Italy ordered to allow foreign tour guides
By David Browne

LONDON (eTurboNews) -- The European Commission has ordered Italy to allow tour guides from other countries to take groups around monuments and tourist sites. The Commission has issued a formal notice to the Italian government to end its practice of preventing tour guides from other member states and overseas from acting as guides for their groups at sites of interest.

If the Commission does not get a satisfactory response from Rome, it says it may refer Italy to the European Court of Justice for unfairly restricting the provision of services by professional tour guides.

In a judgment on tour guides in 1991, the European Court of Justice ruled that an article of law on the freedom to provide services did not permit countries to require guides to obtain a specific national qualification. The Court set out an exception covering museums or historical monuments suitable for visiting only if accompanied by a professional and specialist guide.

This is interpreted by the Italian authorities to cover more than 2500 sites, and includes the whole of the city of Venice and the historical centers of 30 other cities including Rome, Florence, Sienna and Perugia, as well as other publicly accessible sites throughout the country.

The Commission considers the size and range of the Italian “exceptions” list far exceeds the scope of the ruling set out by the Court of Justice and takes away the much of its substance and value. In particular, the Italians prevent foreign tour guides from giving explanations to their groups at sites where tourists are permitted to circulate freely without a guide if they so choose.

As a result, tour guides from other member states of the European Union accompanying groups of tourists on visits to Italy have been prevented by the Italian Police from acting as guides for their own groups at these sites, and issued with on-the-spot fines.

The problem was highlighted by an incident reported in an Italian newspaper last week. Giovanna Pizzorno told the Messaggero newspaper she had been showing a group of friends the Trevi Fountain in central Rome, when she was stopped by undercover police and fined 172 euros (US$216) for pointing out the historic and artistic beauty of the Trevi Fountain without authorization.

The police claimed she was breaking a 1985 law that bans unlicensed guides in a bid to uphold the quality and livelihoods of professional tour guides who have to undergo training and sit exams to get a qualification. The undercover tourism police unit patrols Rome's top tourist sites, including the Coliseum and the Forum, to trap unauthorized guides.

Another case concerns Max Grossman, who was a doctoral candidate in art history at Columbia University in New York City, and is an expert on Italian art and architecture. The Association of Tour Guides for the city of Siena filed a suit charging him with “practicing as a tour guide without a tour guide license.” According to AGT officials, he showed off the art and architecture of Siena not just to students, but also to clients recruited through his website that offered private lessons and seminars. He lost the case when it came to court in 2003, but the verdict has since been reversed on appeal.

Mayta Munson is one of the few Americans to have qualified as a licensed tour guide in Rome. She operates under the trade name, The Eternal Tourist, and gives visiting groups narration and commentaries in English. Mayta explained that licensed guides carry their licenses with them, to be shown on request to the authorities, as a measure to protect visitors from fraudsters who take tourists’ money but know little about the sites they are viewing.

“I believe that guiding is an art,” she said. “In Italy the tour guide is a licensed professional. As one of the few Americans to possess a guiding license for Rome and province, the profession represents even more.”

The move by the European Commission is the latest round in a row that has been brewing in the tourism industry for some years. A similar warning has been issued to France, where public museums and sites of special interest insist that only their own staff or guides holding a French national qualification may take groups round. This causes difficulties for English-speaking groups when the French or Italian guide cannot speak very good English, and the guide employed to accompany the group on the remainder of the tour must sit back and take no part in explaining the history and significance of the site being visited.

In December 2003, the European Commission criticized France specifically for failing to show how nationals from other European countries could obtain the French tour guide’s license. “Admittedly, under French legislation, nationals of EU Member States may also be issued with a professional card, but the legislation does not set out the procedures for applying for one, and consequently the procedure for recognition of the professional qualifications of EU nationals who have obtained their diploma in another Member State,” said a Commission spokesman.

“They are therefore likely to encounter difficulties when applying for this card, without which they cannot work legally at the sites in question. The Commission takes the view that this legislation does not correctly implement the Directives.”

Meanwhile, the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) has given an unreserved welcome to the European Commission action. Tom Jenkins, ETOA executive director, said: “This statement by the Commission represents a major step forward to eradicating an outrageous restrictive practice that has been a stain on the European tourism industry for decades.”

Experienced European tour leaders are often able to present Italy to their groups much more effectively than local guides can, as they know what interests their clients; they speak the same mother tongue and they have the benefit of having built personal relationships with them.

“The current situation in Italy is a disgraceful restraint of trade that effectively amounts to protectionism by the state," added Jenkins. "As an industry, we have no choice but to give our clients poor value, since they end up paying for local guides who add nothing to the enjoyment of their holiday. When clients discover what’s really going on, they feel cheated. The current situation is bad for our business and it creates an impression of Europe as a place where visitors are ripped off. Change is urgently needed and the Commission is to be congratulated for pursuing the issue.”