What is Contemporary Tourist

The chapter focuses on the growing importance that the sustainability issue is gaining in tourism and on the increasing research of sustainable forms of tourism among travelers, looking to the relation with the emerging market of the sharing economy. Three streams of literature are merged: the contemporary tourists, the sustainable tourism and the sharing economy. This triangulation allows reflecting on the challenges that tours operators and in general the traditional tourism sector have to face in order to maintain their position on the market while accomplishing the sustainable goals. The analysis of three case studies, peer-to-peer platforms from South Korea, Italy, and the USA, favors the identification of some preliminary suggestions.