The Treno Bianco Azzurro (“Blue and White Train”) sets off once again, this time toward an imagined San Marino of the future, designed by artificial intelligence. This is the choice made by the Secretariat of State for Tourism to celebrate World Tourism Day 2026, set for 27 September and dedicated this year to the relationship between tourism, digital innovation and AI.
The theme chosen by UN Tourism for 2026 is “Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism“, aimed at encouraging institutions to engage with the impact of new technologies on a rapidly evolving sector. “It’s an invitation to institutions involved in tourism to confront a transformation that no longer belongs to the future but has become part of the present: the one driven by artificial intelligence,” the Secretariat of State points out.
Once again this year, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Federico Pedini Amati, will share the traditional message on the sector’s future challenges. This year’s key novelty, however, is a video created using artificial intelligence, in which the journey of the Treno Bianco Azzurro symbolically continues beyond the present, crossing a Republic transformed by the technologies of tomorrow.
“The journey of the Treno Bianco Azzurro, which since last summer has become one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, continues along a path into a future San Marino — a country entirely reimagined by artificial intelligence, envisioning how it might evolve,” reads the official statement. The representation aims to bring together innovation and history, while keeping the themes of accessibility and sustainability at its core.
The video was produced by the San Marino-based agency Evolab, a digital communication studio that combines artificial intelligence with the expertise of specialized professionals. It opens with footage from the inauguration of the Historic Rimini–San Marino Railway and contemporary imagery, before transporting viewers into an entirely new, imagined scenario.
The Secretariat clarifies that the route shown in the video is not meant to anticipate the actual path the railway will take as part of its restoration project. “While it does not reflect what the real route of the train’s recovery project might look like, it represents the direction tourism in the Republic of San Marino will take in a future that is no longer so distant,” the statement explains.
World Tourism Day 2026 will also be an occasion to honor Mauro Maiani, who for years served as San Marino’s focal point at the United Nations World Tourism Organization, as well as ambassador and general commissioner at several editions of the World Expo.
The conference room of the Secretariat of State for Tourism will be named in Maiani’s honor. The ceremony is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on Monday, 28 September, when the Captains Regent and Secretary of State Federico Pedini Amati will unveil a plaque dedicated to his career and his contribution to San Marino’s institutions and the international tourism sector.
