The battle over beach concessions is heating up along the Rimini coast. While Rimini has closed its first tender and is preparing to open the bids, Riccione is finalizing its own procedures and announcing the publication of its first calls for tender. Two parallel tracks that, at this early stage, concern beach areas linked to establishments with facilities on privately owned land further inland.
In Rimini, the deadline for the tender to award 27 state-owned concessions along the northern shoreline expired today, Thursday 10 September, at 1pm. The municipality received 38 applications — eleven more than the available lots. These are shade-only areas intended to complement beach establishments built on private land.
The concessions will run for five years and will be awarded based on the criterion of the most economically advantageous offer. Palazzo Garampi must now appoint its internal evaluation committee. The bids are expected to be opened as early as next week, when the review of technical proposals will begin. This will be followed by the assessment of the proposals and the assignment of scores for each lot.
Several factors will weigh on the final decision: the quality of services, attention to families and people with disabilities, worker safety and environmental protection. According to the municipality, these criteria follow the guidelines set out in Law 118 of 2022 and also aim to raise and diversify the range of services offered on the beach.
In Riccione, meanwhile, the process begins with the first 14 “beach-only” lots. The city council has approved the guidelines for the comparative procedures, and the tenders will be published starting next week. Here too, at least for now, there is no talk of full beach establishments: the inland portion, where cabins, amenities and fixed structures are located, remains private. What is being put out to tender is the state-owned strip facing the sea, the area used for umbrellas and lightweight equipment. Further notices will follow later for the remaining concessions.
Riccione has also opted for a five-year duration. Each bidder will be able to win a limited number of lots, with the stated goal of ensuring competition and encouraging participation by small and medium-sized businesses. In the rankings, the management project will carry more weight than the economic offer alone.
Particular attention will be paid to environmental sustainability, professional experience and qualifications, the inclusion of young people and women in the workforce, direct management, and the relevance of the activity as the main source of income. Future concession holders will also be required to pay, in addition to the standard fee, an annual contribution to the municipality, which will be reinvested in works and services of touristic interest.
“By launching these procedures, we are providing a concrete and responsible response to the regulatory obligations imposed by the EU’s Bolkestein Directive,” explains Riccione’s mayor Daniela Angelini, stressing the choice to “put transparency and the enhancement of the city’s tourism model at the center.”
Councillor for state property Christian Andruccioli explains that the municipality decided to start with the fourteen lots “to test a system that puts merit and sustainability at its core,” while director Cinzia Farinelli points out that the mapping of the concessions made it possible to define guidelines for procedures that are “fair, transparent and open to the widest possible participation.”
Rimini is now tallying its bids, while Riccione is about to launch its own tenders. Two different stages of the same journey, one that is beginning to bring the new framework for beach concessions to life on the ground and which, after these first special lots, is set to gradually expand to the rest of the shoreline.
