Tourism Law in Europe

10 Requiring a specific licence and registration on a tourist guide register or list has been regarded as unduly restricting tourist services. Therefore, the regulation of tourism professions has undergone a certain evolution, partly under the momentum of specific liberalising trends in favour of removing all barriers to the exercise of the relevant activities. Lastly, national lawmakers intervened with Article 3 of Law no. 97 of 6 August 2013, which provides for a “standard” licence, single and valid throughout the national territory (the so-called “national tourist guide”) and a “special” licence that allows professionals to operate in “sites of particular historical, artistic or archaeological interest for which a specific qualification is required”. The difficulties in implementing the aforementioned State legislation and the lack of a framework regulation that inspire regional implementing regulations have led to a substantial paralysis of tourism policymaking . The severe uncertainty of the regulatory framework for tourism professions, which not even the Tourism Code has been able to overcome, still lingers today, with significant negative effects on the development of those professional activities. 8. The Consumer Code As already mentioned, private-law measures are and remain a matter of general State Law. The national legal basis includes, first of all, the Civil Code, as well as the Consumer Code (Legislative Decree no. 206 of 6 September 2005) and the so-called “Tourism Code” (Legislative Decree no. 79 of 23 May 2011), with particular reference to the provisions governing tourist package contracts. Tourists are often consumers. Accordingly, certain tourism legal provisions are included in the Consumer Code, with tourists benefiting particularly from the protection rules provided for consumer contracts 17 . Moreover, the Consumer Code also includes the rules 17 On the Consumer Code and tourism, see Anna Maria MANCALEONI, Prime note in margine al Codice del Consumo , in Diritto del Turismo , 2005, p. 385; Angelo VENCHIARUTTI, La disciplina dei servizi turistici nel codice del consumo e linee di riforma a livello comunitario , in Diritto del Turismo , 2007, p. 329; and Vincenzo CUFFARO, Un codice “consumato” (codice del consumo, credito ai consumatori e codice del turismo) , in Corriere giuridico , 2011, p. 1189.