1 Willingness to pay in Kinabalu Park- A portrayal of the meanings of Kinabalu Goh, Hong Ching, Mariney, Mohd Yusoff and Tan, Wan Hin Department of Geography Universiti Malaya ABSTRACT The central question that this paper intends to address is whether tourists to protected area are willing to pay more and the reasons behind such motive so as to enhance tourism revenue in protected areas. Studies have concluded that most parks are charging a fee far below what the visitors are willing to pay and thus, suggest that the park charges on entrance, activities as well as facilities should be increased accordingly to conform to the user-pay scheme. It has been widely recognised that the reasons for the willingness to pay more differ from one individual/group from another, and the most noticeable facts are related to the various perceptions of an individual/group towards how a protected area is suppose to be and offers as well as the roles it plays. Inherently, these perceptions are captured within the nexus of visitor backgrounds. For the purpose of this paper, the author focuses on the foreign visitors. How this factor influences the willingness to pay among the foreign visitors to protected areas through the pre-existing perceptions is discussed by referring to the case of Kinabalu Park in Malaysia. Keywords: Kinabalu Park, protected areas, foreign visitors, willingness to pay, perceptions BACKGROUND One of the most noteworthy contributions of tourism to protected areas is its financial support to ensure the continued existence of a protected area. This is either to support what is cognitively perceived as uneconomical conservation objectives or emerging societal roles in securing the rights and livelihood of the local people living within and surrounding the protected area. Of all the protected areas, national parks have been specifically designated for two main roles, i.e., for ecosystem protection and to serve the recreational purpose for the enjoyment of the public. According to IUCN (2004), national parks refer to ‘natural area of land and/or sea, designated to protect the ecological