Recent update(s):

20 March 2024 | For recording of 19th March webinar on new regulation affecting guiding in Italy, click here.

20 February 2024 | Italy has published new law affecting provision of guiding services. This will have significant impact on professional not established in Italy intended to provide services there. Submitting a ‘prior declaration’ as soon as practical is advised to minimise risk of fine. See ETOA Briefing for more information.

Guiding by EU/EEA/Swiss citizens within the EU

Individuals from EU countries have a general right to provide professional services in other EU countries, subject to the provisions of the Professional Qualifications Directive 2005/36/EC.  

This directive is intended to support cross-border services and the single market; it affects professionals who wish to provide services in other EU/EEA countries, whether permanently or on a temporary and occasional basis and sets out formalities that must be observed if an individual from one country wishes to work, on a temporary and occasional basis, in a country that regulates the specific profession.  

Tour guides providing their services in EU/EEA may be in one of the following three categories: 

      A. Established in an EU/EEA country that does not regulate guiding 
      B. Established in an EU/EEA country that regulates guiding 
      C. Established in a non-EU/EEA country 

Established typically means the country in which individual is registered to pay tax, and/or is a legal resident (whether the individual is a citizen of the country or not). 

Individuals established in an EU/EEA country wishing to provide guiding services on a temporary and occasional basis in another EU/EEA country that regulates guiding may have to make a prior declaration to the competent authority in any country requiring it.  

It is not obligatory for regulating countries to require a prior declaration. In practice, it appears that Italy is the country that pays most attention to this. It is important to note that evidence of making a declaration is a necessary pre-condition for a successful appeal to a fine that has been unjustly imposed. 

The drop-down menu below contains an overview of the 13 countries in the EU regulating tour guiding, further information about the three categories tour guides may be in when providing services in EU and an overview on how the ETOA Tour Guide ID card may assist the individual tour guide in providing their services in Europe. 

Italy 2024

In 2024 we will be monitoring enforcement practice closely given the change in the law explained in this ETOA Briefing. If you are a member of ETOA and one of your contracted guides who is an EU/EEA or Swizz citizen established outside Italy has been fined, the fine can only be opposed if it has not been paid. Please contact tourguide@etoa.org within 48 hours after the fine has been imposed.

Italy – background to a persistent problem

In Italy, the profession of accompagnatore (tour guide, tour manager, tour director etc.) may not include the provision of guiding services. This remains a problem because the definition does not match practice, or market requirements. The duties and expectations of tour guides accompanying cultural tourism groups on multi-day programmes include ‘guiding’ in the form of commentary and guidance on journeys and in destination whose content may cover a range of topics. This role is complementary to the services of local guides typically hired for single services for a half-day or day to deliver formal tours. Increasingly, this role is also complementary to self-guided digital product.

Where tour guides are allowed to provide such services in their EU/EEA/Swiss country of establishment, EU law provides that they must be allowed to provide those services in another country. Host countries are permitted to impose reasonable requirements. For Italy this requirement is to complete a ‘prior declaration’ dichiarazione preventiva and submit it to the Ministry of Culture. The potential penalties of failure to make this declaration have significantly increased. The status of professionals who are not EU/EEA/Swiss citizens (and not established in Italy) is unchanged.

Implications of EU-UK agreement

• For summary of key restrictions on UK citizens resident in UK providing services in the EU (excepting Ireland), click here.
• For unofficial ETOA abridged version of the EU-UK agreement focusing on content affecting guiding, click here.

ETOA updates following implementation

22 June 2021 | UK Government published reservations tool listing specific EU member states non-conforming measures to the EU-UK Trade Agreement regarding the supply of tourism and travel related services in destination (the UK has no non-conforming measures for tourism and travel related services). The reservations can also be found in annex 19 (14) and annex 20 (18) of the EU-UK Trade Agreement. For reservations regarding the temporary stay of STBV, CSS and IP, these are listed in annex 21 and 22. Page numbers in the EU-UK Trade Agreement – annex 19 (pages 1340-1345), annex 20 (pages 1494-1495), annex 21 (pages 1583-1585), annex 22 (pages 1614-1615).

