Local visitors’ willingness to pay for an entrance fee at Taman Negeri Gunung Stong, Kelantan

Kelantan is known as a state with the natural environment and cultural heritage that contributes to the industry of tourism growth to increase the local economy income. Taman Negeri Gunung Stong are known as one of the main visitors’ attraction place in State of Kelantan. The value of the recreational forest for the local community is even greater because the forest give the areas with pure oxygen and the people surrounding will feel like they are close to the nature. However, the main issue faced in managing the recreational forest is lack of financial resources to provide and restore adequate recreation facilities. The aim of this study is to determine the perception and attitude of local visitors towards recreational resources in Taman Negeri Gunung Stong and also to analyse local visitors’ willingness to pay for an entrance fee in Taman Negeri Gunung Stong by using Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). A CVM based on the binary logit regression model was used. A total of 150 respondents who had visited to Taman Negeri Gunung Stong was participated in this study. The sampling techniques used in this study was random sampling. Overall the result shows that most of the respondents are concern on taking care the recreational forest for used by future generations. The study found that the mean of willingness to pay in TNGS is RM 6.12. The entrance fee collections are used as supplementary funds for the allocations made for construction and maintenance costs of the Taman Negeri Gunung Stong.