Mapping and itineraries for underwater tourism: new regulations on maritime sectors in the Cdm on Monday

A journey of discovery of wrecks, underwater cities and historical treasures. An exploration of the deep sea through routes in protected areas and underwater parks. Enhancing the underwater dimension in terms of tourism with the mapping of areas of interest and landscape and cultural itineraries is one of the objectives of the bill on maritime supply chains that will reach the Council of Ministers on Monday and that Il Sole 24 Ore was able to view. Some thirty articles with numerous regulations (from the establishment of contiguous areas to the development of pleasure boating, passing through the professional figure of the 'port chemical consultant') and, at the centre, provisions to enhance recreational diving.

It will be up to the Minister of Tourism (in agreement with the other ministries involved) to issue a decree to identify the 'areas of underwater tourist interest' selected on the basis of four criteria: first of all safety (with the presence of favourable environmental conditions for diving), then landscape-fauna, archaeological and cultural relevance. The next step will be to encourage the promotion of underwater itineraries in these areas by diving and training centres. We are not starting from scratch: the Campania Region's 'Underwater Archaeological Tourism' project (part of the 'Italian Journey' initiative promoted by the Ministry of Tourism) had already surveyed 31 protected marine areas and 2 underwater parks, proposing 5 itineraries, including one on amphora wrecks that follows the traces of ancient Mediterranean trade between Sardinia, Campania, Apulia and Sicily. International cooperation is a further task entrusted by the decree to the ministry headed by Daniela Santanchè, which will have to encourage 'the sharing of best practices, experiences and know-how among countries hosting marine, lake and river areas of tourist interest'.

Among the 60 Italian sites protected by Unesco, eleven are connected to the 'sea resource': the bill authorises the Ministry of Tourism to share experiences through twinning agreements with other countries. For the rest, the draft measure - which bears the signature of the Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policies, Nello Musumeci - first of all establishes 'contiguous zones' between 12 and 24 nautical miles from the base line from which the width of the territorial sea is measured: a move that makes it possible to extend the exercise of jurisdiction, for the purposes of combating illegal activities or research. For pleasure boating, simplifications are envisaged to make marinas more competitive, including by facilitating the renewal of navigation licences and setting up a central telematic archive of pleasure craft. The measure also creates the figure of the 'port chemical advisor' for safety checks, with special registers kept by the Harbour Offices, and digitalises charts, books and on-board documents to make them interoperable with land-based registers.

Relevant are the regulations on fishing: with the Ddl, the redundancy fund for seafarers in the sector, which has been awaited for years, is ready to make its debut. It will be based on Cisoa (the special fund for agricultural workers) and will be supported by contributions from employers (two-thirds) and workers (one-third). An agriculture-labour decree will define the operational details.