LAW 190 OF 13 DECEMBER 2023 ON TOURIST GUIDES registered in the national list in general or special sections, at least every three years tourist guides are obliged to attend courses authorized by the Ministry of Tourism, with theoretical and practical content, to update their skills and knowledge. The required attendance of refresher courses is designed to ensure clients receive a quality service. From a practical point of view, however, it remains to be understood how the courses will be conducted, who will bear the costs, and above all, how effective they will be, so they do not become, as with other professions, mere bureaucratic obligations that are very costly in terms of money and time spent, without a real return in terms of quality47. The obligations arising on the part of professionals following qualification are not limited to continuous training. In fact, in order to operate, the guides must always display their identification card in a clearly visible manner, and its presentation can be requested by local police, security authorities, or any other authorized entity (who have a monitoring function). They must also provide the user with transparent information on the costs of the professional service48, always remembering that fees for professional services must be proportional to the duration, content, and characteristics of the service. Regarding the display of the identification card, while it is true that local police are primarily responsible for checks (encouraged by the retention of amounts from any fines, Article 13 paragraph 9), it is also true that, once becoming specialized guides and obtaining the identification card, it is in the individual's best interest to keep it prominently displayed. This helps differentiate them from other professional figures and from those who operate illegally. To combat illegal practises, specific rules are introduced in Article 12 (prohibitions and penalties), which sometimes present certain critical points that, in the opinion of the writer, will need clarification. Paragraph 1 states that it is prohibited for anyone to carry out and offer activities specific to the profession of tourist guide, as listed in the law, in violation of the law and without the corresponding registration in the national list. With this law, having considerably expanded the operational scope reserved for guides, it now seems that some professions, even those already provided for in Law 47 The professional updating is a choice, driven by the desire to always stay abreast of innovations in one's profession, or a mere bureaucratic necessity? Among Italian professionals, the debate is lively, especially after the 2012 reform of the professions (Dpr 137/2012) launched by the Monti government, which introduced the obligation for all members of professional orders to attend continuing education courses as one of the conditions to maintain their registration. See www.larepubblicadeglistagisti.it 48 This is established by Article 11, paragraph 1, letters a) and b). The principle of price transparency complies with the relevant European Union provisions.
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