Tour guides: next selections on 5 June, last year's record number of failed written exams

Seventeen thousand people have registered for the test for tourist guides, which will be held on 5 June, using a mixed model. Proximity venues and telematics will be used. The call for tenders responds to the chronic shortage of tourist guides complained of by the sector's operators, also in view of the approaching summer season. "The sector has been clamouring for the certification of skills for thousands of guides. The Ministry offices are working hard to achieve the maximum result by the end of July," commented Gianmarco Mazzi, Minister of Tourism.

Last year, when registration opened, there were almost 30,000 registrations, which then fell to just under 13,000 at the time of the first written tests held in November 2025 in eight cities: Turin, Ferrara, Naples, Rome, Chieti, Foggia, Catania and Cagliari. The record figure, then, had been the number of failures after the first test: 98 per cent. Having passed the written test, however, almost all of the candidates who made it to the second part of the selection had obtainedcertification and registration in the National List of Tour Guides (Engt).

After the written test, the aspiring guides must takean oral interview to assess their knowledge and communication skills and a technical-practical test consisting of the simulation of a guided tour, as required by law 190/2023. At the end of the process, however, there were only 222 newly qualified candidates nationwide. The débâcle of the candidates in the written exam had been traced back to the excessively notionalistic approach of the test, as the programme published on the Ministry of Tourism's website included a list of over 500 tourist, archaeological and museum sites. For the second round of selections, therefore, the Ministry let it be known, in an official note of 22 May, that 'the test will not be notionalistic and will concern basic knowledge of the main Italian tourist sites'.

The protocol also provides for the elimination of penalisation for wrong answers and the management of the test procedures has been entrusted to Formez. For each test, the maximum score is 40 points, while the threshold for a pass mark is set at 25. In order to be admitted to the oral and technical-practical assessment, it is necessary to have obtained a mark of 25 or higher in the written test. A prerequisite for admission to the examination is the possession of a secondary school diploma (or equivalent qualifications or equivalent) or a three-year degree or specialised degree, master's degree or old-school degree.