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The evolution of the tourist industry has also led to a change in the provision of hospitality, which was previously concentrated on reception activities, but now includes a series of complementary activities which can be defined as “post‐reception” or, in some cases “post‐tourism” activities.

Thermal Tour As had been identified in the Second Report on Italian Tourism (1), the market for “thermal tourism” has developed its trends with further characterizations and differentiations:

The active role that the tourism sector assumes in increasing the Gross Domestic Product is by now recognized and this fact makes the operators in the sector considerably more responsible. So all the companies that operate in the sector need a continous managerial adaptation such that renders them able to answer, time after time, the demand necessities.

Seit über 30 Jahren hatte die AIEST nicht mehr das Privileg, auf deutschem Boden einen seiner alljährlichen Kongresse durchzuführen.

The study aims to analyze the relationship between tourists' satisfaction and their sense of belonging in a specific cultural destination by also investigating the moderating role of their on-site involvement, both offline (on-site activities at the destination) and online (social media activities). A further objective lies in exploring the relationship between tourists' sense of belonging and their adoption of environmentally responsible behavior while at the destination. Finally, the paper attempts to determine whether said behavior can predict tourists' pro-environmental behavior and recommendation intention.

To reach these objectives, a survey and a structural equation model, based on a sample of 647 visitors of an important world Heritage site UNESCO (i.e. Urbino), have been adopted.

Findings reveal a positive influence of sense of belonging on satisfaction and environmentally responsible behavior, which, in turn, influences pro-environmental behavior and Recommendation intention, thus triggering a virtuous process in the tourists' formation as responsible and loyal travelers. Moreover, results underline how the relationship between satisfaction and sense of belonging is significantly strengthened when tourists' on-site activity involvement increases. Conversely, the moderating role of social media involvement is not supported.

The present study offers important implications for different actors in the tourism sector, such as policy makers, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and tourism operators.

The present study explores the role of social media involvement, specifically during the tourist's holiday.

This study enriches the empirical evidence in the cultural tourism through an analysis focused on the tourists' perspective, especially by investigating the relationship between satisfaction and emotional constructs (i.e. sense of belonging) that are able to bring environmental and loyalty benefits to the destination. Moreover, although existing research has highlighted the positive influence of the tourists' involvement on their experience, there is a paucity of studies jointly analyzing the on-site and online activities in the sustainability field.