Blue, Lilac, Orange Flags and the like: what they actually certify, and why on their own they don't move the needle for tourism

Every year, somewhere between spring and the start of summer, more or less the same ritual plays out in Italian municipalities. A flag arrives, gets hoisted on the town hall, appears on balconies and windows, ends up in local press releases, in administrators' celebratory posts, in bar-room debate.

The tone is often that of a small public consecration. And in part, that's understandable. Because these recognitions don't come from nowhere and, in quite a few cases, they genuinely reward real work on quality, sustainability or accessibility. The problem is something else entirely: between receiving a flag and turning it into genuine tourist value, there's an abyss.

And that's exactly where we tend to stop. At the photo, the ceremony, the civic rhetoric. Far less often at the strategy.

First things first: which flags are we actually talking about

In local public discourse, flags tend to get thrown into the same pot, but in reality they don't certify the same things, they're not awarded by the same bodies, and they don't speak to the same audience.

Bandiera Blu

This is probably the best known. In Italy it's managed by FEE Italia, the Foundation for Environmental Education, an international non-profit present in 81 countries and recognised by UNESCO in the field of environmental education and sustainable development. FEE Italia manages programmes including Bandiera Blu and Spighe Verdi at national level.

Bandiera Blu promotes sustainable development in coastal and lakeside areas and challenges local authorities and operators to reach high standards in terms of water quality, environmental management, environmental education and information, safety and services.

So no, it is not simply an aesthetic prize for "nice sea." It is, at least in its design, a management protocol for coastal territory.

Bandiera Lilla

Bandiera Lilla is a recognition dedicated to tourist accessibility and inclusion. The official portal describes Comuni Bandiera Lilla (municipalities) as destinations committed to offering an accessible, barrier-free travel experience. The recognition is awarded when a municipality reaches the required score not only on physical barriers, but also on information and tourist management oriented towards inclusivity.

One interesting detail — and one that rarely gets told — is that the membership fee for municipalities is biennial and varies according to the number of inhabitants. So we're not talking about a badge that "fell from the sky," but about an organised and structured process.

Bandiera Arancione

Bandiera Arancione is awarded by the Touring Club Italiano and is designed for small inland villages. The Touring Club defines it as a quality tourist-environmental mark assigned to localities that, beyond possessing a heritage of historical, cultural and environmental value, know how to offer visitors hospitality and quality of experience.

Here the logic is clearly oriented towards village tourism and the overall quality of the offer, not towards any single element.

Spighe Verdi

Spighe Verdi also falls under FEE Italia and is aimed at rural municipalities. The programme focuses on sustainable rural development and requires compliance with criteria relating to water, energy, agriculture, waste, urban planning and landscape protection. FEE presents it explicitly not merely as a mark, but as a concrete expression of a process of continuous improvement.

So, even from this quick overview, one thing should be clear: not all flags speak to the same type of tourism, nor to the same type of value.

The point isn't whether they make sense, but how they're used

Here, in my view, we need to be honest and drop both the reflexive scepticism and the slightly provincial enthusiasm.

These recognitions are not inherently useless. In many cases they make perfect sense, and quite a lot of it. They can:

• push an administration to work on concrete issues;
• offer a frame of reference and criteria for improvement;
• create a shared basis among technicians, administrators and operators;
• help give continuity to policies on quality, accessibility or sustainability.

The problem is that, very often, once obtained they are treated as an end in themselves rather than as a tool.

And this is where my scepticism kicks in. Because in the current state of things, in most cases, these flags move almost nothing in tourist terms if they stay confined to three places:

• the façade of the town hall;
• the administration's celebratory post;
• the headline in local media.

That is not enough. It's not enough because the real tourist — especially the international one, but often the domestic one too — does not decide to take a holiday because a municipality hung a flag from the balcony of the civic building.

The real problem is the absence of a communications strategy

A flag, on its own, is not a strategy. It is, at best, a piece of potential content within a broader strategy.

If an administration genuinely wants to give it tourist meaning, it needs to ask itself some very simple questions.

Who are we talking to

A Bandiera Blu can carry a certain weight with an Italian or northern-European family audience that is sensitive to water quality, safety and services.

A Bandiera Lilla can speak to travellers with accessibility needs, their families, associations, specialist networks.

A Bandiera Arancione can make sense for cultural, slow or proximity tourism, or for markets seeking well-tended small villages.

A Spiga Verde can reinforce a rural, sustainable, food-and-wine positioning.

