The Relationship Between the Perception of Environmental Pollution With the Tourist Experience of Visitors to Chimbote Bay

Several studies have addressed the impact of tourism on the environment, but few have focused on how theenvironment can influence the tourism activity and visitor's experience. Visitors’ perceptions of environmentalcontamination could pose a significant barrier to the optimal development and success of tourism destinations. This is thecase of the Chimbote Bay, that has - high levels of contamination due to industrial activity and untreated waste. The mainobjective of this research was to determine the relationship between the perception of environmental pollution and thetourist experience and in intention to revisit Chimbote Bay. A mixed methodology was employed with the qualitative phasefollowing an interpretative design and the quantitative phase used a non-experimental correlational design. The resultsshowed that visitors to the destination perceived three types of environmental pollution in the bay namely air, water andsoil, which highlighted the evidence of an environmental problem in the area. The study also determined an inverserelationship existed between the perception of environmental pollution with the tourist experience. As the perception ofpollution increased, the tourist experience decreased. Similarly, an increased perception of environmental pollution reducedthe intention to revisit the bay.