INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM, TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY LAW 217/83 and therefore recognized at the national level in the past, may be prevented from operating in the future if they do not qualify as guides or if the State does not intervene with specific regulations for them. This refers, for example, to tour leaders who, according to article 11 of law 217/83, are individuals professionally accompanying single persons or groups in travels within the national or foreign territory; they provide significant elements and information of tourist interest on transit areas outside the scope of the guides' competence. The complementary nature of tour leaders, who can operate outside the scope reserved for tour guides, is very clear in the text; and since law 190/23 never talks about tour leaders, the doubt remains about their operational role in the future which is not exclusively relegated to the completion of simple bureaucratic and logistical procedures, as specified by the Ministry of Tourism and, as, to be honest, often already happens today49. An additional state intervention would be necessary for the potential classification of other new or existing tourism professions still in the regulatory limbo. The additional prohibitions listed in paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 12 are directed first at those who do not obtain the title; therefore, they cannot make any use of cards or other distinctive signs that may confuse users about qualifications; secondly, these prohibitions are aimed at other operators in 49The tour leader is someone who, as a profession, welcomes and accompanies individuals or groups of people during the journey, ensuring assistance primarily for the completion of bureaucratic, administrative, and logistical tasks, such as hospitality. The tour leader performs a coordinating and supporting role in implementing the travel program, providing general information about the journey and the visited locations, outside the scope of the tourist guide's competence.. Source: www.ministerodelturismo.gov.it. Even in the definition of tour leader provided by the Ministry of Tourism, although some tasks not mentioned in the law 217/83 are detailed, it is specified that the tour leader provides general information about the journey and the visited locations outside the scope of competence of tourist guides. On the distinction between the profession of tourist guide and tour leader, there hasn't always been agreement. In a fairly recent past, the Regional Administrative Court of Sicily, Section IV, expressed a positive opinion regarding the assimilation of the two figures with judgment no. 1925 of 2014. More recently, the Council of Administrative Justice for the Sicilian Region, on January 31, 2018, with judgment no. 38, reiterated the clear difference between the two professions: Article 6 of the Tourism Code does not eliminate the distinction between a tourist guide and a tour leader. Therefore, it does not create a single qualification but confirms the list of tourism professions already provided in our legal system. As a result, sicilian regional law no. 8 of 2004 cannot be considered illegitimate for an alleged violation of Article 6 of the Tourism Code, insofar as it considers the two activities of guiding and tour leading as distinct. For an analysis of the pronunciations see C. Tincani, Recent judicial interventions on the regulation of the professions of tourist guide and tour escort (Recenti interventi giurisprudenziali sulla regolamentazione delle professioni di guida e di accompagnatore turistici), in Riv. it. dir. tur, 2018, 24, p. 434 and seq-
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