Tourism, despite all the difficulties, continues to go

Tourism despite everything is going. This is the consideration that can be made in taking stock of how many difficulties this economic sector, which in Italy has been mistreated by citizens, intellectuals and even institutions, has gone through. But in spite of everything, from energy crises to epidemics, from attacks to wars (from the Gulf War of the 1990s to the war in Ukraine via September 11, 2001), the ’system-tourism’ holds up and always manages to rise again, grinding successes and economic growth (for everyone): this summer’s data prove it.

In a country that has most of the world’s artistic beauty, the seat of a great monotheistic religion, a lifestyle that has become a brand that we are internationally recognized for (the ’Italian style’), tourism, the traveling of people to visit Italy, should be at the very least at the top of the attentions of citizens and institutions. Instead, it has very often been treated as something ephemeral and frivolous to be almost disregarded or taken for granted, not understanding how much importance and potential it had and has. Suffice it to say that to this day the European Union has no Commissioner with the specific delegation on tourism and there is no Commission Directorate General dedicated to it. And of the many European Agencies none has this issue as a task.

Let’s try in this article to make a quick roundup of the vicissitudes that this important sector of our economy has gone through by also going to see with which governance the various Italian governments have considered it: whether as a handmaiden of Culture or as a sector of the Ministry of Economic Development (which at the time was the Ministry of Industry) or whether in conjunction with agricultural policies or alone.

The first thrashing of Tourism was given by the Italians in 1993 when by referendum the abolition of the Ministry of Tourism and Entertainment was voted on. First established by the Segni government in 1953, it came to the referendum that year not by popular initiative but by that of as many as 10 regional councils: those of Trentino-Alto Adige, Umbria, Piedmont, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Marche, Basilicata, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto. And the judgment of the Italians was in agreement with theirs. It should be noted that in the same year with the referendum they also tried to abolish the Ministry of Agriculture: two distinctive traits of good Italian living wanted to be crossed off at the same time in an almost unconscionable way when thinking about it today. Macroscopic mistakes, one would say today. But also yesterday: so much so that the government of the time a few days before the vote changed the name of the Ministry of Agriculture to “Ministry of Agricultural Policy,” and as a result formally missing the passage of the law to be repealed the referendum on that question was not held. Keeping safe an administrative garrison for our agricultural production fabric with the important activity of control and regulation.

For tourism, unfortunately, the same was not done and so the delegation for 17 years wandered among the comprimary subjects held by the Presidency of the Council or other ministries. From the Department established in the Presidency of the Council immediately after the referendum verdict, it arrived in 1996 where it was inserted inside the Ministry of Industry but with the overlap of the Department in Palazzo Chigi: in fact, it still remained open for the next 3 years. In 1999 it passed in its entirety to the Ministry of Productive Activities with the dignity elevated to Directorate General of that department and an undersecretary in charge of it, thus also acquiring political authority. In 2001, the reform of Title V of the Constitution transferred the competencies of tourism to the individual regions, by virtue of the reorganization of matters between the state and local autonomies, also a function of the referendum vote 8 years earlier. That year, however, is also the one in which the first major economic crisis of the new millennium will start due to the terrorist attacks that crashed airliners into the Twin Towers in New York on September 11.

As a first effect there was the collapse of air travel and travel with many airlines going bankrupt. Tourism was also affected as a result due to the climate of uncertainty and fear of traveling to certain locations considered to be possible terrorist target locations or going to foreign countries considered to be conniving with the bombers. Meanwhile in Italy, in 2003 the undersecretary at the Ministry of Productive Activities with the delegation for Tourism resigned and the political role remained vacant.