12 March 2021 | It has come to our attention that the Czech Republic, while not formally regulating tour guiding according to the EU database, appears to have imposed a requirement to give prior notice before providing temporary and occasional services. We will publish any clarification here.

19 January 2021 | UK citizens wishing to provide services in Switzerland: we now understand that these may only be provided visa free for 90 days per calendar year not per visit. For Swiss citizens to UK, the limit is 12 months in any 24 month period. See ‘UK and Switzerland’ below.

15 January 2021 | Impact of Brexit deal on prospects for UK outbound seasonal and temporary services in the EU reported by BBC.

14 January 2021 | Updates on implications of Brexit detailed below in Implications of EU-UK agreement.

Summary

Effective 1st January 2021, following the UK’s departure from the EU subject to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

1. For EU/EEA citizens wishing to provide guiding services in the UK, the position is that, while guiding is not formally one of the recognised exceptions in prevailing immigration rules (see Table 5, category 6219), our current understanding is that it will be permitted, but only if guide is contracted by a non-UK entity. In practice, efforts to enforce this are thought unlikely.
   
2. UK citizens wishing to provide guiding services in EU/EEA countries no longer have automatic rights to do so. Depending on what category of visitor they are, their time in the Schengen zone in limited. 
3. Links here for: official summary and full text. 

Professional providing services on tours such as guides, translators and subject experts will, according to the agreement, need to fit within one of five categories of visitor: Short Term Business Visitor; Contractual Service Supplier; Independent Professional; Specialist; Translator and Interpreter. The barriers to market are most significant for independent professionals, and there is wide scope for national variation throughout the EU which may change over time.

There will be financial and administrative consequences. If operators conclude that prudent planning may entail wider use of short-term contracts of employment within which individuals deliver services  to fit into the relevant visitor category, this will add cost and complexity. The experience requirements anticipated by the agreement are prejudicial to recruitment of new talent in the UK for service provision in the EU.

For tour guides who are neither EU nor UK citizens, the position is unchanged, but the following should be noted. The EU-UK agreement requires that neither party provide more favourable terms to professionals from third countries than they do to each other’s citizens. It practice, services have been delivered by individuals who entered host countries as if they were leisure visitors. While ETOA can only offer guidance based on what appears to be the formal position, the most conspicuous and easily enforced limitation is duration of stay. Within that, the prospects of official scrutiny once in destination will vary enormously.

In countries where guiding is not a regulated profession, we consider it unlikely that the environment will become hostile to UK and other non-EU professionals. It is an open question whether, in countries that both regulate guiding and have reserved the right to impose a range of requirements on related activity and categories of visitor, the situation may change. The new arrangements have a profound impact not just on tourism but also performing arts and other seasonal activity.

It would be counter-productive for either the EU or the UK to become a hostile space for the myriad international professionals whose temporary presence supports the smooth delivery of tourism services across Europe. Post-Brexit, the risk is that the business environment for cross-border service provision, whose nature and quality is driven by client needs and interests, will be subject to increasing protectionism: consumer interest will be subordinate to market control.

We will continue to analyse the deal’s provisions to prepare an initial impact analysis on services between the EU and the UK, seek further clarification, and publish updates. Our priority is to support cross-border provision of tourism services. Brexit has complicated that, but not made it any less desirable for both source and destination markets in the EU. We are working with partners to explore options that permit activity in the interests of host destinations, industry and professionals of all nationalities who provide temporary services across Europe.

UK and Switzerland

UK citizens wishing to provide services in Switzerland may do so for 90 days per calendar year, so a winter season of over 90 days remains practical. For Swiss citizens to UK, the limit is 12 months in any 24 month period. This is expected to be the case at least for 2021 and 2022. For further details the full text of the agreement is available here. For UK to CH, see Annex 1 Articles 2.1 and 5.1; for CH to UK, Annex 2 Articles 11 or 14.