Manoeuvre, tourism: the 'seal of quality' for villages arrives

Here comes the 'quality stamp' for small tourist centres: the recognition is a novelty introduced by an amendment to the Budget Law that is part of the Government's reformulated proposals, ready to be voted on in the Senate committee in the coming hours.

With the aim of 'identifying and increasing the quality, sustainability and accessibility of places and services for tourism at a local level', the ministry led by Daniela Santanchè institutes the 'Quality Tourist Destination' award, which will be assigned to centres with fewer than 30 thousand inhabitants by a commission that will be made up of a member of the ministry, a representative of Enit, and three independent subjects. The judgement will be issued on the basis of a 'Charter of Values' that the body will be called upon to prepare.

The 'vignette' will have a two-year duration and the commission will be able to carry out periodic or sample checks to verify compliance with the requirements by the municipalities, unions and networks of municipalities and minor islands that receive awards. Enit will be responsible for the communication campaign with a budget of 500,000 euro per year. In particular, the tourism promotion agency will provide the selected destinations with 'priority in their promotional and trade fair activities and privileged access to national and international initiatives.

The intervention aims to distribute less unevenly the tourist flows currently concentrated on a few destinations: in 2024, 75% of arrivals in Italy covered 13% of national land. The most cited case is that of Venice: the city makes up 0.8% of Italy's surface area but hosted about 8% of total arrivals. Signs of a diversification of demand are not lacking: a Teha report underlines how, since 2014, mountain tourism has grown faster than seaside tourism, almost tripling its arrivals against a smaller increase (+32%) in coastal destinations. Moveo (Telepass magazine) in its report on "Italian Villages online" found that in 2024 there were almost 94 million searches: an increase of +52% compared to 2023.