Tour guides: the Draghi government's supports? A hoax

AGTA, the Association of Licensed Tourist Guides, criticizes the supports decree approved a few days ago by the Draghi government. Although there are, according to the association, some positive elements: for example, the fact that, as requested several times, they will compare losses recorded over the entire year and no longer on a bimonthly basis (something that heavily penalized the category), and then again the granting of aid on the basis of losses regardless of ATECO codes (another bureaucratic element that prevented many people from accessing funds in 2020), the extension of the redundancy fund and other social shock absorbers, and the contribution exemption for the self-employed and professionals (although to assess this last measure will have to wait for the approval of the European Commission).

The elements of criticism mainly concern the amount of support for workers, which AGTA says is “a mockery.” “Months after the last measures that concerned support for the category (the Ristori Decree of October and the Tourism Fund for Guides established with the DL of August and disbursed in December, but for which many guides are still waiting to date for payment),” AGTA points out, “a one-off contribution is decided for VAT Partners that will perhaps be paid in April, if all goes well, and that for most guides will amount to 1,000 euros in total. It follows that according to the government this sum should be enough to cover the subsistence of an average family for the first 4 months of 2021.”

In contrast, the measure for workers on casual benefits, the same as in previous decrees, has, according to the association, “stakes that are so rigid and complicated as to make it almost impossible to use it. And there remains strong dissatisfaction for VAT guides, especially in the year in which ISCRO, another hoax for professionals, starts: a measure that provides for increased contributions against what was supposed to be a sort of layoff fund but from which almost no one will benefit. The Supports Decree wants to give a content to many, but in fact penalizes the categories that are really in difficulty.”

AGTA, in conclusion, calls for the Draghi government to “immediately allocate an adequate sum from the Tourism Fund, available to the competent Ministry, to urgently provide supports to our sector, especially to the categories of guides and tour leaders, now at the end of their tether after a year without work and who do not see the light in a country that cannot even apply competitive strategies for restarting in the coming months.”

Tour guides: the Draghi government's supports? A hoax

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