Tourist guides from Croatia, Italy and Slovenia seek support from MEPs

The leaders of the national tourist guide associations of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia have sent a joint letter to candidates for the European Parliament seeking support for tourist guides in the domicile territories where they operate and where specific knowledge is needed.

"With this joint letter ahead of the upcoming elections for the European Parliament, we want to draw attention to a European problem, because markets are opening up and tourist guides are coming from other countries and operating in  territories for which they are not educated or have specific knowledge about the territory concerned. Thus they compromise domestic tourist guides who have specific knowledge and present it to tourists," Kristina Nuić Prka, president of the Croatian Tourist Guides Association, told Hina on Monday.

The letter cited the European Parliament resolution on sustainable tourism of 25 March 2021 in which the European Parliament "requests that the Commission publish and share with stakeholders and the Member States good practices for the professional tour guide profession in order to address the problems affecting this sector (and) considers that professional tour guides play a vital role in promoting cultural heritage in synergy with the local territory."

The three national associations say they have not noticed any improvements after the adoption of this resolution. They demand that the tourist guide activity, which is related to a specific territory, should be included in the relevant documents of the European Parliament and the Council on services on the internal market, in addition to lawyers, notaries-public and post offices.

The tourist guide activity, like the legal profession, requires certain specific knowledge without which guide services cannot be provided across the borders and cannot be compared with medical, construction or pharmaceutical activities that do not have border barriers. The Bar Association has succeeded in protecting the legal profession, the letter says.

This letter was signed by Nuić Prka, Anna Bigai, president of the National Tourist Guide Association of Italy, and Mateja Kregar Gliha from the Association of Regional Tourist Guides of Slovenia.

(Hina)

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