After a quick experience with an interministerial committee, opposed by some regions with much recourse to the Constitutional Court, the delegation was taken by Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli, who at the time was also Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities: it was not an assignment of Tourism to Cultural Heritage, it was the situation in which the same person was vice president of the Council and thus making use of the redivivivified Department of Tourism within the Council presidency. With Berlusconi began the season of Vittoria Brambilla, who first became undersecretary to the presidency of the Council with responsibility for tourism, 2009, and then was promoted to minister without portfolio with that responsibility (thus making use, always, of the Department within Palazzo Chigi). In 2008 began the economic crisis caused by the sub-prime mortgages of American banks that dragged the whole world into a downward spiral that would drag on for 10 years. In 2011, the season of professors began and Mario Monti, to the minister without portfolio’s Tourism delegation, added that of Sports, and then he also added Regional Affairs, creating a single department for the three subjects. That period was the time of the desire to make institutional reforms at all levels, which often meant simply amalgamating and cutting back: in the crosshairs first ended up the provinces, which were the ones that had tourism among their subjects. For many years in Italy, the model of provincial Tourism Promotion Boards had worked, which gave space and enhancement to the various characteristics of the territories. The provinces were emptied and the Apts closed, passing everything over to the regions.

In 2013 it was back to Culture: the Letta government in fact appointed Massimo Bray as minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism. This is the first ’serious’ move of the ’machine’ from the department of the Prime Minister’s Office to a Ministry. It was not easy: two Dpcms and one Ministerial Decree were needed. The arrangement remains so even with the Renzi government and the 4 years of Minister Franceschini, and during that same period tourism was also the subject of the constitutional reform passed by Parliament that would have returned tourism to the head of state. The constitutional referendum on December 4, 2016, however, rejected the reform, and the regions then maintained the situation.

In 2018 at the birth of the first government led by Giuseppe Conte there are pushes by the League to again create a separate Ministry of Tourism where the person identified was Gian Marco Centinaio. The League and Centinaio were asked to choose between Tourism and Agricultural Policies, and in the end an innovative path was taken by wanting to transfer tourism under agriculture. The underlying motivation was the belief that those who travel to Italy associate the idea of eating well. At that point, the procedures for the transfer of responsibilities between the ministries began, also asking the staff who were in the Mibact at that time to choose within six months whether they wanted to remain in the Cultural Heritage or move to the Ministry of Agriculture. For many months, therefore, there was an institutional interregnum and, just long enough for the employees to choose which side they were on and finish the procedures with Dpcms and related decrees sanctioning the transfer of the matter, along comes the Court of Auditors declaring such a transfer of competence illegitimate. And so everyone is left in the lurch.

The same years also see the appointment of the new president of Enit to replace Evelin Christillin. The appointment has to go through Parliament: once the government identifies the nominee, the competent committees of the House and Senate have to express their opinion, and so after the indication of Giorgio Palmucci to the press as the new Enit president made by Minister Centinaio months pass because of this procedure. With the second government headed by Giuseppe Conte (same prime minister but different majority and ministers) tourism returns to Franceschini thus witnessing the reverse movement of transhumance. After the government crisis Conte hands over to Mario Draghi as Prime Minister who unexpectedly removes tourism from the Cultural Heritage (which changes its name to Ministry of Culture) creating a ministry with a portfolio solely dedicated to it entrusting it to Massimo Garavaglia. Jubilation from all categories and operators in the sector.

On the extra-institutional front, it is worth noting that in 2014 Russia invaded Crimea and sanctions were applied to it, partly restricting Russian tourism to Europe. Then in 2020 - it should not even need to be said - a pandemic breaks out that results in measures restricting personal freedoms never seen in the West since World War II: to prevent contagion, a ban on leaving home for a few months is established, interpersonal distance of 1 meter that in some regions becomes 1.8 meters. It is clear that you cannot do tourism with a distance of almost two meters between people. Many operators will never recover, closing down altogether. There is certainly no need to recall the circumstances under which the whole world had to live for two years to note that these were two years of extreme hardship for the entire tourism-related economic chain.

In April 2022 at the end of the health emergency measures one can look to the future with positivity, but there comes Russia invading Ukraine to bring about unexpected negative consequences. Flights stop again, and as the conflict continues and new sanctions are applied we see economic retaliation leading to uncontrolled increases in the prices of all raw materials and energy.

But in spite of everything, summer 2022 was a season of great satisfaction for Italian tour operators who in hospitality have a centuries-old tradition. People who are used to rolling up their sleeves and starting again every time. And so it will be again this time, all thanks to them. After the September 25 elections, we will see what choices politics and the new government will make for the sector.

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