Draft budget law. Culture absent for now, measures for tourism

The draft of the 2023 budget law has been circulating for several hours: it is the first economic maneuver of the Meloni government. For the time being, the draft does not include measures for culture: an absence that has raised opposition reactions, such as that of Irene Manzi, head of the PD group in the Culture Commission in the Chamber (“In recent days in the Chamber’s plenary chamber,” she told AgenParl, “we presented a question time to the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, precisely to know the orientation of the executive. Unfortunately, in the area of culture, they are giving very worrying signals, also taking into account, given the rumors, the total absence of investment in the budget law.”) In the previous days, however, Federico Mollicone of FdI, chairman of the Culture Committee in the Chamber, had reassured by declaring to Agenzia Cult that the budget law “will be an important response to protect the supply chains of culture.”

Culture, therefore, will probably enter the maneuver at a later date: for the time being, its absence must be recorded, compared instead with individual chapters dedicated to various other sectors (family, agriculture, infrastructure and transport, health, school university and research, tourism, sports and information, defense, security, local government, and justice). As far as tourism is concerned, the maneuver currently includes a number of measures.

A Fund for the modernization, safety and decommissioning of ski lifts and snowmaking facilities is established, which will count on 30 million euros for 2023, 50 for 2024, 70 for 2025 and 50 for 2026, to be allocated to companies operating cableways and snowmaking facilities, in order to carry out energy efficiency, renovation, modernization and maintenance work aimed at ensuring adequate safety standards. Another fund established is to raise professional standards in tourism: 5 million for 2023, 8 million for 2024 and another 8 million for 2025. The money from this fund will be used for the retraining of personnel already employed in the sector and training of new professional figures, including through training paths and schools of excellence, high-level training and specialization courses, aimed at training professional figures with an international-level preparation in tourism and tourism services, catering and knowledge of food and wine products of Italian tradition and culture, and then again to strengthen the skills of sector operators with continuous updating cycles, to support their insertion into the labor market and to encourage the expansion of the labor supply basins.

The third fund established is the Small Municipalities with a tourist vocation Fund (10 million for 2023, 12 million for 2024 and 12 million for 2025), which will finance projects for the enhancement of municipalities classified by ISTAT as having a tourist vocation, with less than 5,000 inhabitants, in order to incentivize innovative interventions in accessibility, mobility, urban regeneration and environmental sustainability. Still, there will be a Sustainable Tourism Fund (5 million for 2023, 10 million for 2024 and 10 million for 2025), which will be used to strengthen major cultural destinations through the promotion of sustainable forms of tourism, themitigation of tourist overcrowding, the creation of innovative tourist itineraries and the deseasonalization of tourism, encourage the ecological transition in tourism, with actions to promote intermodal tourism in accordance with emission reduction strategies for tourism, and support accommodation facilities and tourism enterprises in activities useful for achieving sustainability certifications. The title devoted to tourism, sports, and information is completed by an article concerning the recovery of aid paid in excess of the ceilings, one with measures to support sports, and the article devoted to the Publishing Fund, which is increased by 75.8 million for 2023 and 55 for 2024.

Draft budget law. Culture absent for now, measures for tourism

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