Tour guides, monstrous numbers for national licensing exam: 26,700 applications

A total of 26,700 applications were submitted in four weeks (the deadline was Feb. 27) to take theexamination for the national license to practice as a tourist guide. An average of 953 per day, an astronomical number when one considers that there are currently 14,000 licensed ones (including in Lazio 2,617, in Tuscany 2,516, in Apulia 1,419, in Sardinia 1,203 and in Campania 1.147) and that the forecast was to have 10 thousand applications: Minister Santanchè spoke (to Sole 24 Ore) of a response that went “beyond our wildest expectations” testifying “how long awaited and necessary the reform was that the Ministry of Tourism, intercepting this need of the sector, strongly wanted to implement. The licensing exam will make it possible to identify the most deserving, qualified and prepared professionals.” The exam is a novelty introduced by Law 190 of Dec. 13, 2023, which establishes theNational List of Tourist Guides (ENGT) to which one must be registered in order to practice the profession. To gain access, one must pass the exam divided into a series of oral and written tests, while guides who were licensed under the pre-reform legislation were able to register without having to take tests(as we explained in this other article).

Thehigh number of applications on the one hand makes it clear how much desire there is among young people to work in the world of culture, but on the other hand it raises the first concerns. Confguide speaks bluntly about the risk of the lowering of the quality of the profession: “High numbers that can only be worrying and that impose reflections,” warns Valeria Gerli, president of Confguide, the national federation of tour guides member of Confcommercio, “Because,” Gerli continues, “if on the one hand some realities territorial realities and some types of activities complain of a shortage of licensed professionals, on the other hand putting this potential number of twice as many guides in practice on the market will lead to a tripling of the number of professionals within the year, with consequences that all need to be verified. We also fear that as a further consequence, the quality level of services offered will be lowered, in a context that, on the other hand, calls for more and more quality, also to counter the phenomena of overtourism.” Certainly of concern is the increased competition among guides. But it is not only the number of candidates that worries but also a lowering of the minimum level of access to the exam: In fact, Confguide, while appreciating the Reform awaited by the category for more than 10 years, had already emphasized its depowering wanted by the European Commission compared to the original structure, with the title of access to the profession changed from a university degree to a diploma, and foreign languages changed from two to one, and at B2 level.

Micol Caramello, president of Federagit - Confesercenti speaks of an “important signal of interest in the profession” on the large participation in the call for applications and goes on to ask the Ministry that it "continue to involve the professional associations: Federagit is available to offer its contribution, also for the composition of the commissions, so that the process is concluded as soon as possible and in the best way possible for everyone, Ministry and new guides.“ Then we get to the critical issues to be addressed: ”With such a large number of applications, practically double the number of guides currently licensed, and such a large program it will clearly be difficult to organize the tests. And let’s not forget that this is a kind of ’year zero’ for a national exam that has been awaited for more than a decade. That is why we guarantee maximum support for the ministry. The goal is a serious exam that can protect both the 14,000 professionals already on the national list and future guides. Professionals who, as we have reiterated many times, are a fundamental link in the tourism chain, Italy’s business card to so many travelers who choose our cities, our villages for their vacations."

The Exam consists of three tests, the first of which, a skimming test, is a crossword test with 80 questions and 90 minutes to answer. After the first, test-based test, one goes to the oral test with at least a score of 25 (it consists of an interview in Italian and in a foreign language chosen to probe preparation and knowledge of the language). The third is a - unprecedented - field test: the “technical-practical test” is a simulated guided tour in native and foreign languages to a destination drawn by lot.

The organizational machine is already in motion, albeit complex (due to the necessary cost, everyone has been asked to pay a 10 euro cost-sharing fee to the Ministry), and could start screening candidates as early as spring. Those who pass the competition will be issued with an identification card to be shown each time they practice their profession, and again a cost-sharing fee of 30 euros is being asked for for implementation.

At that point all guides will be found on the National Directory website with contact information and their specializations so you can check if the person you rely on is actually licensed and at the same time a way to help tourists looking for a guide to have a place to find them. The Directory can be accessed here. From the directory, it is also possible to track the professional development of guides placed on the list, which requires 50 hours of training every three years to remain on the list. The exam will be announced by the Ministry every year. The issue of abusive guides in recent years has been intertwined with changing regulations until 2013 provided for specific territorial competence in which one could operate, corresponding to the boundaries of the chosen province, in only one language, and the registers and related regulations were the responsibility of the individual regions. When with the European legislation the competence obligatorily passed to the national territory there was an uprising from the category that complained how a guide specializing on the artistic heritage of, for example, Naples, could from the next day operate also in Milan or Venice. A change that was, it was the accusation, to the detriment of place-specific expertise and the quality of service offered.

The province-based system ensured that those who wanted to span multiple territories had to pass the relevant knowledge exam in the new province. European Law 97 of 2013 liberalized the movement of tour guides, giving them the opportunity to practice throughout the country and in other European countries without the need for permits or licenses. This was a momentous change for the sector, which feared the risk of guided tours made by personnel who were not up to the mark, which the government tried to remedy in 2015 by circumscribing for some cultural destinations the requirement for a specialization but there was an appeal and the rule fell succumbing to the hierarchical supremacy of the European norm. Until 2020, therefore, the situation was that of the regions organizing exams on local history with automatic qualification to operate in the national territory. With the 2023 Reform, tour guides are given dignity on a par with a profession with the Register and uniformity of access procedures equal throughout Italy and not diversified region by region.

“The establishment of the examination and the national list,” said Minister Santanchè at the start of registration for the competition in January, “serve as a double guarantee: on the one hand, for the guides themselves, of course, because it recognizes their professionalism and specialization, gives them prestige and, in general, counteracts unlawfulness; and, on the other hand, for tourists, since,” Santanchè concluded, "it goes to certify the skills of those who tell the artistic, cultural, natural and historical heritage of our beautiful Peninsula.

Italy therefore aligns itself with the European legislation that provides for the free movement of professionals within Europe, but there are those who continue to prefer the previous model: how well prepared can a guide licensed in Romania who overnight comes to explain the city’s beauties to a group in Ferrara be compared to those who had specific certified territorial expertise? But so be it, Europe asks us.

Tour guides, monstrous numbers for national licensing exam: 26,700 applications

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