What is Touristic Imaginary

The chapter, starting from the analysis of the characteristics of heritage tourism, in particular in Italy, and the expectations of cultural consumers, focuses on the importance of a visual identity for the cultural heritage. For an effective integration of tourism and culture, a careful planning is required in the promotion of cultural assets, activities, and traditions. The role of communication should be to propose a new interpretation and representation of the territory, having as a main theme the role of culture. In this sense, it may be useful to identify a location through a brand, which materializes the characteristics of a system of culture and values of the territory, selecting structural elements that allow its identification and synthesizing them in a single name or symbol. Finally, some experiences of visual communication for cultural heritage realized in the academic field are presented here.