Italy Strategic Tourism Plan Approved

Italy Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè issued a positive message after the Chamber and Senate arppoved the Tourism Strategic Plan.

“The green light from the Production Activities Commissions of the Chamber and Senate of Italy for the 2023-2027 Tourism Strategic Plan is an important signal that gives me great satisfaction. I thank the members and the Presidents of the Commissions for the excellent work done, and the trade associations and confederates who have provided constant and participatory ideas. My thanks go to all of you for your collaboration and fruitful dialogue in every moment of constructive discussion. I am particularly proud because finally Italy, after so many years, will have a 5-year strategic plan that will allow us to express the best potential of the tourism sector,” stated Minister Santanche.

After almost 40 hearings of associations, acronyms, and industry experts that took place over the Tourism Strategic Plan, the approval of the outline for the 5-year period finally arrived.

Observations from the Senate

The favorable opinion of Palazzo Madama on the government act came from the Industry Commission with various queries. The Senate notes that the hearings revealed an excessive gap between school training and the real needs of companies operating in the various sectors involved, therefore, greater knowledge of skills is needed.

It is necessary to promote, in collaboration with competent dicastery, the higher technical institutes and the courses that have a duration that varies from 800 to 1,000 hours which can represent the point of convergence between the theoretical scholastic training and the practical needs of the companies. This training should also be extended to managerial figures who today find themselves having to manage a new demand for goods and services.

50,000 Fewer Employees in the Tourism Sector

It is considered necessary to simplify access to the labor market by encouraging the use of solutions that consider the sector’s structural characteristics and the specific needs of businesses and territories.

The Industry commission, on tax incentives, hopes that the sector can be further relaunched also through incentive and tax exemption measures. In this regard, as part of the planning, it is suggested the introduction of incentives, besides for incoming, also for outgoing as well as reduced VAT for those who organize congresses and VAT-free purchases for foreign tourists.

The measures associated with the granting of tax credits aimed at achieving greater environmental sustainability with the strengthening in favor of accommodation facilities (tax credit) with the provision of interventions for the redevelopment and renovation of buildings intended for tourist hospitality are deemed effective accommodation, making them accessible and usable by people with disabilities.

Seasonal Adjustment of Tourism

The Senate has shown appreciation for the incentive initiatives, a fundamental point for promoting villages, small towns, thermal baths, food, and wine tourism able to attract tourists in every season.

The reform of the discipline of the tourist guide profession: the commission deems it necessary to recognize a qualification with homogeneous criteria on the national territory, which provides for an initial specialization at a regional level to obtain trained and qualified professionals.

At the center of the requalification of the tourist offer is considered necessary the qualitative level of the services offered and the recognition of the standard of offer of the structures. The need to create institutional tables for a framework law on open-air tourism and the merger of regulations between the State and the Regions.

As regards the development of open-air tourism, it is deemed necessary to give a new impetus to itinerant tourism with caravans and motor homes by encouraging an increase in the areas to be authorized by the competent authorities, to contribute to the development of small towns mostly located in innermost parts of the country.

Heritage of Made in Italy craftsmanship

Another point concerns the sellers of low-cost souvenirs, and poor catering, with the consequent loss of that typically Italian identity.

In this regard, it is necessary to evaluate the methods of contrasting these phenomena, promoting collaboration with the administrations involved to strengthen the actions for the protection and enhancement of local productions of agri-food products, and traditional and quality artisanal products.

Last but not least, to take the opportunity of the Plan to incentivize, in collaboration with the competent administrations, the workshops throughout the country that are dedicated to craftsmanship and commercial activities and public establishments, controlling the aggressive competition of the globalized market, with the recognition of a brand that promotes and enhances the heritage of the local ici as places of aggregation within local communities, custodians of the history, culture, and traditions of the territories.

This specific bill in defense of hotels, restaurants, patisseries-confectioneries-literary cafés, and bottle shops that have made the history of Italian hospitality was presented at Palazzo Madama in a press conference organized by the vice president of the Senate Gian Marco Centinaio (first signatory of the bill), in the presence of the president of the Italian Historic Places Association, Enrico Magenes, and the professor of Tourism Economics at the Bocconi University of Milan, Magda Antonioli on April 12, 2023.