Assesment on local community perception of ecotourism in Lojing Highlands, Kelantan, Peninsular Malaysia

Lojing Highlands is blessed with the richness of biodiversity and hold a potential as one of the ecotourism hotspots in Malaysia. For the past 10 years, the venture into Lojing Highlands had always been to participate in tourism based on specific natural attraction such a Rafllesia. The objectives of this study were, to assess the perception of the local community (Orang Asli) towards ecotourism in Lojing Highlands and to determine the benefits derived by local community as a result form ecotourism. Field observation and questionnaire were used to collect data for this study. The data have been analysed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Result shows that only 3.4% of local communities received benefits through ecotourism in term of employment opportunities such as tour guide. Other 96.6% of them are not involved in tourism sector. They are working with commercial farms scattered within Lojing Highlands. In addition, local communities had neutral or somewhat to agree on perception towards ecotourism in Lojing Highlands with mean value of3.0847. Ecotourism in Lojing Highlands is solely based on a single component of tourism that is adventure tourism to Rafllesia trail. From this stage of ecotourism development, the study shows that local community are not yet receive any benefits from ecotourism. Therefore, several recommendations have been suggested to improve and enhance more recreational or tourism activities in Lojing Highlands.