But if we don't define the target market, the flag remains a generic symbol that speaks to everyone and therefore, in practice, to no one.

When do we communicate it

Timing is decisive. Communicating a flag when the tourist has already booked, or when the market is already looking elsewhere, is largely pointless.

If a coastal municipality receives the Bandiera Blu, for example, the useful work needs to happen well before the season — through campaigns, content, press kits, portals, commercial agreements, B2B communications and co-marketing with operators and accommodation providers.

If you only do it in late May or June, with a couple of self-referential press releases, you are talking mainly to your fellow citizens, not to the market.

In what language do we translate it

This is perhaps the most neglected part. Flags speak an administrative, technical, institutional language. The market, on the other hand, wants to understand something far simpler:

what concrete benefit do I get from this as a traveller?

Very basic examples:

• Bandiera Blu not as a "prestigious recognition," but as a monitored sea, services, safety, environmental care;
• Bandiera Lilla not as an "important attestation," but as a holiday that is genuinely easier for people with accessibility needs;
• Bandiera Arancione not as a "certified village," but as a place that offers a more carefully crafted, readable and welcoming visitor experience;
• Spighe Verdi not as an abstract title, but as a guarantee that landscape, agriculture and territory are managed with a precise approach.

If this translation doesn't happen, the flag remains legible only to those who awarded it and those who are celebrating it.

Without operators and the local supply chain, it doesn't work

There is another major misconception. Flags are talked about as if the municipality, on its own, could transform them into attractiveness. But tourism doesn't work that way.

If a destination wants to extract real value from a recognition, it needs to activate the whole supply chain:

• accommodation providers;
• beach establishments;
• tourist offices;
• guides;
• restaurants;
• incoming operators;
• transport networks;
• local associations.

Because the tourist does not think of the municipality as an administrative body. They experience a combination of services, spaces, relationships and ease of use.

If Bandiera Lilla doesn't translate into clear information on accommodation websites, into accessible routes, maps, staff training, readable and bookable content, it remains an extremely weak signal.

If Bandiera Blu isn't integrated into a serious narrative of the coastal destination, into coherent services, transport and the offer as a whole, it will struggle to generate additional demand.

If Bandiera Arancione doesn't feed into an ecosystem of content, itineraries, territorial networks and effective communication, it's not enough on its own to make someone choose a village.

The most uncomfortable point: they often serve local consensus more than tourist marketing

This is where I get to the least comfortable part — but also, in my view, the most honest.

Very often these flags are used primarily as internal communication tools, not external ones. They serve to tell residents that the municipality is virtuous, recognised, awarded. And that, from a political and administrative standpoint, is perfectly understandable.

But it's a different thing from tourist marketing.

If the goal is to consolidate consensus, civic identity and the perception of good governance, the mechanism works.

If the goal is genuinely to shift flows, bookings and awareness on target markets, then the work required is infinitely more complex.

And here we need to avoid a very Italian shortcut: assuming that the recognition itself coincides with its promotional effectiveness.

It doesn't. Not even close.

How they could actually have an impact

If an administration genuinely wanted to make the most of these recognitions, I'd see at least five lines of work.

1. Embed them in a positioning strategy

Not "we got the flag," but "this recognition reinforces our positioning as destination X for target Y."

2. Build dedicated content for different markets

Italian, English, German, French — with different messages depending on the target. A German family and an Italian proximity visitor will not read the same flag in the same way.

3. Translate the mark into concrete benefits

Services, maps, landing pages, itineraries, videos, FAQs, real accessibility, quality of hospitality, clear proof points.

4. Involve operators and accommodation

The flag needs to enter hotel websites, accommodation providers' content, destination press kits, commercial packages, materials for tour operators and agencies.

5. Use it at the right moment

Not when the municipality is celebrating, but when the market is deciding. And these two moments rarely coincide.

To conclude: the tourist flags awarded to Italian municipalities are not, in and of themselves, either a farce or a guarantee of success. They are tools. Some certify environmental quality, others accessibility, others still the quality of hospitality or rural sustainability. They make sense — often — when read within their correct perimeter.

But the point is that, on their own, they move almost nothing. They don't automatically generate demand, they don't independently shift a destination's positioning, and they don't turn a piece of local communication into effective tourist marketing.

If an administration genuinely wants to give them value, it needs to stop treating them as medals to display and start using them as elements of a communications and product strategy that is far more serious, far more targeted and far less self-referential.

Because a flag hanging from the town hall balcony may reassure some residents, but the tourist, before booking, needs to understand a great deal more.