In 2026, Blue Marina Awards returns with a new calendar of events taking place along the Med coastline, reinforcing its role as a leading platform for dialogue on the future of the blue economy and tourist port infrastructure.
More than a series of appointments, the 2026 program is designed as a national journey connecting marinas, coastal destinations, institutions, companies, and sector stakeholders around the key issues shaping the future of marina development, nautical tourism, and the broader maritime economy.
A blue-wide event series across coastal destinations
The 2026 Blue Marina Awards calendar will unfold through a number of strategic coastal locations, each selected for its relevance within the Italian marina and maritime tourism landscape.
Main stages of the Blue Marina Awards 2026 event series:
Base Nautica Flavio Gioia (Gaeta) – April 29, 2026
Marina Cala dei Sardi (Sardinia) – May 8, 2026
Marina Uno (Friuli Venezia Giulia) – June 5, 2026
Marina di Capo d’Orlando (Sicily) – June 23, 2026
Marina Carmelo (Calabria) – July 8, 2026
Porto Cervo – October 9, 2026
Rome – final stage and closing ceremony (date to be confirmed between late October and early November)
Blue Marina Awards thematic talks hosted within other event programmes:
Andora – May 2026, as part of the “Azzurro” programme
Genoa – institutional meeting during the Genoa International Boat Show.
This multi-stage format reflects the national scope of the initiative and creates a structured platform for discussing how marinas and tourist ports can evolve into more sustainable, innovative, inclusive, and competitive infrastructures.
Why these events matter for the blue economy
The blue economy is not only about maritime industries in a narrow sense. It includes a much wider ecosystem of activities linked to coastal development, tourism, innovation, services, sustainability, and territorial value creation.
Within this framework, tourist port infrastructure plays a strategic role. Marinas are no longer seen only as technical docking facilities. They are increasingly becoming service platforms, gateways to destinations, catalysts for local development, and interfaces between sea-based mobility and land-based tourism experiences.
For this reason, creating high-quality events focused on marina management, sustainable development, hospitality, energy transition, and accessibility means contributing in a practical way to the growth of the blue economy.
The Blue Marina Awards 2026 events are designed precisely to support this process: bringing together ideas, best practices, operational experiences, and institutional perspectives that can help shape the next generation of sustainable marinas.
A platform for dialogue on sustainability, energy, hospitality and inclusion
Each event will focus on different themes, while remaining fully aligned with the core mission of the initiative. Across the 2026 calendar, discussions will address a range of topics central to the future of the sector, including:
- environmental sustainability in marinas
- energy transition and efficiency
- tourism hospitality and service quality
- inclusion and accessibility
- innovation, digitalisation, and competitiveness in marina infrastructure
This thematic approach allows every stage to develop its own identity while contributing to a broader national conversation on the transformation of tourist ports and marina facilities.
The events are intended as practical and content-rich opportunities for exchange, involving qualified speakers, industry stakeholders, institutional representatives, and professionals from across the maritime and tourism sectors.
Marinas as strategic assets for coastal territories
One of the key ideas behind Blue Marina Awards is that marinas should be understood not as isolated infrastructures, but as strategic assets embedded in wider territorial systems.
Today, marina development is closely connected with destination management, visitor experience, local supply chains, coastal regeneration, and sustainable tourism strategies. This makes tourist port infrastructure an increasingly relevant component of how coastal regions position themselves within the blue economy.
By hosting events in different Italian coastal areas, Blue Marina Awards highlights this territorial dimension and helps strengthen the connection between marinas, communities, institutions, and businesses.
Monitoring environmental impact: all 2026 events will be assessed through BESI
Starting in 2026, all Blue Marina Awards events will also be monitored from an environmental impact perspective through the BESI – BMA Event Sustainability Index.
This is a particularly important development, because it shows the initiative’s commitment to applying principles of measurement, accountability, and continuous improvement not only to the marina sector, but also to its own event activities.
By introducing BESI across the 2026 event calendar, Blue Marina Awards strengthens its positioning as a project that combines communication, sector engagement, and concrete sustainability metrics. It also adds a valuable operational layer to the wider conversation on sustainable events in the blue economy and responsible management practices across marina-related initiatives.
Blue Marina Awards 2026: strengthening the future of tourist port infrastructure
With the 2026 calendar, Blue Marina Awards continues to build an authoritative national platform dedicated to the future of marinas, tourist ports, and the wider blue economy.
The event series will create opportunities for dialogue, visibility, networking, and strategic reflection across multiple territories, while keeping the focus firmly on the themes that matter most for the sector: sustainability, innovation, energy, hospitality, accessibility, and quality.
In this sense, the Blue Marina Awards 2026 events are not just moments of discussion. They are part of a broader effort to support the evolution of tourist port infrastructure in Italy and to promote a more advanced, measurable, and future-oriented vision for marinas within the Mediterranean blue economy.
