ISSN 2184-8793 ISSNe 2975-9056 Regarding qualification, in response to the regional-level procedural delays and the associated uncertainty for aspiring guides regarding the content, timing, and verification methods of their competencies, Article 5 provides clear answers. It stipulates that the national examination should be held at least annually and identifies the subjects to be tested (history of art, geography, history, archaeology, tourism law, and accessibility and inclusivity of tourism services), as well as the examination methods (a written test, an oral test, and a practical technical test) and requirements (legal age, Italian or EU citizenship, completion of at least a three-year degree, possession of civil and political rights, certification in at least two languages, one at a level not lower than C1 and the other not lower than B2, and for citizens of another EU member state, knowledge of the Italian language at least at the C1 level)40. Centralizing the examination and establishing an annual schedule should ensure that all potential professionals no longer face uncertainty about when and how to take the exam. However, some concerns have already been raised regarding the practical feasibility of a national-level exam and its geographical accessibility throughout Italy, especially if the examination venue is in-person and centralized in a single city41. Other criticisms have been raised regarding the requirement of a three-year degree without specifying or limiting it to a particular degree class. In response, it should be noted that, considering the broad range of activities introduced as the subject of the profession, as indicated in Article 2, this makes various degree classes compatible, if not necessary, although not all of them are necessarily preparatory for the profession. The qualification examination will, however, ensure the competencies of the guides, regardless of how they have been acquired. Concerning the criticism regarding the knowledge of at least two languages, the elevation of the level of professionalism must be associated with linguistic proficiency, which is essential for offering a quality service and ensuring competitiveness. A tourist guide who does not speak at least one or more languages, in addition to their mother tongue, is certainly not competitive in a country with a high income of foreign tourists like Italy. Once the qualification has been obtained, Article 5 provides for the establishment of a national list of tourist guides, to which they can register42: those qualified according to the new procedures, foreigners who have obtained recognition of their qualification obtained abroad, according to the procedure provided for in article 6 of the law itself, and those who at the time of the entry into force of law 190/23 were already in possession of the qualification for the profession of tourist guide, who will have a period of 6 months from the entry into force of the law to be able to regularize their positions, not in terms of knowledge and skills, but with regards, for example, to stipulation of the insurance contract, which until now has not been required by all regional laws. The innovation is that the national list will be divided into specific sections based on the specializations obtained and the origin of the guides. Thus, foreign guides qualified under the procedure of Article 7 will have to register in a specific section of the national list (Article 7, paragraph 8), different from that of internal guides. Internal guides, in turn, can register in special sections of the list. If they participate in theoretical and practical courses authorized by the Ministry of Tourism, they can acquire, under certain conditions, additional thematic and/or territorial specializations (including accessible and inclusive tourism), which can be cumulated, and thus register in special sections of the list. The solution proposed by article 7 seems to resolve the issue of the balance between liberalization of professions and protection of historical and cultural heritage43, shifting the choice between a generalist 40 Further details are expected from the implementing decrees of the law, which have not yet been issued at the time of writing. Unfortunately at the moment, the implementing decree of Law 190/2023 has been rejected by the State Council. “The State Council, with decision No. 53-2024 dated 22.01.24, has suspended the issuance of its opinion on the draft implementing decree of Law 190-2023, pending the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry for European Affairs, the South, cohesion policies, and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) to provide a reasoned opinion on the draft decree. The State Council deemed the process of forming the implementing decree inadequate precisely due to the lack of or insufficient activities carried out by the Ministries”. www.assoguide.org 41 See Federagit Confesercenti 42 The law refers to a list of professionals and not to a register. On profession orders see M. Bonanni, The useless order? Professional orders in Italy (L’ordine inutile? Gli ordini professionali in Italia), Milano, 1998. 43 D. Diverio, The delicate balance of values in the European regulation of 'commercial communications. (Il delicato bilanciamento di valori nella disciplina europea delle “comunicazioni commerciali”), in Studi sull’integr. Eur., 2014, 279 ss.; G. Caggiano, The balance between the free movement of production factors and the imperative needs of Member States in the internal market (Il bilanciamento tra libertà
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==