Assessment on local community perception of Gunung Stong State Park and its role in income from sustainable tourism.

Tourism is one of the important sectors in giving good economic impacts for states such as Kelantan due to the existence of many tourism destinations and Gunung Stong State Park (GSSP) is one of the highly exposed ecotourism destination regarding the presence of second highest waterfall in Southeast Asia, Jelawang Waterfall. This study is to identify the benefits received by local communities and to determine the role of GSSP in providing income from sustainable tourism. This study also helps to identify the perception of local communities on tourism in GSSP. Questionnaires interviews and observation help in determining the perception of local communities on tourism in GSSP and its role in income from sustainable tourism. Results show that local communities receive benefits in term of road maintenance, exposure to tourists, improvement of infrastructure quality, enhancement of recreational activities and revenue potential. Result also shows that GSSP play roles in income from sustainable tourism and local communities have high awareness on the importance of GSSP. Entrepreneurship plays crucial factor in their income. This results show that entrepreneurship helps to improve the quality of life of local communities and GSSP plays important role to the local communities surrounding GSSP.