3 4By conducting an exploratory research, 705 surveys were collected along four sandy beaches in Ecuador: Ayangue, Chipipe, Olon and Puerto Engabao, chosen because of their unequal levels of tourism development. A correlation study takes into account the perception of native and nonnative residents and as a result environmental conflicts affected most residents from Ayangue, Olon and Puerto Engabao, and physical conflicts mainly affected residents from Chipipe. Also, according to the perceptions of native and non-native residents on beach management, only in Olon both groups considerate a community management while in the other beaches, the preferences varied between national, regional and community management. Finally, the Chi-Square tests show nonrelation between the conflicts and the place of origin. However, in terms of management, there is