The warm season is approaching, but while flows of visitors from Italy and abroad are expected for 2023 equal to or higher than those of 2022 (with as many as 400 million overnight stays in Italian accommodation facilities) there is still alarm for workers around the world of tourism.
The shortage of personnel in Sardinia, Sicily but also in the most popular places on the peninsula, such as the Romagna Riviera, is now chronic. Already for Easter and the spring months Assoturismo Confesercenti has estimated a gap of over 50 thousand workers.
«The question of the lack of personnel in tourism - comments Vittorio Messina, president of Assoturismo Confesercenti - has now reached the dimensions of a real emergency. Thus it is impossible to manage the peaks of activity. In the coming weeks we will present specific regulatory proposals to the Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè and to the Minister of Labor Marina Elvira Calderone».
«We need to find a solution - he says - also using the resources of the Pnrr. We need active policies, now almost completely absent. It is necessary to strengthen the regional professional training of tourist figures , and to open up to pensioners and school-age children by providing temporary jobs with total tax exemptions. And then think of special regulations to guarantee a 'relay' between workers in seasonal activities. The management of Citizenship Income and immigration flows also needs to be rethought, linking it to training opportunities. But it is also necessary to solve the problem of worker mobility : concessions are needed for contracts that guarantee not only training but also room and board, a burden for companies of at least 600 euros per month per worker".
«I will be very happy to listen to the trade associations to address the age-old question of the problem of the lack of personnel in the tourism sector – replied Santanchè -. We will work together with the Minister of Labor Calderone to address the issue and find appropriate solutions. At the same time, we must address the new generations by telling them how stimulating it is to work in such a varied and transversal sector. And on this, in addition to implementing activities related to training, we will carry out a specific communication campaign».
(Unioneonline/D)
