ISSN 2184-8793 ISSNe 2975-9056 provided service, Article 7, paragraph 3 of the law provides that once 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 quality46. 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 service47, 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 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 today48. An additional state intervention would be necessary for the potential classification of other new or existing tourism professions still in the regulatory limbo. 46 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 47 This is established by Article 11, paragraph 1, letters a) and b). The principle of price transparency complies with the relevant European Union provisions. 48The 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
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==