ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop a theoretical, methodological framework for analysis, and to set up some tools and indicators applicable to specific cases. It attempts to develop the concepts of “sustainable identity” and “affectivity identity”, and suggests the “Ithaca traveler” in order to designate the tourist/visitor as an ally of the visited communities. The chapter provides an in-depth analysis and study of culture understood as the set of mechanisms whereby both individuals and communities organize their lives and their visions. There is a crucial issue directly related to tourism: how a community shows/presents itself outside; the community can have an internal identity and an external identity—an identity for foreigners and homeland identity—and there is no reason for both identities to be contradictory. The modification of the identity can cause the unsustainability of the identity community. Visitors can reinforce the community identity and contribute to guaranteeing its continuity: from this point of view, tourists constitute an opportunity.
