Sandy beaches are vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic disturbances like coastal hydrological disasters, coastal erosion, sea-level rise, pollution, and land degradation. Apart from these, at the habitat level, tourism and recreation activities impact the sandy beach ecosystem in countless ways. Several studies indicate that trampling caused due to human visitation negatively impacts the macrobenthic communities. In this study, along with the trampling effect, we assessed the impact of human visitation on the sandy beach ecosystem using factors like littering and human-induced predation pressure. The study was conducted on three sandy beaches in the Udupi district of Indian coastal state, Karnataka. We used human presence, predation pressure, and total litter as response variables; against sand crabs and ghost crabs as indicator species. The results indicated a significant correlation between response variables. Sand crabs were less affected by the human presence (r = 0.07, p = 0.14); however, ghost crab abundance was negatively influenced by human presence (r = − 0.36, p < 0.05), predation pressure (r = − 0.28, p < 0.05), and by litter presence (r = − 0.28, p < 0.05) at the beaches. We observed that human presence impacts sand crabs and ghost crabs directly (trampling) and indirectly (attracting human commensal predators through beach litter). We highlight the impacts of tourism on often neglected crab assemblages and emphasise the importance of deriving appropriate conservation measures for sandy beach ecosystems.