The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the results of the second step of an empirical research aiming at investigating the responsible consumption in tourism and emphasizingthe importance of a social marketing approach to develop a sustainable tourism. After the literature review, a synthesis of the findings of a quantitative research conducted on a sample of 618 italian tourists of north-east is presented. In particular, the paper analyses the main characteristics of three segments of tourists associated with different degree of responsibility, and then, it suggests some social marketing strategies to help tourism industry to promote responsible behaviour, as to satisfy tourists and, at the same time, protect touristic heritage.
