to the region each year, according to a new study released by the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program. The study was conducted to stress the value of the natural resource in economic terms.

“The study underscores how important Sarasota Bay is to our entire region,” said Mark Alderson, SBEP director, “not just the obvious impact on local tourism and real estate value, but also the impact of recreational fishing, recreational boating, eco-tourism and the quality of life for residents who enjoy the bay year around.” 

The study looked into everything from tourism impacts to increases in real estate values. The investigation was done by Drs. Paul Hindsley, an assistant professor of Environmental Studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, and Ashton Morgan, associate professor of Economics at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.

Ecotourism activities appear to be a highly lucrative element of the Bay's value. The study showed many day-trio visitors were willing to spend upward of $104 per day in direct spending for snorkeling or $243.37 for SCUBA diving. Bay-related visitor spending, according to the report, creates about 21,000 jobs and $731 million in earnings.

As for real estate, the study found real estate purchasers were willing to pay a mean of $90,235 for homes located within 1,000 feet of the Bay, comparable to the mean $148,841 customers were willing to pay for homes that close to the Gulf of Mexico. For homes just a little further from the water, the impact of being near the Bay was actually greater than being close to the Gulf. Customers were willing to pay a mean $26,031 more for a home within 4,000 feet of the Bay compared to a mean of just $9,579 more for homes a similar distance from the Gulf.