AAA Tourism Minister wanted: tour guides are at the end of their rope

Ever since the formation of this new government, we have heard the premier emphasize in his programmatic lines the importance of tourism, to the point of taking that sector away from MIBACT and making it again, after so many years, an autonomous ministry, even with a portfolio. Because it is, Draghi had well pointed out, a sector that produces 13 percent of GDP. It is no coincidence that the name chosen to lead that dicastery was that of Massimo Garavaglia, a man who has always been involved in economics and finance. An experience in public administration also unites Chief of Cabinet Gaetano Caputi and Secretary General Lorenzo Quinzi. Basically, there is currently no one there who is an expert in tourism. For the government, the ministry must amount to a kind of cash register to take in as much money as possible. We would be delighted to see so much revenue coming in: if the sector is doing well, it means that we are also working. To produce, however, you need to be able to implement strategies, plan, promote; it’s not as if you just stand at the cash register hoping the tourists will come back like they used to, relying on the bad old rhetoric of tourism as “oil.”

Strategies, planning, promotion are the key words of tourism (especially now, unfortunately) and they are the principles dramatically absent from the activities of this Department. One only has to listen to the interviews given by the minister to realize that he believes that everything will start automatically on its own. And one only has to look at what he is (or rather is not) doing to confirm this. Do we want to talk about restarting? Only a fraction of guides, already linked to the Italian market, will be able to work in the coming months; those linked to the U.S. or South American markets are again seeing their second-half tours cancelled, not to mention Japanese-speaking guides, whose work will restart in 2022 if all goes well. All of this needs to be addressed. We are among those suffering this disaster and want to be involved in programs to overcome it.

Just to be fair, there is hardly anyone in the ministry yet: it is a kind of empty box yet to be filled. The Under Secretary has not been provided for and therefore does not exist. The Directors General have not been appointed: the only one existing on paper, from the old MIBACT, cannot do anything. Emails remain unanswered, even pecs. Phones ring off the hook (we have gone so far as to record phone calls, as evidence). They don’t respond to interview requests from professional representatives or even to requests (at least to know what to do) from guides who have been put in trouble because of mistakes made by Ministry employees/officials who are totally absent and nowhere to be found. And the few who do respond do so with an arrogance that would warrant a revolution. Was the new Ministry of Tourism created for propaganda, to please those in the industry (agencies, tour operators, hoteliers, beach tourism operators, etc.) who saw it as the answer to their problems? The choice would be a good and right thing, if it had not been made during the worst crisis in the history of tourism, causing a six-month stalemate for the whole sector; at the moment we already count three. Was it really necessary to do it now?

Tour guides’ demonstration in front of the Pantheon in Rome

Meanwhile, in two months, Minister Garavaglia has been in talks with all but two categories and operators in the tourism sector: guides and tour leaders, who are by law among the tourism professions, thus under his purview. Twice he cancelled the scheduled meeting, each time at the last moment. In two months, he could not find two hours to talk with representatives of these two categories, to be received together. He must have thought that since the guides and escorts work for the agencies, there is no need to talk to the last link in the chain as well. It would be a bit like the government not talking to representatives of metalworkers at the bargaining tables. By the way, this probably denotes little knowledge of the sector on the part of the minister, who has remained in the days when guides were mere “performers” hired by agencies, while now they are often entrepreneurs in their own right who take care of everything from the creation to the promotion and sale of the tour. Tourism has changed, but at the special ministry they seem not to have noticed. The only time the minister dealt with us guides was via tweet to tell us that, according to him, we should be the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture and not his. He is basically trying to “unload us” (excuse the jargon) to Minister Franceschini. Let’s be clear, we don’t care which ministry we should refer to or even talk to Garavaglia. One thing, however, is fundamental: having a serious interlocutor.

In the meantime, while the minister kept us quiet and distant with two appointments within three weeks of each other both canceled at the last moment, over our heads were being decided the allocation and destination of the millions currently available from the Tourism Fund. That should have been one of the topics to submit to Garavaglia, if we had had the chance. The guides and companions who have received aid have already spent it on fees and contributions that have not been eliminated. Hundreds, although entitled to the supports, have not been able to apply or at any rate have not received anything because of formal problems. Others have their sums blocked due to bureaucratic errors. Thousands have been unable to access any aid all these months. Brokerage agencies have been complaining for a year that they have received very little, and that is true. However, no one said outside the tables that instead the tour operators and agencies that were billing in 74ter took much more than they should have since the calculations of relief in their case were made on the basis of gross turnover (which also includes airline tickets, hotels, packages, etc.) instead of on the basis of the real brokerage services that the agencies perform. Wouldn’t it be more fair to see everyone and compare rather than to continue with these divide-and-conquer policies where everyone tries to grab as much as possible at the expense of others? Are they really now thinking of solving the problems of the branch by taking out two small categories? At the beginning of the pandemic there was talk of coming out better, but even the lack of jobs and the black crisis have not taught networking in this sector.

Tourism is made up of many segments for different audiences, dozens of different operators, each with equal standing in their own field. It is a sector that produces work for an impressive number of people, including the thousands of tour guides and tour leaders with their families. Each of them is a tax-paying, voting citizen who deserves respect and the right to be heard. It’s about time politicians took notice. We have had enough of the air of condescension toward guides as somewhere between tourism and culture as if this were a fault, the “cultural tourism what a beard” attitude, and even forgetting about tour leaders as if they did not exist. A very good guide gets the tour operator the 5 stars and a bad one destroys his reputation. We may be the last link in the chain, but the desire to return or not return to a place, the desire to discover others, and the promotion of new, lesser-known itineraries depend on the guide. If the ministry also wants to take note of this, they might like to know about it for the future. Does anyone want to respond from Tourism? If there is life on that planet send a signal.

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